So this e-mail is from, um, some…body. It never hurts to sign your name, people.

Ken,

There are a few question i was hoping you could help me out with. First, I was wondering if you knew what the record is for most 40 point games in a season? Also, who you thought this year’s player of the year is? Finally, i was wondering how good a pro you think Rudy Gay will be. Personally I don’t see much from him other than his great athleticism, and without an outside shot i see him more as a Stromile Swift than a Tracy McGrady.

Record for 40 point games: Don’t know. But considering Pete Maravich averaged 40 ppg for his career, I doubt either Redick or Morrison is very close to a new record.

Player of the year: Based on last week’s performance, I’ll side with Redick for the next few days. His numbers are similar to Morrison’s, but against better competition. And he’s not as bad defensively as Morrison. Shelden Williams’ defensive impact is light years ahead of those two, but Redick is Duke’s #1 option offensively.

Rudy Gay: You know, UConn’s last game against Providence was Rudy Gay in a nutshell. If you watched the highlights of the game, you saw him finish two alley oops in spectacular fashion. If you looked at the box score you saw a 4-for-8 performace from the field, 2 turnovers, no assists in 25 minutes. Gay has great athleticism, is a terrific defender, can dunk with the best, but doesn’t have much scoring ability outside of 10 feet. Presumably the last item on that list is the easiest to develop, and that’s why Gay will go high in the draft.

But for my purposes, that one flaw does make UConn less scary in March. Speaking of the Huskies, has anybody noticed they are sixth from last in terms of how many threes they shoot? Calhoun’s teams never have been very dependent on the three, but this version is extreme. Seems like a nice team to zone, except that Rashad Anderson is a pretty solid long range shooter (just start him, already!), and UConn is 4th in the nation in offensive rebounding.

[And my bad on declaring Marcus Williams a sophomore in yesterday’s post.]

                           FG   3pt   FT    Reb
                      Min  M-A  M-A   M-A   O-T  A F S TO BLK Pts
Maurice Sumter         40 12-16 3-5   1-2   0-7  2 0 0  1  0   28
Result: Win. Longwood 60, IPFW 59.

So Longwood coach Mike Gillian kind of nudged me into this one, but Sumter’s line was the best of the night, and I’d like to think I would have picked it anyway. (Honorable mention for fans of the bizarre: Brad Nuckles of ETSU with 13 boards, no points, and no assists.) Kudos to the Lancers for putting together their first D1 winning streak after the loss to Sav State. And this game does have an impact on you, believe it or not. It allows you to prove Savannah State is better than your arch rival.

Sav St. > Longwood > IPFW > Indiana State > Indiana > ???

I’ll let you take it from there, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to get to any other team from Indiana. Or you can cheat, and use Kenneth Massey’s tool. It says Sav State beats Duke by 30.