J.J.'s J

"How do you think he does it? I don't know
What makes him so good?"
--Pinball Wizard, The Who

Dude can shoot. Wow. I know I'm partial to Duke (and most people seem to hate Coach K and his spawn), but even the impartial need to be impressed with J.J. Redick, who continued his incredible senior season with a DeanDome-slump-breaking 35-point performance (tying Len Bias for the second-highest point total in the building's history, by the way), including two dagger treys in the final minutes.
Unfortunately for me, I had work that kept me at my desk until almost 8:30 last night. Fortunately for me, I have a television set at said desk, one which receives just about every sporting event on any station at any given time (tree-climbing and curling excepted), and I was therefore able to witness the entirety of the Duke-Carolina second half while I finished up my work. Before getting to a little more J.J., a couple other thoughts evoked by last night's rivalry game:
- Shelden Williams is not as good as I thought he was. He's a solid rebounder and a good shot-blocker, but he's not a consistent enough low-post scorer to be a great four-man in the league (and he's way too small to be a center). At best, he's a poor man's Ben Wallace. At worst, he's a shorter Collins twin (Jason or Jarron, is there really a difference?)...
- Josh McRoberts is going to be good. Very good. He does need to bulk up a bit, but he's only a freshman, and I came away much more impressed with him than with fellow frosh Tyler Hansbrough, Carolina's leading scorer and rebounder. If he and Paulus (also solid--big free throws late) stay together for a couple years, there'll be a few more titles heading there way (but speculation has him turning pro after next year at the latest). Oh yeah, and that reverse oop from Sean Dockery was sick...
- Roy Williams is a darn good coach. That move he pulled in the second half, sitting all five of his starters and ripping into them on the bench while his no-names hung in there for a few minutes was brilliant. The starters re-entered and turned a 17-point deficit into a five-point lead before J.J. took over. I've had a debate with one of my bosses about where we'd play college basketball if we had offers from everywhere in the country--I go with Duke, he goes with Carolina, and I can see the value of playing for Roy...
- I enjoy USC-UCLA (in all sports), and Ohio State-Michigan seems to have some significance, but no matter where these two teams are rated, this is the best rivalry in sports, without question. Before I die, I need to witness one of those games in person (and I would prefer to do so sooner than later--gotta make this media thing work for me somehow)...
Okay, so watching J.J. Redick this season has gotten me thinking about a number of things, the most notable of which is trying to figure out the last time the two best players in college basketball were white guys. J.J. and Adam Morrison are the two guys basically considered the best in the nation (they're 1-2 in scoring, 28.4 apiece), and off the top of my head, I don't think it's happened--I have therefore done a little research:
Besides Andrew Bogut, who won the Wooden Award last year, only four white guys have ever won the award: Christian Laettner, Chris Mullin, Danny Ainge and Larry Bird. In '92, Shaq was probably the best player; in '85, I'd say it was Ewing; in '81, I was four, but I do know that Isiah and Ralph Sampson were among the game's best; and in '79, it was obviously Magic. Last year, Redick was also a first-team All-American, but I think Dee Brown, Sean May and Chris Paul would all be considered better than him at that point. Basically what I'm trying to say is that we're on the brink of history here, and it's probably not something we're going to see for quite awhile.
Last J.J. thing, because I don't think I mentioned it when it happened a few weeks ago. A little over a week ago, I watched Duke play Virginia (another work night thing), and saw the Devils cruise to a pretty easy 82-63 victory over the Cavs (if you'll recall, it was former Virginia coach Pete Gillen who uttered the famous "Duke is Duke--they're on TV more than 'Leave it to Beaver' re-runs" line). J.J. had another great scoring game, his third-best scoring total of the season, but the fact that he scored 40 points wasn't the most impressive thing. It was that he scored those 40 points on just 13 shots. Seriously. He was 11-of-13 from the floor (including 8-of-10 from downtown) and 10-of-11 from the line. It was unbelievable. He didn't force anything, just took (and made) open shots all night long. It was the anti-Kobe, actually. Kobe has taken as few as 13 shots exactly once this season, and he managed 24 points in a 76-74 loss to the Rockets. His 40-point games have required 36, 34, 36, 33, 24, 31, 37, 29, 41, 32, 29, 35, 46 and 17 shots, respectively, and that last game required a 23-of-26 from the line performance that got Larry Brown ejected for his disagreement with the officiating. Redick's display against Virginia was indeed a remarkable display of efficiency.
And now, for those of you who find anything affiliated with Duke extremely nauseating, I present the Redick-free portion of this morning's blog:
- solid, but not flashy 24 on Monday--introducing a few other uncomfortable elements to deal with (kidnapping and child abuse, suicide by hanging) to complement the monopoly on torture already enjoyed by the show, and giving us another apparent dead end in the search for the nerve gas. I think that having the Russians involved is a cool thing--brings us back to the days of "Wargames" and "Top Gun", all those great Cold War movies...
- if you are A) a viewer of our wonderful television show, B) a fan of the Oakland Athletics (specifically Eric Chavez and/or Huston Street), C) a guitar player, and/or D) familiar with the Martin DC-1E model, then you might want to tune in tomorrow (Thursday) night, 9 or 10:30 pm, and you'll see the American League Rookie of the Year picking out a little Dave Matthews Band tune on my guitar. Evidently Street has been learning to play from Barry Zito, and "Lie in Our Graves" is one of the songs he's picked up--we decided to let him play on the show, and my guitar was nominated. Having appeared in a comedy sketch or two, I must say that this is way cooler--the Martin on national television, I love it...
- on another show-related note, Chuck Norris is in studio today. I've just started reading all these Chuck Norris facts on the internet, and it's definitely one of the funniest phenomena I've ever seen. For those heretofore unbaptized, a sampling:

- Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. Ever.
- When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
- In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten.

I have no idea how something like this gets started, but the guy is probably more famous for this than for anything else he's ever done, and I'm stoked to meet him today, no doubt...
- I've finalized travel plans for my trip to England in March, and I don't know if I've ever been as excited for anything, ever. Maybe the trip to Korea in '02, maybe meeting Antonio Gates (maybe meeting Chuck Norris today--not really), but I don't think anything is to this level of anticipation. I'm flying out on a Friday morning, arriving in London the next morning, in time to head over to Craven Cottage (it's a stadium name) for the Fulham-Arsenal match (former Bruin Carlos Bocanegra and USA star Brian McBride both start for Fulham). Sunday through Friday are wide open (though they'll probably include a trip to watch Blackburn practice (Brad Friedel plays there), a jaunt to Norway to see my friend Kristene, and hopefully a few other stops in European cities. I'll return to London Saturday for a Division 1 match at Reading, where Americans Marcus Hahnemann and Bobby Convey play, and then Mike B flies in that night. We're capping the week off with the ultimate: Newcastle United at Manchester United. It's Alan Shearer's final season, so I get to watch him play, and it's a game at Old Trafford, which is pretty much Yankee Stadium, the Boston Garden and Lambeau Field all rolled into one (except with hooligans). I seriously can't wait...