From: George.Harris@launchpad.unc.edu (George Harris)
Subject: Re: Hurley
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 19:24:45 GMT

In article <Bz9FK6.5uG@news.cso.uiuc.edu> jdt29225@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jazzy J ) writes:
>
>	I'm beginning to wonder if Hurley's assist record is really going
>	to mean anything.  Think about it.  Hurley will most certainly
>	break the career assist record later this year, surpassing Chris
>	Corchiani and Keith "Mister" Jennings.  But is it all that
>	great or such an achievement?  I'm not so sure.
>
>	1)  Hurley plays on a great team.  He gets about 8 assists on a
>	    good night.  Duke annually features a great team, and they go
>	    far into the tournament, so for the season they end up playing
>	    about 35-37 games, at the least (in the past 3 seasons, Hurley
>            has played 38, 39, and 31 games respectively).  Corchiani at
>	    NC State and Jennings at East Tennessee St. didn't play more
>	    than 32-33 games any given season.  Take 8 assists a game, and
>	    that could be an additional 50 assists a year for Hurley.

	Yes, but how much of this is because of Hurley?  It could be that his
presence is a major factor in the team's success, so that those extra games
(and hence extra assists) are in some part his responsibility.

>	2)  Look at the surrounding cast.  Hurley's had the benefit of
>	    throwing to the likes of Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Thomas
>	    Hill, Phil Henderson, Alaa Abdelnaby, and Robert Brickey, all
>	    offensive forces.  Corchiani might have had Rodney Monroe, Tom
>	    Gugliotta (in his lower scoring days), and Chucky Brown, but
>	    Brian D'Amico?  Hardly the caliber of any of the Duke guys.
>	    Jennings is even worse -- can't get too much out of the likes
>	    of Rodney English, Marty Story, Greg Dennis, and Alvin West
>	    (all were good players, but again, not like the Dookies).

	Again, how much of these players' offensive success is due to Hurley?
For instance, anyone who has followed Duke will remember that until his 
senior year, Abdelnaby was completely useless.  It was not until his senior
year, when he had Hurley passing him the ball, that he blossomed as a player.
For a further check, you could see how these players have done in the pros.
Of Henderson, Abdelnaby and Brickey, only Abdelnaby is still in the NBA, and 
he is a marginal player at best.  Of the players Hurley has played with, I
think only Laettner and G. Hill are going to be really successful pros.  So,
while Hurley's teammates have been good *college* players, they haven't fro
the most part been exceptional.

>	college point guards ever.  His championships and MVP award speak
>	for themselves.  However, I don't think the assist record should be
>	all that big of a deal.  Like the previous poster noted, if he
>	played somewhere like Memphis St, he wouldn't get half as much press.

	I do agree that the assist record is unimportant.  Much more impor-
tant are his two nat'l championships (so far) and 17-1 record in the NCAAs.

>|   Jazzy J               jdt29225@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu         U-Illinois/Urbana |
--
"If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste more like
prunes than rhubarb does."		-Groucho Marx

George.Harris@launchpad.unc.edu		or, preferably	gharris@jade.tufts.edu
--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college