From: trradrx@canctr.mc.duke.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: CBS/Laettner/Players to love/Players to hate
Date: 9 Apr 92 15:05:01 GMT
Reply-To: trradrx@canctr.mc.duke.edu
Organization: Duke U. Med. Ctr., Durham, NC

1) I think that people have been a little hard on CBS this year.  ESPN would
obviously have been preferable, but the camerawork was extremely sharp
on CBS, probably better than ESPN's would have been.  I don't care much for
Billy Packer (and I'm an ACC fan!), but I thought that Quinn Buckner, Len
Elmore, Digger Phelps and even ol' Al McGuire were very good.  (Al may be
senile, but it's nice to see a commenatator have *fun* at a game.  Ever think
about that, Billy?)  To the fan who detected partisanship, particularly in
favor of Kentucky in the Duke game: can you blame them? I mean, isn't the
natural impulse to root for the underdog, particularly for a program that
had been in a shambles just a few years ago?  If  I wasn't a Duke fan, I
would have been rooting for Kentucky just because of their heroic 
performance.  CBS' halftime features have all been consistently excellent.
Even Leslie Visser wasn't too annoying.  And we had a minimum of Curry
"Fluffy" Kirkpatrick.  

2) Laettner in the NBA--tough to figure how he's going to do.  His biggest
asset will initially be his biggest roadblock--his badass attitude on the
court.  Can you imagine what Barkley is going to do to him?  Or how Larry 
Bird is going to make him look like a fool? Or how Jordan will dunk over 
him?  But his will to win, and inherent nastiness will keep him plugging.
He doesn't show the versatility that Ferry had in his college game, but
Ferry's college versatility (he could do many things pretty well, which
was good enough to dominate in college) didn't translate into the pros.
But though Laettner has fewer skills, he's more dominant in them than Ferry,
which is why he'll be a better pro.  Laettner responds well to good coaching,
and understands the game well.  I think that there may be fewer expectations
for him (I remember some people calling Ferry the next Larry Bird!), which
will help.  He'll probably never be an All-Star, but he could average 15-18
pts a game and 6 rebounds, and start for a poor team, or be a great 6th
man.

3) Players to hate---isn't everyone going to miss Laettner next year?
I can think of few players that had such latent loathesomeness as Christian,
and I'm a fan of his!  Truly a great player to hate: he's a pretty boy,
rude, arrogant, not all that bright, and worst of all, he's the Player of the
Year!  Duke won't have that kind of hatefulness on the team next year, with
Hurley reforming this year.  It's nice to have these kind of players around.
I was afraid that everyone on UNC this year would be as classy as Hubert
Davis, but Duke fans everywhere are grateful that Eric Montross stepped up
in the hatefulness category, with all of his mindless spewing.  Here's a list
of players that I've loved to hate the past few years:
  1) Eric Montross, UNC
  2) King Rice, UNC (a sad day when he left)
  3) Chris Webber, Michigan (already in my loathesomeness hall of fame)
  4) Brian Williams, Arizona (I've hated his sneer since the Maryland days)

  5) Alonzo Mourning, G-Town (hatefullness dropped off a bit towards the end)
  6) Tracy Murray, UCLA (what a boor!)
  7) Anderson Hunt, UNLV (gotta be the goatee)
  8) Chris Corchiani, NC State (the weasel--hated him since high school!)
  9) Andrew Gaze, Seton Hall (I love hired guns)
 10) Rod Sellers, UConn (headbangers ball!)

4) Then there are the classy gutty ballplayers on teams of which I'm not
particularly a fan of, but I can't help rooting for these players:

1) Mark Randall, Kansas (I admired him even before I found out that he
                         thought about going to Duke)
2) Bryant Stith, UVA (doesn't talk much, just gets it done)
3) Tom Gugliotta (goofy looking, but so nice to watch!)
4) Larry Johnson, UNLV (a man amongst boys)
5) Byron Houston, OK State (ditto)
6) Jim Jackson, tOSU (clutch player, no excuses)
7) Hubert Davis, UNC (peerless worker, good NBA addition)
8) Harold Miner, SoCal (a great character.)
9) Milt Newton, Kansas (overachiever!)
10) Henry Williams, UNC-C (future NBA all-Star!)

--Robert Clough
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college