30 for 30 running thread

Also loved the anecdote about him wearing Georgetown-style high tops on the sly to be cool even though he was a Villanova guy.

Along those lines, it's amazing the transformation by Ewing from his playing days to this and the previous 30 for 30 he was in (the Reggie Miller one). Completely self-aware and even self-deprecating now, which you would have never figured.

 

He was a dynamic player to watch although I always thought that Sherm
Douglas was better. Got me thinking about "turnover machine" so I went
and looked up some numbers on NYC point guards:

Washington 3.7 TO's per game
Douglas 3.6
Smith 3.0
Anderson 3.8
Jackson 2.33

Clearly Mark Jackson took care of the ball but the others were a lot
more dynamic players with Pearl being no more of a turnover machine.

 

Ewing wants to be an NBA head coach and while it will probably never happen, he's got a better shot if he can be personable. Which means he has to unlearn everything he ever learned at Georgetown and the Knicks.

 

Add to that list Stephon Marbury at 3.0 per game.

Sebastian Telfair averaged just 1.5 turnovers during his time in the NBA, though he played only 21 minutes per game.

 

I enjoyed the Big East show immensely but thought it was a little too Gavitt centered, overall. The stuff about the Pinkney and Mullin relationship was terrific, as was the part where they talk about the coaches as characters. I wish they'd have done more with the way G-Town protected Ewing. Was Mary Fenion, the academic advisor, mentioned? She was a huge and very interesting part of the Patrick Ewing story.

I attended both Syracuse and St. John's in the late '70s through 1981 and then covered UConn for the AP from '83 to '90. I consider myself lucky to have had a front-row seat during that era. I can't think of a better time and place to have covered college basketball.

FYI, Pearl was the most dynamic (and entertaining) guard I saw during that time period. His turnovers were incidental when you consider how many touches he had and the aggressive nature of his game. Loved watching him play.

 

Will have to catch the whole thing on a rerun, but Tom Mees throwing an elbow to clear enough space to do his standup after Pearl's halfcourt heave against BC at the Carrier Dome...awesome.

 

Also thought it was funny that they managed to get a little dig in at the Big East for turning down the ESPN contract offer before the league fell apart.

 

Off topic a bit, but I saw Sonicsgate this past weekend. Did a search but couldn't come up with a thread. Anyone remember one?

 

Two more - Michael Adams 3.0
Bobby Hurley 3.8

 

For the record, Douglas was not an "NYC point guard." He was from D.C.

And simply citing turnover totals doesn't necessarily tell you much. The question is how much offense is their passing generating for teammates in proportion to those turnovers. Do you have the assist to turnover ratios for those guards? A/T ratio is a far more telling stat.

I tend to agree with the earlier guy who stated how overrated Pearl was. Poor defensively, had no outside shooting range, and he'd endlessly pound the ball while his teammates could only stand around and watch him. I thought it no coincidence that Syracuse immediately improved and went to the national title game the year after Pearl left, Douglas was simply a better overall point guard. Not as exciting to watch, but better.

 

Agree on Ewing. I've never seen that kind of personality from him.

 

John Thompson remains one of the biggest assholes in sports. And for public consumption, no one has disclosed why he left Georgetown when he did