Do I even have to address the rec basketball post? My dad's right. He's not a high school senior. So let us have our fun, let us not play any defense, let us throw up our half courters, and let us block people's shots as hard as we can and then make fun of them for the rest of the year.
Unfortunately, my upcoming shoulder surgery means I only have two games left in my rec career, and that thought alone is keeping me awake at night.
Anyway, I want to talk about someone who's a lot better than me and my friends at basketball: Kemba Walker.
Wow.
UConn was down last year, failing to even make the NCAA tournament. Out go their two leading scorers, Jerome Dyson and Stanley Robinson, and in come a group of unheralded freshman recruits. The one constant? Kemba Walker.
Kemba averaged only 14.6 points per game last year, and although I had high hopes for him coming into the year, I certainly didn't think he alone would have UConn in the Top 25. In the preseason polls, UConn was picked to finish 10th in the Big East. Not the nation, the Big East!
Not so fast. That 14.6 is up to 25.5, good for second in the nation. The Huskies aren't 10th in the Big East, they're 8th in the land. And Kemba is clearly instilling confidence in his young teammates that'll help this team in the near and distant future.
If I was on his team, I'd feel pretty good about things. All everybody else really needs to do is keep the game close for about 39 minutes. Because we've seen that Kemba owns the 40th. Here we are, halfway through the season, just six games into Big East play, and Walker already has three game-winning shots in the final minute (all three coming against ranked opponents).
UConn, according to my estimations, did not play anywhere near its best game Monday against Villanova. They were stagnant on offense and shot only 35% from the field. But as I said in a text message to my brother's friend (who happened to go to Villanova): "We have Kemba, and you don't."
Similarly, Coach Calhoun said this after the game: "We were very fortunate to win that basketball game. But we have Kemba Walker to win the game for us. He made sure we won the game."
I tend to root for athletes who are clutch. The ones who play the best when the game's on the line. Not the ones who shy away from the ball with 10 seconds left, but those who demand it. And that's what Kemba is. He hates losing, and he does everything in his power to avoid it.
Chances are that next year I'll root for the basketball team of the college I attend. But this year, I'm definitely not complaining about being a Huskies fan. And if Kemba stays for his senior year, there might be a pretty big conflict of interest for me next year. Because this guy seems pretty hard to root against.
-Robby
