Welcome back to the greatest 13 turned 14 person countdown involving the 2010-11 USF Men's Basketball team ever! Last time we left you, Ron Anderson Jr and Shaun Noriega got us into the Top 5, while the newest member of the team Alberto Damour gets pushed back all the way to 14. On today's docket, we will announce numbers 4 and 3, and somehow we will finish this countdown before the season begins.
So let's get too it. I'm already starting to regret this pick as Stan Heath doesn't even have him in the starting lineup, but The 4th Most Important Player for USF Basketball is Jawanza Poland!
The 6'4 Sophomore comes to Fowler Ave. from Hutchington CC, where he wisely took his redshirt season after following his coach from nearby Cowley College. As a freshman at Cowley, Poland averaged 13.6 points and 3.5 rebounds, and was named Freshman of the Year in the Kansas Jayhawk East Conference. Jawanza chose USF over schools like Oklahoma, Cincinnati, and West Virginia which isn't a bad three to go up against and snag a recruit.
If you guys remember in the spring, we were told that Poland committed to USF, then two days later he didn't and was heading to Cincinnati. Our first inside source Wichitan told us all to relax, put up a FanPost stating that Jawanza was still coming to Tampa, and was never seen again. Four days later, GA spoke with Poland, and was officially on board. Yeah, that was a weird couple of weeks.
Poland's game has been compared to Dominique Jones', and for a while was listed on the roster with the number 20. (He now wears number 5) While I would kill for the same type of production from Poland, it's great that we have three years of Jawanza at USF, and provides a decent class of guards with Shaun Noriega and Mike Burwell. After the break, we will announce Number 3.
I've actually gone back and forth on numbers 2 and 3 the whole time, and after asking Toro his thoughts, he wrote this back to me.
Famous 2, Crater 57.
Sounds about right. The 3rd Most Important Player for USF Basketball is Anthony Crater!
The 6'1 Junior from Flint, Michigan sat out the first half of last season after transferring from Ohio State, but was immediately thrown into the rotation once eligible. Playing in 19 games and starting 2 of them. Crater averaged 3.1 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists a game, and more importantly, a 1.5 assist to turnover ratio.
I point to the A/T ratio because that's the stat I always gauge point guards on to see if they are doing their job. A quality PG has a ratio of 2/1, and a great one has a ratio of 3/1. For comparison, Chris Howard last year had a A/T ratio of 2.1/1. Anthony's decision making is THE THING that will make or break this team. If he can limit his mistakes, this team has the opportunity to win 20 games as shocking as that seems. If not, we could easily end up the way Ken Pomeroy predicts us to end up. Yep that's a 10 game swing, and it all depends if Number 10 makes the right choice.
So who do you think will be Number 2 tomorrow? Your two choices are below.