Cyber Max

It’s no suprise that the Colonials have been a top-20 team for most of the year. What is surprising is that they’ve basically flown under the radar for most of this year despite returning four starters from last year’s team that won 22 games, the Atlantic 10 tournament title and secured it’s first NCAA tournament bid since 1999. This is a deep experienced team poised to do some damage in March.

This year’s edition of the Colonials is the culmination of a two year master plan by HC Karl Hobbs. In 2004, while Xavier and St Joe’s were rampaging thru the Atlantic 10 enroute to the Elite Eight, Hobbs played his kids and managed to win 18 games as well as garnering an NIT invite. Last year’s club returned the top-seven scorers from 2004 and won the conference before bowing to Georgia Tech in the first round of the Big Dance.

The 2006 edition returns intact except for off guard TJ Thompson (13.2 ppg) whose long range shooting and leadership will be missed. Thompson had started 117 straight games for the Colonials before graduating. While Thompson is a significant loss, Hobbs prefers to see the glass 4/5’s full rather than 1/5 empty.
And for good reason. George Washington is 10-1 and the only team in the Atlantic 10 with five players averaging in double figures.

The Colonials are led by shooting guard JR Pinnock who is averaging 15.4 points per game. Pinnock was the A-10’s Sixth Man of the Year last year and will get serious consideration for Player of the Year this year. Pinnock is joined in the back court by floor general Carl Elliot who averages 11.1 ppg while dropping 4.4 dimes per outing. Both guards are 6′5″ and solid rebounders.

PF Mike Hall is second in scoring at 13.1 ppg and also grabs 7.6 boards. A tireless worker, Hall has a non-stop motor and has become the heart and soul of the team. SF Omar Williams 7.3 ppg has selflessly put his game on hold to become the team’s top defensive stopper. His extra-long wingspan makes him particularly annoying to opposing scorers.

At center we have second-team A-10 and first team All-Name, Pops Mensah-Bonsu. Pops comes via London and is the most athletic of the Colonials. Bonsu averages 11.6 ppg and 7.6 rpg. Pops biggest problems have been foul trouble (he challenges everything, 130 career blocks) and foul shooting (makes Shaq look like Steve Kerr).

Maureece Reece is a talented sopomore guard who is first off the pine. Reece broke many of Wilt Chamberlain’s long standing HS records in Philadelphia and is avgg 11.3 ppg in his debut season. Freshman Montrell McDonald (5.8 ppg) and LSU transfer Regis Koundija (4.3 ppg / 2.7 ppg) are the other key reserves getting double-digit minutes.

Entering tonight’s game against St Louis, the Colonials only loss was a 79-58 blowout to a very tough North Carolina State team. The Wolf Pack are top-10 in the country in almost every statistical category and number one in FG% allowed. NC State held GW to just 31% shooting which might have been aided somewhat by a scheduling quirk that saw the Colonials without a game the prior fourteen days. George Washington does have quality wins against Maryland and Temple.

George Washington is off to a relatively slow start against the points this year at 3-2 but should be profitable in certain situations throughout A-10 play. The Colonials are 25-15 over the past three years as a favorite and a wallet fattening 24-13 in A-10 play. Talented, experienced, and deep. Keep your eye on George Washington as you’ll probably be seeing a lot more of them in March!

Dennis Macklin is a documented member of the Professional Handicappers League.
Read all of his articles at http://www.procappers.com/Dennis_Macklin.htm

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Eighteen years ago today I walked into my mother’s house to grab some dinner. I’d just froze my arse off for fifteen races at Freehold Raceway and was getting ready to spend the night betting Harness races at the Meadowlands. As I checked my mail, I heard my mother yell from the kitchen, “You better turn on the TV, that basketball guy is dead!”

“That basketball guy is dead? What basketball guy?”, I said.

I walked over to the TV and turned it on. We always watched the ABC affiliate in New York and the evening drive sports commentator was Warner Wolf. Within seconds, “We’ve just confirmed that former NBA great Pete Maravich collapsed during a pickup game in Los Angeles, was rushed to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead. Maravich was 40. Details are unclear at the moment but we’ll have a full report on Live at Five.”

I sat down stunned.

For those of you too young to remember, Pete Maravich WAS Showtime 20 years before there was a Showtime. Unquestionably the greatest ball handler and arguably the best “pure” shooter in NBA history, Maravich was undeniably the most creative offensive basketball player ever! Behind-the-back no look passes were common place and Maravich could throw a length of the court one-bounce bounce pass to a wingman on the fly of a fast break and put it in a tea cup. Thirty-five (yes 35) foot pull up jumpers with two guys all over him were generally nothing but net.

The quintessential gym rat as a kid, the 6′5″ 200lb Maravich burst on the scene with his mop of hair and baggy grey sweat socks in 1966 when he enrolled at LSU to play for his father, a former pro and long time collegiate coach, Press Maravich. The NCAA at the time did not permit first year students to play varsity ball so Maravich promptly began his career by averaging 43.6 ppg for the Tiger freshman team.

His next three years at LSU are legend and his scoring records will never be broken. In his three years as a Bayou Bengal, Maravich scored 3,667 points — 1,138 points in 1968, 1,148 points in 1969 and 1,381 points in 1970 — while averaging 43.8, 44.2 and 44.5 points per game. In his collegiate career, “Pistol Pete” averaged an incredible 44.2 ppg in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring three times. He also set an NCAA record by scoring more than 50 points 28 times, and was named a three-time All-American.

Maravich holds nearly every major NCAA scoring record, including most career points, highest career scoring average, most field goals attempted and made, and most 50-point games. The three point basket wasn’t introduced until the 86-87 season or Maravich would have easily averaged in the 50 ppg - FOR HIS CAREER!

Maravich was drafted third overall (behind Bob Lanier and Rudy Tomjanovich) in the 1970 draft by the Atlanta Hawks. He quickly alienated himself with his veteran teammates with his play and 1.9 million dollar rookie contract, far and away the largest of it’s time. Maravich still averaged 23.2 ppg and was named NBA Rookie of the Year. After four tenuous years with the Hawks he was traded to the expansion New Orleans Jazz for Dean “The Dream” Memminger and draft picks.

Maravich played five years for New Orleans/Utah before being released in 1980 and finishing his career as a bench player for the Celtics. Maravich was first team all- NBA in 1976 and 1977, leading the league in scoring in ‘77 with a 31.1 ppg average. I watched him drop his career high 68 points on the Knicks while being guarded by one of the five best defensive guards of all time in Walt “Clyde” Frazier. The “Pistol” was a five-time all star, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987, and named to NBA all-time Top 50 in 1996.

As it turned out, Maravich was born with a congenital heart anomaly and had only one coronary artery. Normally, people have three making his career all the more remarkable.

Like most other unique talents, Maravich was dogged throughout his life for not having won. LSU was 49-35 during his career, 20-8 as a senior and finishing third in the NIT. The Hawks had only one winning season during his stay and NO/Utah was an expansion franchise. In his final season with the Celtics, Maravich averaged 6.0 ppg on a team that lost to the Lakers in the NBA final.

Maravich, who had suffered with knee problems throughout the second half of his career, was invited to the Celtic camp the following year and had made the team but retired after scoring 24 points in just 16 minutes of Boston’s final exhibition game.

Maravich and Dick Butkus were my only two sports idols growing up so his premature death was especially disturbing to me. Besides the sox and hair (who can forget those Vitalis Dry Control commercials), my personal rememberances of the Pistol were a shootout with Notre Dame’s Austin Carr, the 68 point game against the Knicks, and the Horse and One-on-One haftime competitions that were shown at halftimes of the games of the week.

The Pistol had numerous off the court difficulties following retirement until finding peace with the church. He had several ministries and ran Christian Youth Camps right up until the time of his death.

Eighteen years, wow! Seems like yesterday. I didn’t eat or go to the races that night. Rest In Peace Pete Maravich.

Dennis Macklin is a documented member of the Professional Handicappers League.
Read all of his articles at http://www.procappers.com/Dennis_Macklin.htm

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