Hansbrough, Griffin, Harden….Meeks?
Posted by Alex on January 14, 2009
The NCAA basketball Player of the Year debate has been infiltrated by a man named Jodie. Jodie Meeks, that is, a junior guard from the University of Kentucky. The 6′4″ shooter erupted onto the national scene last night with a 54-point outburst against the University of Tennessee, in Tennessee, on ESPN’s Tuesday night primetime game. The 54 points broke a 39-year school record for single-game scoring held by Dan Issel (53 points). In the process, Meeks also set a school record for three-pointers in a game by knocking down 10.
You probably haven’t heard about Jodie Meeks (I hadn’t, prior to yesterday), but this isn’t the first time this year he’s had a scoring explosion like this. In Kentucky’s first game of the season, a 111-103 loss to the unheralded Virginia Military Institute, Meeks poured in 39 points on 13-27 shooting (Kobe numbers). Four games later, a 74-72 victory over Kansas State, he contributed 37 on a much more respectable 11-17 shooting. On December 20th, in a matchup with Appalachian State, Meeks totaled his previous season-high of 46 points on 14-21 shooting, including nine treys.
For the record, Meeks has recorded double-figures scoring in every game this season. His season-low is 10 points. In the Wildcats 17 games thus far, Meeks has scored more than 15 points in all but two contests. He’s currently averaging 25.9 points per game, after averages of 8.7 PPG and 8.8 PPG in each of his first two seasons.
All of this has combined to put Meeks in the national eye and in the thick of the college Player of the Year race. Along with bigger names like North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough, Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin, and Arizona State’s James Harden (among many others), Meeks has to be considered as one of the nation’s best. For this week, at least, he’s managed to push the big guys aside and turn “Jodie Meeks” into a household name. Get to know him.
Jazzaholic17 said
He’ll go higher than Hansbrough in the draft… the NBA doesn’t prioritize forwards.
Hansbrough still for PoY. He’s been consistently awesome for four years.
And I realize that so has Jon Brockman, but… I still say I wish Brock would have gone to Duke so he could get the recognition he deserves. He’d still be ours considering he’s from Snohomish.