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Ed Graney
Jimmer has the trophies; Kemba has a game to play
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David J. Phillip/The Associated Press
Connecticut's Kemba Walker, shown scoring inside Kentucky's DeAndre Liggins in Saturday's national semifinals, has evolved into yet another one-name star for Jim Calhoun's Huskies.
Updated: Apr. 4, 2011 | 7:42 a.m.
HOUSTON -- The parade of awards began early here this week for Jimmer Fredette, who better have arrived with an extra suitcase. If the Timmy Chan's restaurant near Reliant Stadium was handing out Player of the Year honors in college basketball, my guess is the Brigham Young senior would have been there to smile, say a few words of thanks, hoist another plaque and enjoy some chicken and rice.
Jimmer has been busy at the Final Four.
Kemba, too.
First names. That's the key, the sign of supreme recognition, when with one word you can identify a player whose success is rivaled by few.
UConn has had its share.
Ray (Allen). Caron (Butler). Rip (Hamilton). Ben (Gordon). Mek (Okafor).
"He's just Kemba now," coach Jim Calhoun said of his junior guard, Kemba Walker. "It's a great status to have."
For five months, opinions varied on Fredette and Walker, on which deserved more the title of America's most valuable player, on which had done more for his team, on which meant more to his program's journey this season.
Jimmer won all the awards.
Kemba is still playing.
You decide which is more important.
Walker is in the season's final game, leading UConn into tonight's national championship against Butler, where for the second straight year the same small school from the same small Horizon League will try to defeat a major program from a major conference and claim its sport's ultimate prize.
Butler is respectful of Walker and yet not in awe of the kid who scored 130 points in five Big East Tournament games over five days, whose father calls his son's facial hair the "Jesus beard," who has always been undersized and often viewed undisciplined.
"He is good," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "But we have played teams that have singular stars and Connecticut isn't one. This is a team with a lot of good players, a couple pros around one for-sure pro."
Walker averages 23.9 points and nearly six assists and yet wasn't a unanimous first-team All-American pick by the Associated Press or in the Big East. His team finished ninth in conference and there was a stretch where as his points mounted, so too did the notion he didn't involve teammates nearly enough.
That if the choice was between forcing a shot against multiple defenders at the end of a game or passing to an open teammate, Walker might as well have yelled, "Trying one!" as the ball took flight time and again.
It doesn't seem so straightforward now.
The Huskies start three freshmen and a sophomore alongside Walker. Their babies have grown into toddlers and then teenagers and now men during the season, all the while following the kid who grew up running others off concrete courts in the Bronx.
It was different for Fredette, who had another senior (Jackson Emery) to play off of all year.
"You know, our (younger) guys listen," Walker said. "They showed up at practice every day ready to go hard. They came with their ears wide open, ready to learn new things. (Calhoun) gave me the chance to lead them, to voice my opinion. That's one reason we have been so successful."
He was a break dancer before he was a baller. As a child, Walker performed outside a local laundromat, gyrating to Jamaican tunes where he would roll his body in wavelike motions and thrust his arms in karate chops.
Now, he slithers in and out of defenses, a penetrating nightmare for opponents. He worked tirelessly last summer on adding a mid-range game. He's the best player in college off the bounce. Yep. Better than Jimmer.
"We had just finished breakfast (Saturday) morning as a team and I look up and Kemba is walking out and six guys are following him," Calhoun said. "It just so happened they left that way. But I thought, 'That's kind of who we are and what we are in many, many ways.' As a coach, you need an extension.
"When you have a great one like Kemba, you recognize it. I certainly do."
It was late Sunday evening here when the Naismith Player of the Year was announced.
The winner: Jimmer.
Somewhere tucked into a hotel room, probably watching film of a small school from the small Horizon League and preparing for the biggest game of his life, was another finalist.
His name: Kemba.
You decide who had the more enjoyable time.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.
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Dear Graney,
Thanks, Captain Obvious. Geez. OF COURSE Jimmer would rather be playing. He'd be the first to admit it, but the fact is out of 300+ teams, only two get to play for the national championship. The NCAA tournament does not guarantee the top two players will be playing against each other for the championship, let alone the two best teams. It's very much a crap shoot, as evidenced by a pathetic (from an offensive perspective) Butler team using excellent defense and some luck to advance.
In the end, UConn's supporting cast was better than BYU's cast, and that was the difference, it's not that Kemba was actually a better player than Jimmer (which he clearly was not). In reality, it was BYU's role players that let Jimmer down, not the other way around. They wanted Jimmer to do it all himself, when they should have helped him out more. In a way, that is a testament to how great Jimmer actually is - that they were so dependent on him and had so much faith in him to deliver them to victory.
BYU lost in OT to Florida with an injured Jimmer and no Brandon Davies. If BYU has Davies, is there any doubt they are playing for the national championship against UConn?
I thought Graney was a respectable journalist above pandering and taking cheap shots to sell papers. I was wrong.
Unless I'm mistaken, Jimmer did not cast a single vote for any of the awards he won. This article is ridiculous...of course Jimmer would have rather been playing for the national championship. Anyone that knows Jimmer (or seen one interview) knows that Jimmer is not about these personal accolades....he is a humble guy. Apparently Mr. Graney is unable to write about two great players without tearing one down. Sad.
I'm sorry but this is just a terribly written article. Which is more important? Who had the more enjoyable time? These same arguments or declarations remind me of something I'd here from someone in high school. I can hear it now, a reassuring coach with a god father type accent, telling his star player, "It's okay Kemba, you've got a game to play. Now go watch some film, and make sure to tuck yourself in a corner. Make sure it's a small corner, it'll be more enjoyable that way so as to avoid sharing your enjoyment with anyone else." What Mr. Graney failed to realize is that the journey was enjoyable regardless for both of these young athletes and he's comparing apples to oranges when he's inferring that Kemba just might be enjoying himself more than Jimmer. Yeah, Kemba is playing in the championship game and even greater if he wins, but just as Jimmer will never experience that excitment Kemba will never experience that which Jimmer is going through. Congrats to both Jimmer and Kemba on a great year. Oh, and Mr. Graney, when first names is the "sign of supreme recognition," what kind of sign is it when your name becomes something like "The Jimmer", or is even used in numerous other forms like "Jimmer Range," "Got Jimmered," and "Jimmernation?" Don't answer that, because those so called trophies have already shown what kind of "sign of supreme recognition" that kind of name recognition will bring.
Jimmer is special and nobody did what he did this year. He was simply jaw dropping. Had the refs in the Florida game called fouls like the Kentucky - Carolina refs did, Jimmer would have had 15 free-throws and would not have left the floor bloody and injured.
Not that the game was not called evenly, (as I recall each team had about 10 fouls), but by "letting them play" they allowed a pretty serous mugging on the Jimmer.
But where would BYU have finished this year without Jimmer? Maybe an NIT team. Where would BYU have finished with Jimmer, Davies, and Chris Collinsworth (6-10 big out for season)? Final four.
Regardless of what he does in the pros, Jimmer was the best college player I've seen since, oh, Magic Johnson/Larry Bird. Pistol Pete.
Jimmer vs. Kemba--one on one--Jimmer shoots Kemba's lights out.
Good luck to Kemba and his team--but Jimmer on the same team during the entire season--wipes out competition!
Done
By your reasoning, any player on U Conn's team is better than Jimmer Fredette because they "are still playing". This means that all of these players are better than the Jimmer: Enosch Wolf, Donnell Beverly, Jeremy Lamb, Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, Niels Giffey, Tyler Olander, Shabazz Napier, Kyle Bailey, Roscoe Smith, Benjamin Stewart -- who are the rest of U Conn's roster. ###
But why stop there? By your reasoning, all players on any team that made it to the Elite 8 are better than Jimmer Fredette because they were still playing after BYU's OT loss in the Sweet 16. With 14 players on each of their rosters, that would mean Jimmer is the 113th (8 teams @ 14 players =112+Jimmer) best player this year. ###
Really??? You must be very proud to have this article in the public collection of your body of work.
I thought the award was for player of the year not mvp anyway. If the award is for the best college player this season, Fredette wins easily....
No doubt Jimmer would give up all the awards to trade places with Kemba, but that doesn't diminish what Jimmer did this season and how he carried a team with inferior talent overall when compared to Uconn, to the sweet 16 and one missed free throw from advancing to the Elite 8.
Jimmer deserves every accolade he gets. Kemba has a chance to set his status as a great college hoopster in stone tonight.
And UNLV may just end up with one of the masterminds that helped coach BYU to that sweet 16 in Dave Rice.
So, be nice.
Jimmer vs 2 defenders = 30 pts a game. Kemba vs. 1 player = 24 pts a game. Jimmer/BYU (1 player = team) Kemba/UConn (loaded team).
UConn may well win NCAA as a team. Kemba may be MVP. But lest we forget, he didn't show up mid-season and put his team in a terrible spot = ninth in Big East.
Both have talent, but The Jimmer will never be forgotten. Kemba will be forgotten in five years. I have yet to see Kemba shoot a Jimmer shot. I have yet to see Kemba split two defenders and play an entire game and still score 49 points. Kemba is a great player. The Jimmer is near deity and my opinion is shared with the vast majority of coaches, players and sportwriters.
Your opinion is in the vast minority.
Hey Ding Dong- You do understand that Jimmer did it on a team of a bunch of guys from the YMCA open gym....right???? Surround him with UCONNS talent and you may feel differently................