Certainly, Jimmer Fredette has carried BYU further than anyone imagined this year...especially with the suspension of BYU's leading rebounder, Brandon Davies, late this season.
I was disappointed to see Jimmer and BYU lose last night. BYU winning was a great story.
I've seen Jimmer play a few times this year and he was definitely off his game against Florida last night...it seemed to me he was forcing some long shots and even seemed a bit sluggish. He is deceptively quick and gets by defenders. He is known for his 28' bombs, but I like his game when he slashes to the hole. His off game last night still produced 32 points...and his season average was almost 28 per game.
With those types of numbers, Jimmer has drawn comparison to Pistol Pete Maravich. Pistol Pete is college basketball’s all-time leading scorer. The LSU guard, who averaged 44.2 points a game over three seasons from 1967-70 without the benefit of the 3-point line, had unconscious range.
Former LSU Coach, Dale Brown, went back and looked at film of all 83 games Maravich played and figured out he would have been credited with an average of 13 3-pointers per game. That would have raised Maravich’s scoring average to an untouchable 57 points a game. And that is not including attempts that Pistol may have "stepped back" on had he seen he was close to the line, as many shooters do today.
Pistol Pete CREATED a style of play that is still seen in today's game. While Jimmer is an prolific scorer, he is NO Pistol Pete.
mj