The November 15, 2011 edition of Off The Boards by AP Correspondent and Big Five Hall of Fame member Jack Scheuer.
OFF THE BOARDS
By Jack Scheuer
Philadelphia has always been known for excellent guard play, but this season is truly the year of the guards. La Salle has three of them with Tyreek Duren, Sam Mills, and Ramon Galloway; Penn with Zack Rosen and Miles Cartwright; Temple trots out Juan Fernandez and Ramone Moore: St. Joe’s features Langston Galloway and Carl Jones, Villanova teams Maalik Wayns with Dominic Cheek, and Drexel pairs Frantz Massenat with Chris Fouch. That’s an awful lot of quality backcourt performers in one city.
Speaking of Rosen, quite a few people rolled their eyes when it was suggested by some observers that he might be the best guard in the city. When all is said and done that just might be the case. He’s always been an outstanding passer, and his shooting, especially from long-range, has really improved.
The three Plumlee brothers at Duke have been getting a lot of attention, which brought about the question of whether any Philly team ever had three brothers playing at the same time. The only example I can come up with is Keith, Larry, and Reggie Herron who played at Villanova during the 1976-77 season. You can see all those Plumlee boys on January 4, when the Blue Devils play Temple at the Wells Fargo Center.
Xavier, featuring highly talented guard Tu Holloway, is considered the team to beat in the A-10. Holloway had 2 triple doubles last season, something no other Musketeer has ever done. Xavier has one of the toughest schedules in the country, playing the likes of Vanderbilt, Purdue, Memphis, Butler, Cincinnati and Gonzaga.
Trivia Time: Who is the A-10’s all-time assists leader? Answer at the end of the column.
This and That: Former Temple star Lavoy Allen is playing in France while waiting for an NBA tryout with the Sixers. He may have plenty of time to learn the language…How about Princeton with 28 turnovers in its loss to Wagner. That has to be a school record. Pete Carril must still be cringing…Katie Kuester, daughter of NBA assistant coach John, is one of the leading scorers on the St. Joe’s women’s team… The Hawks C.J. Aiken, third in the nation in blocked shots last year, is off to a good start with 5 against Western Kentucky.
Answer to Trivia Time: Temple’s Howie Evans had 748 assists in 1985-88.
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