Jack Scheuer’s Off The Boards – January 21, 2015 Edition

Nice to see Chris Ford presented with the Living Legend award at the Philadelphia Sports Writers annual banquet. The former Villanova star had an outstanding college career, and was a solid NBA player for 11 seasons, but for some reason, never seemed to get the credit he deserved.  At 6-5, and one of the early big point guards, he was an outstanding passer who could also shoot, especially from long distance.  As a sophomore in 1970-71 he set the school record for most assists in one season (which still stands) and the Wildcats went all the way to the NCAA championship game against  #1 UCLA before losing 68-62.  That might be Villanova’s best team ever, which included Howard Porter and Tom Ingelsby, who, like Ford, have had their numbers retired by the school.

Ford averaged 16 points a game in his 3 college seasons, and was the Big 5’s Outstanding Player as a senior.   In the NBA, he had 2 years with Detroit, and 9 with the Celtics, and was an important part of Boston’s 1981 NBA champions.  That’s a pretty good resume for a guy whose talent has always been somewhat overlooked.

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Looks like there’s another good shooter on the horizon.  Ryan Legler is a sophomore who starts in the backcourt for Wildwood Catholic H.S.  He’s the son of Tim, the former La Salle star and NBA player who is now an analyst for ESPN.  Dad could shoot it a little.  In his 4 years with the Explorers he averaged 14 points a game, and ended up with 1,699, 15th on the school’s all-time list.

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Trivia Time Who is the Atlantic 10’s all-time leading scorer? Answer at the end of the column.

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This and That: Jameer Nelson, now with Denver, is with his 4th team in 2 years.  It seems odd that a guy with a great reputation can get bounced around like that….North Carolina’s Desmond Hubert (6-10), a defensive specialist, is 12-53 from the foul line in his career, that’s 22.6%….One of the many things Jahlil Okafor does well is pass the ball. Very impressive for a big guy, and a plus for the Duke shooters….Chester’s Tyreke Evans is having a great year with New Orleans.  Coming off the bench, he’s averaging 17 points a game…. Former Owl Ryan Brooks, and ex-Hawk Rob Ferguson, are both playing in Germany….Villanova has some time off to forget it’s Georgetown experience.  The Wildcats don’t play until Sunday when they welcome Creighton….Nice to see depleted Drexel win at Delaware.  The Dragons are at Hofstra tonight, while St.Joe’s hosts UMass, and Penn welcomes Monmouth.  Tomorrow night it’s Temple – USF at home; LaSalle at Rhode Island.

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Answer to Trivia Time: Temple’s Mark Macon, who scored 2,609 points.