Judging by some of the posts on the bulletin board and some other comments
we've read, people seem to be judging Jason William's performances in New York a
bit harshly, in our opinion. So we thought it would be interesting to see how
great ACC point guards of the past did in their debuts. We
went straight to Charlie Board's site, of course, as he is The Man for this
sort of thing. Though he has a lot he doesn't yet have a complete set of
boxscores for every season, so we couldn't find Hurley's first game, nor could
we find Muggsy Bogues', and Mark Price's wasn't there either. Oh, and John
Lucas, too. But there's enough to take a look and to get an idea of how the
other guys did.
The UNC guards opened against fairly tough opponents, as did
Duke's. Vandy is a bit weaker, but it is an SEC team. Phil Ford had an
impressive debut against State, with David Thompson, but he was matched against
5'5" Monte Towe, who was seriously overmatched - at 6'2", Ford was 9
inches taller and vastly more talented. The Tech guards opened against
weenie teams like Georgia State and Manhattan. Kenny Anderson posted spectacular
stats, but come on, it was Georgia State. Ford's turnovers aren't listed, but
Smith had 2, and Amaker, Anderson, Marbury, and Cota had 4 apiece.Â
Of
the guards we looked at, Anderson and Smith shot the best in their debut.Â
Jason's field goal percentage is roughly akin to Cota's. and Marbury's.
Jason outrebounded the other points by a considerable margin.
Anyway, this is
obviously not a scientific process, nor does it guarantee that Jason will do as
well as his predecessors, though personally we think he will be very, very good
indeed.
Â
Player | Year | OPP | MP | FG | FGA | FT | FTA | R | A | PF | PTÂ | 3P | 3PA | TO | B | S |
Ford | 1975 | NCSU | 39 |  9 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 6 |  2 | 2 | 20 | - | - | - | - | - |
Smith | 1984 | Missouri | 30 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 14 | - | - | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Amaker | 1984 | Vanderbilt | 37 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 12 | - | - | 4 | 0 | - |
Anderson | 1990 | GaSt | 23 | 11 | 17 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 28 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
Marbury | 1996 | Manhattan | 31 | 6 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Cota | 1997 | Arizona | 37 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
Williams | 1999 | Stanford | 36 | 3 | 15 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 3 |
Williams | 1999 | UConn | 38 | 5 | 17 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 16 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 |
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