“I think Allen Iverson messed up the game,” Weaver said in a telephone interview. “All these little guys dribble around instead of passing the ball.”todays NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/sports/ncaabasketball/22guards.html?_r=1&hp&oref=sloginN.C.A.A. Tournament
Lately, Guards Are Just Unable to Get the Point
By THAYER EVANS and PETE THAMEL
SAN ANTONIO, March 21 — Great guard play wins games in March, or so the cliché goes. Teams like Texas A&M, Nevada-Las Vegas, Ohio State and North Carolina have reached the Round of 16 at the N.C.A.A. tournament on the backs of their stellar point guards.
Players like Acie Law IV, Kevin Kruger, Mike Conley Jr. and Ty Lawson have led their teams by looking to set up teammates for scoring opportunities, rather than by scoring themselves. Those players, however, have become more the exception than the rule in recent years.
Coaches, N.B.A. scouts and talent evaluators say there are a variety of reasons why the pass-first point guard seems to have gone missing. But the primary reason they point to is that a generation of players weaned on Allen Iverson crossovers does not value passing as an art.
“No one wants to set the table anymore,” Mount St. Mary’s Coach Milan Brown said in a telephone interview. “Everyone wants to eat.”
Before the N.B.A. established an age limit last year, high school stars — especially the taller ones — were flying to the pros, leaving the college game virtually void of talented big men. The impact of the draft rule has been obvious during this N.C.A.A. tournament, which has showcased players 6-foot-9 and above, like Ohio State’s Greg Oden, Texas’ Kevin Durant and North Carolina’s Brandan Wright.
But the less publicized and perhaps even more meaningful trend in the college game has been the absence of pass-first leaders at the point-guard position the past few years.
Traditional point guards like Bobby Hurley, Kenny Anderson and Mateen Cleaves, who dominated past N.C.A.A. tournaments, have become as rare in college basketball as thigh-hugging shorts. Since 2000, the number of players averaging more than seven assists a game has decreased from 11 to 2.
“They’re hard to come by,” Texas Coach Rick Barnes said of point guards in a telephone interview. “It’s a talent now.”
There are differing opinions among college coaches and N.B.A. personnel as to why there is a dearth of true point guards.
Barnes said the shortage had been caused by an increased emphasis on scoring. In an era of highlight dunks and a college 3-point line that has been called too close to the basket, the craft of running a team and distributing the ball is not viewed as being glamorous, he said.
Barnes has been lucky to be blessed with point guards while at Texas. He coached T. J. Ford, one of only three point guards in the past decade to win the Naismith Award, which is given annually to college basketball’s top player.
Since then, Barnes has sent point guard Daniel Gibson to the N.B.A. and has another potential N.B.A. point guard in the freshman D. J. Augustin. He averaged 14.4 points this season and led all freshmen with 6.7 assists a game.
True point guards, Barnes said, have common characteristics.
“They see things a little bit differently,” he said. “The ones that I’ve been around have been very, very unselfish.”
The Utah Jazz scout Troy Weaver, a former Syracuse University assistant, said the definition of a point guard for younger players had been clouded by those who looked to score first.
“I think Allen Iverson messed up the game,” Weaver said in a telephone interview. “All these little guys dribble around instead of passing the ball.”
Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl said that many talented high school players avoided playing point guard to bolster their exposure to college coaches. Many guards, he said, believe the only way they can get noticed is by scoring points.
“There’s a lot of shooting guards out there that could be great point guards,” Pearl said in a telephone interview.
In high school, Conley said, there was a negative perception of being a point guard. He is averaging 10.6 points and 6.2 assists for the Buckeyes. “If you’re not a scoring point guard, people don’t think of you as highly,” Conley said. “They don’t think of you as the type that’s going to make an impact in college because you’re not trying to score 20 points a game. You’re more trying to get 10 assists.”
But Pearl said he believed that more young players would want to be point guards in the future. He compared the situation to an increased number of football players seeking to become cornerbacks instead of wide receivers.
“For years, everybody wanted to be wide receivers,” Pearl said. “Now, the guys that get paid the most are the cover corners. At some point, these shooting guards are going to figure out there’s a lot of guys that can score with the ball, but their best chance may be as a point guard.”
The N.B.A. draft last year showed signs of the lack of floor leaders; only one point guard, Villanova’s Randy Foye, was selected among the first 20 picks.
Law is projected to be the only point guard in the first 20 picks of this year’s draft. N.B.A. scouts say the Marist senior point guard Jared Jordan is the best passer in this year’s point-guard class.
“There’s immense value in having a true point guard,” Marty Blake, the N.B.A.’s director of scouting, said in a telephone interview. “It’s as important as any other position but center. Point guards don’t get traded very often.”
