Monday, May 23, 2011

Is Alex Johnson Gottfried's Biggest Accomplishment Yet?

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the RBC Center.  Tonight, the Wolfpack is pleased to have as its guest, the basketball team from the University of North Carolina.  Now for the starting lineups....At Point Guard for NC State, from...um... Melbourne, Australia,...ummm...holy crap... Jordan Vandenberg!"

So, after waking up from my CA Dillon induced nightmare, I got to wondering what the Pack would do if Lorenzo Brown was lost to injury, now that Ryan Harrow didn't let the door hit him where the good Lord split him.  After vomiting exactly 7 times, I remembered that Coach Gottfried had just signed Alex Johnson, a graduate student out of Cal State- Bakersfield.  Put simply, this may be the most important thing Coach Gott has done since setting foot in Raleigh (Well, other than negotiating one meal a day at Case Dining Hall--savvy move Gott!).

Johnson is a solid player with valuable division one experience who has just one year to play.  This is important because we probably would have just wasted that scholarship on a walk-on, and it won't scare Rodney Purvis away from running with the Pack.  A Juco player would have done as well, but would not have had the experience coming in that Johnson does.

Johnson has averaged 13.3 points per game on 31 minutes, versus Harrow's 9.3 PPG on 23 minutes.  Harrow's 1.6 A/T ratio is comparable to Johnson's 1.16.  Combine that with the fact that he can actually shoot the three, and he is a viable threat.  In fact, he made 79 shots from the bonusphere (take that Gary Hahn!) to Harrow's 12.  Now, he did take quite a few more shots than Harrow, but he also made them 34.6% of the time, versus Ryan's 22.2%.

If Johnson can even come close to those kind of stats coming off the bench for the Pack, most fans will have forgotten about the day that Steve Urkel came to town.  And if a dreaded injury does occur (they always do for the Pack) then Gottfried will have an experienced floor general to call on to lead the Pack down the stretch.

Now, go bring Rodney Purvis home to Raleigh, and Julius Hodge will finally get a chance to eat!

No comments:

Post a Comment