avery

SoCalHoops Tournament News

Jerry Concedes! Michael Miller Wins Fake Argument!
Avery Queen IS The MVP!--(July 28, 1998)

Ok, ok, we've got no convictions. Call us wishy-washy. Yeah, that's us, Casper Milquetoast. Like a reed in the wind, bending to the strongest breeze, listening to the last guy we heard who sounded like he made some sense.

Ah, but we do know superior logic when we see it. And Michael was so plainly and obviously correct, and we were just so WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

Avery Queen (5'-5" Jr. PG) probably was the MVP of the Best of Summer Tournament, and we'll be the first to admit that we were WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, because his stats don't lie.

If anyone wants to see Avery's stats from the Best of Summer, go on over to WestCoastHoops.com, where Mike Miller tracked Avery's stats through the five games he saw Inland play. And since we now know the secret to Mike's method of keeping stats (it's a pretty good system for keeping stats; we'll teach it to others. . . for a fee, of course), so we trust the numbers. Even if we think Mike was wrong about saying that the Jazz were "padding" their stats.

Mike is right for a couple of other reasons: Avery is about more than just numbers and stats. He brings something special to a game, an energy, a focus, and a skill level that was really unmatched on a consistent basis in the tournament. Maybe it's just hindsight, maybe it's because we want to jump on the Avery-bandwagon like Clark Francis did, maybe we're crazy. Avery is really just plain fun to watch, probably more fun than any other player at the Best of Summer. On the "fun scale" there's no question about it, he was definitely the MVP. And we agree, we'd love to see him play for UCLA too (or maybe Cal. . . Go Bears).

Chris Duhon is taller, he's a year older, and will probably be a "safer bet" as a recruit at a high D-I program. But just give Avery another year. We agree, size does matter, and Avery plays like he's at least 6'-0" tall.

So give the little guy some props.

But as for those "Avery's verballed to UCLA" reports we keep reading, all we can say is. . . don't believe everything you read. At least not just yet.