mcg206

SoCal Prep & High School Report

Glen McGowan Revisited:
On Going To School--(February 6, 1998)

Oh my, the things we must do to satisfy some people.

Yesterday, we received an irate e-mail about a single line contained in SoCalHoops "City Section Report" from yesterday. It seems that someone who read our report about the Weschester v. Venice game the other day took great offense at our description that Westchester "took McGowan to school" which was our way of describing in shorthand Westchester's victory by the score of 95-79.

We don't know why anyone would take our comment as being critical or negative about Glen, because it was just a reflection of the fact that Westchester pounded Venice, winning by 16 points, which in anybody's book is fact, not fiction. And our comment intended to convey our belieft that Westchester, as a team is filled with a bunch of stars, whereas in our estimation (rightly or wrongly) Glen is the only player who readily comes to mind when we think of the Venice, and in our estimation (we could be dead wrong on this) he seems like the only one really capable of taking his game to the next level. Well, ok, maybe Kevin McQueen can do it too.

Our critic wanted us to know that in the Westchester game "Glen still scored 26 points and didn't even start the game." We agree, one heck of a performance. The critic (who shall remain anonymous) also let us know that "The whole team did their best. . . They were even tied at one point! " We don't doubt it for a moment. But 16 points is stil 16 points. And about Glen personally, the critic had this to say: "This 16 year old is doing great considering he has gone from a bench warmer to a starter averaging over 25pts a game. And considering he's still adjusting to his growth spurt and constantly painful feet, that accounts for his sluggish looking shots".

Huh? We don't recall describing his shots ever as being "sluggish looking" -- if the Times or some other paper or internet source said that, blame them, not us. Nor do we think Glen plays "sluggishly". Far from it, we believe that Glen has displayed, the times we've seen him, real explosive talent with a fine shot, and while we agree he seems to be adjusting to fitting into a 6'-6" frame (he may still believe his in his old 6'-1" body), we also believe he's made a remarkably quick adjustment to being a "big man".

Just a few weeks ago, we remember standing on the sidelines of a tournament with Coach Howard Levine of Grant, Dave Enowitz of Reseda, and a few other coaches, and all of us were marvelling at Glen's ability, comparing him to Ruben Douglas or Gil Arenas, and all of us were in agreement that we felt safe in predicting that the young man can, if he works at it, definitely take his game to the next level, regardless of what team he plays for in high school. So to our critic we have this to say: Relax, don't be so sensitive. And about our "taking to school" remark, we still mean it: Westchester did take Glen to school in that game; oh yeah, they also took the rest of the Venice team to school too.

But when you're the best player on your team, you tend to get the most pub, and when we think of Venice we think "McGowan". We trust that when college recruiters and scouts think "Venice" they'll be thinking "McGowan" too.

Oh, and if you're in the neighborhood today, go on over to LA High (on Olympic Blvd., near Arlington) and watch Venice take on the LA Romans at 4:00 pm (at least that was the original time given to us. Don't blame us if they change the time again without warning). You'll see a great show.