Mark Twain once said, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
And during this year’s NCAA tournament, it’s not the size that has had NBA scouts turning heads or national columnists hastily pecking away at their keyboards.
It’s the little guys.
You hear the names: Blake Griffin, Tyler Hansbrough, Hasheem Thabeet, DeJuan Blair, blah blah blah.
Yes, they’re a slew of budding prospects and probable millionaires, because as we’ve all heard since we were little tots playing recreation ball, “You can’t teach size.”
Fleetness or vision cannot be taught, either8212;and both are vital come March Madness time.
Go back as far as you can and see the track record that spells out the success within the NCAA tournament: the point guard.
Most recently8212;Mario Chalmers, Derrick Rose, Mike Conley and Deron Williams.
Sorry, Utah.
Sorry, BYU.
Sorry, Utah State.
No Beehive State school had a point guard who could dictate the pace of the game, the overall feel of the game and a player who could get to the rim at will.
That’s why we aren’t watching Luke Nevill, Lee Cummard or Gary Wilkinson.
That’s why we have been watching Ty Lawson, Scottie Reynolds, A.J. Price, Zaire Taylor and Kalin Lucas.
It’s not a hard story to read8212;quite easy actually8212;just recruit and develop a gamer at the quarterback position.
It’s a necessity of sorts.
The point guards are who we remember, while the big men go on to sink or swim amid a sea of NBA talent.
We remember Williams’ stellar performance with Illinois against Arizona in the Midwest Regional back in 2005.
We remember Conley’s pick-and-rolls all the way to the NCAA championship with former No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden at Ohio State.
We remember Rose’s circus shots at Memphis and the fact that a then-19-year-old point guard looked to be something the NBA hadn’t seen.
We remember Chalmers’ frenzied defense and his fadeaway 3-pointer to send his Kansas Jayhawks into overtime and on to a national championship.
It’s more than the memories.
Point guards are a different breed of athlete.
They are akin to a football quarterback, but without the five humungaloids giving it all to keep his jersey clean.
It’s a group of players that are looked upon as skippers, but without the company car.
Yeah, the big men are essential to success, so much so that offenses generally revolve around them, but who has the keys to the machine? The most demanding position in college basketball.
It’s a helter-skelter, Jekyll-and-Hyde position to be in. You’re asked to distribute, be in charge of four other mind-sets to work as clockwork and then, suddenly, become a narcissist and take over when needs be.
True collegiate point guards carry swagger with them. It’s a rarity to see a point guard gripe and moan about a whistle.
This year’s tournament has been no different.
Lawson has hit fifth gear after battling a tedious toe injury.
Price has been instrumental in hitting timely shots and getting the NBA talent that surrounds him involved.
And Reynolds’ contested, coast-to-coast last-second lay-in against No. 1 seed Pittsburgh will be an NCAA commercial in the near future.
NBA scouts drool over the likes of Griffin and Thabeet, but it’s the point guards who are indispensable to tournament success and the tournament’s notoriety.
Just to borrow from the mind of one of the best point guards in the history of basketball: “Ask not what your teammates can do for you, ask what you can do for your teammates,” Magic Johnson said.
Collegiate point guards might not always move on to become the belle of the ball, but names such as Tyus Edney, Mateen Cleaves and Khalid El-Amin never cease to be memorialized as players who took teams to the pinnacle of NCAA basketball.
Chris Kamrani