The Knight to Cats Blog

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Tavaras Hardy

Tavaras Hardy is on the path to becoming the greatest Wildcat of all time.  In fact, no player has ever worn the sacred Cats jersey more than T-Bone.  118 times to be exact.  Though we will never forget the bad times with Tavaras, such as when his air ball cost the Cats an upset win over Mateen Cleaves and the Spartans, we also occasionally can remember the good times, if we close our eyes and think really hard.  Clapping your hands helps.

Tavaras had the unfortunate pleasure to play with some of the biggest NU transfer traitors around: David Newman, Brody Deren and Gimme More Steve LePore.  With such A-level talent leaving the cozy confines of Welsh-Ryan Arena for places like Drake and Creighton, the Cats could never recover under Kevin O'Neill. 

In all reality, we truly admired how hard Tavaras always played, and that he has stuck with this program for so long, when so many others bailed.  Nobody deserves to see some success at this place more than him.  And now, he is even in his second season as assistant coach. 

At this point in the post we start making demands.  When The General marches into Evanston, we want Tavaras to remain on the staff.  Tavaras has committed his life to the misery of this basketball program, and he deserves to see its triumphant ascendancy to .500.  So please Coach Knight, when you clean out the cupboard, keep some T-Bone in there, just in case.

Kevin

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Collier Drayton

Collier Drayton was born a natural leader.  Our favorite personality on the average teams of the early decade, we grew to love Collier's antics on and off the court.

You all know what happened on the court: suffocating defense, a court vision in dishing the ball nobody at NU has ever had, and a desire to win we've only seen matched by the Great Jitim Young.  Maybe my old age is getting to me, but I remember Collier putting that punk Rick Rickert into his place with a raised fist.  We know Collier is a pacifist, but sometimes the hammer had to come out…
Rickert, a highly touted recruit, was never the same, and currently has one foot off the ledge playing for the Colorado 14ers.

Off the court, Drayton was untouchable.  He brought the NU student body to life like no athlete besides Sam Simmons ever has.  I was fortunate enough to once be at a party with Collier one summer.  As the evening wore on, and people departed, a hearty group of 5 of us settled around a half-finished Keg.  With true grit and determination Collier locked the door to the apartment, and wouldn't allow anyone to leave until this here keg was finished.  Charging onto the battlefield, Collier led our weary crew to a complete hand-slapping victory.  Unfortunately, and to no fault his own, there were too few hand-slappers on the court in Collier's day.  But he leaves a blueprint for what an NU point guard should and better be.

Kevin

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Jitim Young

This site isn't all about bad news.  As much fun as we have in our player profiles, we would also like to take the time to praise those who actually put together great careers at NU.  So, the first entry in our Northwestern Legends section, Jitim Young.

Before Jitim even came to Northwestern he was already a local hero.  He starred at Gordon Tech in Chicago where he arveraged 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists per game. 

Arriving at NU in 2000, Jitim became the best player on the team almost right away. He was the only freshman in the Big Ten to be a starter that season.  As a junior and senior he led the team in every statistical category, quite a feat for a guy who was short even for a guard.  Young was so good as a senior that he was named First Team All Big Ten.  

While the numbers are impressive (sixth on Northwestern's all-time scoring list with 1,521 points, all-time leader in games started (117), and ranks second in minutes played (3,849), second in steals (215), tied for second in games played (117), fifth in field goals made (548), sixth in three-point field goals made (108), and tenth in free throws made (317)) they are nothing compared to the level of energy and desire that Young played with. 

We will always recall our meetings with him fondly.  One on the court after his "shot heard round the world" against Penn State, and one at the homecoming football game a couple of years back.  Jitim was there hanging out with knighttocats.com favorite and NU graduate Mike Wilbon, and we were heard to proclaim "this is so exciting, our favorite two Northwestern alums in one place".  

..seth