The Knight to Cats Blog
Monday, March 05, 2007
Jean-Marc Melchior
Since most normal people have no idea that Luxembourg exists, let alone is its own country, let alone is part of a triumvirate known as The Benelux, it was shocking to see we had plucked a hoopster from this seemingly made up place.
In Luxembourg Melchoir was a straight killer. He drilled daggers for a living, averaging almost 20 per in his high school days for Luxembourg's BBC Black Star Mersch club team.
At 6-6 Melchoir gave the Cats some much needed size during the 05-06 season and logged 7 minutes in a win over Northern Colorado, and swooshed 2 points over DePauw.
Only a sophomore we haven't given up on Melchoir contributing to Coach Knight's team next year. If he can reach back to his days of stardom in The Lux, and forget about his incredible, indescribable inability to get game action, we think Melchoir has a sweet shooting stroke ready to bust out at a moment's notice. Though at least 50% of us over here at knighttocats.com put money on this guy being the first to be slapped by The General next year.
KevinIvan Tolic
The third of the famed "Split Trio" to arrive in Evanston, Ivan Tolic quickly distinguished himself as a player capable of sitting on the bench for long periods of time without any ill effects. He achieved DNP status
for his first season due to injuries (a feat that he would repeat in his junior season). After that he went on to average a solid 9.1 minutes 1.6 points 1.3 rebounds per game for his career.
Tolic is really noteworthy for his staying power (5 seasons at the U) and a total inability to stay on the court (both a serious lack of basketball skills and old man knees contributed to this). Ivan will always have a special place in our hearts as a true gentle giant. Doubtless the Cats will miss his front court play next season (only the 3rd of the decade that Tolic was not on the team for)
..sethSaturday, 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".
..sethThomas Soltau
Part of Coach Carmody's international movement, Thomas "the Danish Sensation" Soltau, is proof that European basketball has not come as far as some of us would like to believe. Soltau's career is really only distinguised by is length.
Feeling that he had nothing left to learn in the Big Ten, Soltau made "the leap" to pro ball (in Denmark) after his sophomore season. Amazingly, other Wildcat players (TJ Parker) would later follow his lead.
Who could blame him really. He showed he could dominate over here (8 games 26 minutes) so what was left to prove?
The pressure of cracking the rotation with inside forces like Aaron Jennings and Ivan Tolic (profiled later) probably hurt him as well. Thomas looks very happy in the included picture, so we are happy for him.
..sethFriday, March 02, 2007
Jimmy Maley
We are excited to introduce a new section of the blog, highighting the glorious careers of some of our recent recruits. To that end:
Jimmy Maley's NU career was so bright and blinding most people never layed eyes on it. A tadpole of a Freshman, Maley averaged 4.6 points and 1.8 rebounds in 20 minutes per game. He played in 21 of theCats' 24 games in the 02-03 season before he suddenly quit. Why did he quit the team? He lost passion for the game. I guess a half-season in Evanston can do that even to the best.
We have included the only picture of Jimmy that google image search returns. You would think there would be at least one action shot in there, but I guess people didn't realize they would only have such a short time to get a photo.
Kevin