The Sports Guy Bill Simmons gave me an idea after reading his mailbag. One fan asked why America hates J.J. Redick.  Simmon’s funny response reminded how a number of the standout players in college basketball are white players.  So here are a few observations.

All the good white players are also on ranked teams that get a lot of television time:
#2 Duke with J.J. Redick, Simmons says J.J. is hated because he has a silly first name that people make fun of, such as B.J., Chipper, and Christain.  It’s not entirely his fault, as a lot of fans just hate Duke.  Coach K recruits a lot of players that have a clean cut image and have some resemblance to bad guy Johnny from Karate Kid.  Redick just broke the all-time Duke scoring record, so congratulations on two records in one week.

#4 Villanova with point guard Mike Nardi.  Villanova is known for their 4-guard attack, and a guy with a backwards name in Allan Ray.  People will continue to ask if he will end up as good as Ray Allen?  Nardi reminds me a little bit of Jason Williams, the other thugged-out looking white point guard with the horrible nickname of “White Chocolate”.

#5 Gonzaga with Adam Morrison, aka Larry Bird Jr. plus mustache.  All fans like watching the score tracker and seeing how many points Morrison just dropped.  His latest performance was 44 points, 37 in the second half.  The regular season has a nice scoring champ race between Morrison and Redick.

#11 West Virginia with Kevin Pittsnogle and Mike Gansey.  Everyone likes watching the oddity of a big man shooting three pointers ala Bill Laimbeer.

#23 North Carolina with possible freshman of the year Tyler Hansbrough, who also dropped a 40 point game is looking like a tough big man in the post.  When North Carolina won the NCAA tournament last year, analysts kept mentioning they will reload with a strong freshman class.  At first I was shocked to see Hansbrough, a rugged, strong, white post player.  I was expecting a Vince Carter high-flying athletic type, or a Marvin Williams everyone raves about him but he doesn’t really do much type, both whom didn’t show as much (in North Carolina) as the hype suggested.  I’m just waiting for the Hansbrough/Raef Lafrentz comparisons and jokes to appear.

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