Fred Brown just passed the ball to James Worthy!
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – It’s warm and sunny (seriously) here in scenic North Jersey, as we enter the exciting between-games press conference day. As has been the case for much of the week, Reyshawn Terry’s health remains a big topic of discussion. He likely won’t start again Sunday against Georgetown (5:05 p.m., CBS), but he’s working his way back into playing shape after battling strep throat. Terry wasn’t able to eat for six days, getting his first real meal Thursday. As a result, the senior forward lost about 10 pounds. “I’ve never been this sick before ever, to the point where I lost so much weight,” Terry said. But he claims he hasn’t lost any strength. “Naw, I did some pushups yesterday and I still had it,” he said.
Terry clearly was winded last night against USC, but still put up an incredibly efficient nine points in five minutes. Yet, of course, Roy Williams still had to chide the senior for a poor defensive play. “It affected his brain, too, because one time he’s complaining at the official about getting fouled when he missed the jump shot from the far corner in front of our bench while his guy was scoring at the other end,” Williams said. “His tank was out and I emptied it when he did that because I brought his tail over to sit with me the rest of the night.”
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In other news, if you too the over in the “How many times will the 1982 national championship game be mentioned” pool, you would be in the money. The actual total was nine bazillion times that game was brought up – even though not a single player on either team was alive when it happened. Ol’ Roy was happy to oblige with stories about Michael and James and Coach Smith, but even he was getting kind of irritated with the fixation on a game that had no bearing on tomorrow’s contest. “You guys are really playing this rematch up really big,” Williams said after the fifth 1982 question. “I thought it was this year’s teams, North Carolina against Georgetown.” Alas, for the history buffs that read the blog, you should know that Williams kept a Snickers bar in his pocket for good luck during the Tournament, that Smith stayed remarkably calm in the closing minutes, and none of the Carolina players know anything about the game or that season other than Michael Jordan hitting a fairly significant 17-footer.
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One more humorous note, Wes Miller – at the ripe old age of 24 – gets a lot of ribbing for being the old man on the team. And there are times when he really feels that way. Take it away, Wes:
“In the summer, the freshman just arrived, and I walked into the locker room and I see Alex Stepheson sitting there with a Batman backpack on. And I asked him if that was a joke and he said, ‘No, I’m dead serious. I love Batman.’ I had to pause for a second, and I still thought he was joking. And after I saw him wear it for the next like three or four days in a row I think I realized he was dead serious, that he idolized Batman. And I realized that maybe I’m a little too old for this.”
So there you have it, Alex Stepheson references in consecutive blog posts, even though he has played a grand total of one minute in the Dirty Jerz so far. That’s all for now, stay tuned for Briana’s breakdown of the Georgetown game and I’ll check in tomorrow.
-Daniel Malloy