I know what you're expecting; you think I'm going to say the most exciting player in college basketball is some guy with a 44-inch vertical leap who spends most nights going to bed thinking about breaking backboards.
You're wrong.
Diana Taurasi is a fine player, a fine women's player. That is where the line is drawn on this one. While Taurasi makes the game likeable on the women's side - something which is commendable in it's own right considering it's usual lack of publicity - Saint Joseph's point guard Jameer Nelson makes the game exciting.
Nelson is a mere 6-feet, 190 pounds but stuffs the stat sheet like the true on-court giant he is. Nelson can dazzle with his passing, just see his 5.1 assists per game. He'll create fast break opportunities for his teammates, just check out his steal total of nearly four per game.
And of course with the game on the line, Nelson will break you down and put it in the bucket with his 20.3 points per game. He can score with the best of them, his three 30-plus point games last season proved it.
Here's a question to ponder, whose team has not lost a game this season and has knocked off the No. 12 team in the land as well as teams from the Big East and Pac-10? That would be Nelson.
You want exciting Mr. Cottrill? How about the first game of the year, Nelson goes one-on-one with Blake Stepp, another in a long line of great Gonzaga guards, and ate his lunch.
So here's your invitation, you want to see the most exciting player in the country? Just watch ESPN at 2 p.m., Saturday. Catch him now - he'll be breaking ankles in the NBA next season.
One-woman sets tone for college gameI'm going to go with a basketball player that is so obvious that Mr.Littmann, our basketball writer and resident expert, must have thought her too easy to use: Diana Taurasi is the most exciting player in college basketball.
Don't believe me? Ask Sports Illustrated. When the magazine surveyed the citizens of Connecticut for the best players to have ever lived or played in their state, Taurasi ranked No.3 all time, ahead of both Gordie Howe and Steve Young.
Answer me this, who amongst the ranks of men's basketball is worthy of such a great honor? I mean Howe, the guy played professional hockey for what, 82 years? And Taurasi has eclipsed him in less than four years of college ball.
What's more, what other college basketball star has more of an impact on his or her sport? Men's college basketball is full of one-year hype guys. They win some games, get a little media coverage and the next year they are in the NBA, then they either go Carmelo, or they go, well they don't go anywhere.
But Taurasi has set up a dynasty at the University of Connecticut. Did you notice that the Huskies lost to Notre Dame on Tuesday night? Of course you did, because Taurasi gets the team lead stories every night.
One last quiz for my fellow sexist sports fans out there: name one women's college basketball player besides Taurasi. You don't know one do you? (and you can't say Yao Ming, the Rockets are a pro team). But you know Taurasi, she stands out like a healthy player on the Lakers.
So when all the other basketball clips come on in a jaded blur of dunks and NBA lottery talk, notice that the only player who you really want to watch is Diana Taurasi.
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Chris Littmann
