Malcolm Mea Culpa, Pt. 2
After watching SDSU get handled by the BYU Jimmers, I had to jump on the blog to give UCLA guard Malcolm Lee some more credit.
A few weeks back, I tore Lee to shreds because of his lack of scoring earlier this year, going as far as saying I thought Lee should lighten up a bit on defense.
Boy was I wrong.
I just saw Jimmer Fredette absolutely shred the Aztecs for 43 points on 14-of-24 shooting, 5-of-8 on threes and 10-of-11 free throws. This was his third 40-point game in his last four.
In UCLA's 86-79 win over the Jimmers - the Jimmers lone loss of the season - Lee held Fredette to 25 points and seven turnovers, including 17 points in the last 35 minutes (thanks to ultra-twitterer TheMightyBruins for that stat).
Lee has kept it up, shutting down Washington State's Jared Cunningham, Cal's Allen Crabbe and Stanford's Jeremy Green in recent games.
He deserved better from me, and I was wrong.
Man wasn't that a great show that Jimmer put on? After the first 5 minutes of the second half I was convinced he was gonna put up 60.
Guess I haven't appreciated him enough either!Good job Lee!
Not many reporters are willing to go back and admit stuff like this.... thanks for your hard work Jon.
+1 Jon!
Jon, stellar... refreshing to hear, especially in the city with the likes of a certain somebody with the initials TJS.
Jon that was seriously awesome...
You earned my respect. Good stuff Jon.
Graceful turn, Jon. You're a brick.
Lee is fine when all he does is try to deny the opposing player the ball - -and act much like a mosquito...but when he has to play face-to-face, he gets beat badly nearly every time (think layup unless another player helps out). He can't defend like Collison, Westbrook, and other guards we've had. I appreciate his hard work, but I don't think it's an understatement to call him an average on-ball defender. Just watch him this next game and see what I mean. Statistically, it's meaningful to disrupt the flow of the best opposing guard - -sometimes it can crush their spirit and frustrate them to the point that they check out - -and it does usually lead them to have an average to poor game. But let's not go overboard and call him a "lock-down defender" - -he's not, and that terminology should be reserved for those exceptional players that truly are.
He is not a "loc-kdown defender" at all which is exactly why Ben Howland who is currently the UCLA head coach called Malcolm Lee "the best defensive wing in the country" last week.
While I was cheering along with my SDSU son I was wondering how UCLA beat BYU. So now I know that Lee was a huge contributor to that. Thank you, Jon.
(Your site still won't let me log in...ggreenacre.)