Zam Fredrick A Day After
posted by David Cloninger, 1/22/2009 06:31:00 PM
---------- ELTON JOHN
I didn’t want to write it. I had to write it.
Zam Fredrick had just cost South Carolina a chance to win because he couldn’t hit a free throw. If he had hit it, the Gamecocks may still have lost – the game likely would have gone into overtime assuming Florida couldn’t find another shot in the 4.4 seconds that remained, and there’s no guarantee USC could have controlled the extra five minutes. Still, missing it didn’t do the Gamecocks any favors.
So when Fredrick bricked that free throw, I began typing, trying my hardest to control my cynical venom because of the sin of missing a free throw. I can roll out of bed and still hit 8-of-10 every morning. With a warmup, forget about it.
It was something along the lines of, “Zam Fredrick couldn’t find the hero’s touch one more time …” and then, right in front of me, Mike Holmes grabbed that rebound and threw a pass that Joe Montana would have envied.
What I remember seeing is Fredrick run in front of it and Florida’s Dan Werner completely toasted. Before I had a chance to think about all the things that could go wrong, Fredrick was in the air, the ball was off the turning-red glass and I said a few words my mother would really not be proud of.
Maybe it’s because I’ve just been around USC athletics far too long and have seen too many teams and individuals give up in crucial situations. Maybe I was just following my gut instinct and looking for The Worst Possible Situation, which has a branch office beside the Roundhouse.
Suddenly, the Gamecocks had taken another step toward respectability. And Fredrick, who I’ve chastised several times, was the guy that never gave up and made the big play.
I’ll be frank – before Wednesday, I liked Zam Fredrick as a person because he’s a great quote. I didn’t like him as a basketball player because I, raised on the fundamentals of the game and in a house where college hoops ruled all, was offended by the way he played the game.
He was a scorer, not a shooter. He’d average 17 points a game and take 30 shots doing it. Against Florida, he scored 15 on 5-of-15 shooting and was a paltry 3-of-8 from the free throw line. For the season, his field goal percentage is .414, the lowest figure on the team outside of Brandis Raley-Ross (.413), who missed six games, Branden Conrad (.323), who’s missed nine games and Robert Wilder (.250), who’s taken four shots all year.
Didn’t like his form, didn’t like how he’d shoot with a man six inches in front of him, didn’t like how he’d never look around for an open man. It was absolutely amazing to me that he could speak fluently about an assist, considering he hardly ever performed one.
When he hit the game-winner against Baylor, I was riding back from Tampa, Fla. I never saw the replay, I just read about it. I figured it was a case of even a blind squirrel finding a nut once in a while.
I held off discussing his deficiencies as long as I could. He hadn’t cost his team a game.
Until Wednesday, when that free throw clunked off the rim and sent yet another USC hope onto Green Day’s boulevard of broken dreams.
Ever had to change your opinion in 3.3 seconds? Then have to wrestle with it the entire next day?
I broke down that game, play-by-play, all day on Thursday, magnifying every time Fredrick had the ball in his hands. He took some bad shots, he made some bad decisions.
But through every bit of it, he tried his hardest and never gave up. He didn’t pout or whine or sit on the bench with his arms folded, glaring at his coaches when they tried to instruct him.
And at the end, when he should have been running for his life, he was running downcourt to produce one of the 10 best plays I’ve seen in a lifetime of college hoops. The guys who splice together “One Shining Moment” had better have that one on standby.
I finished the replay, surgically removed my foot from my mouth and started typing. I’m still not that impressed with Zam Fredrick’s form or fundamentals, but his heart and desire to win stand out, and that’s what this basketball team needs.
Just thought someone should apologize.
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“Sorry seems to be the hardest word.”
---------- ELTON JOHN
I didn’t want to write it. I had to write it.
Zam Fredrick had just cost South Carolina a chance to win because he couldn’t hit a free throw. If he had hit it, the Gamecocks may still have lost – the game likely would have gone into overtime assuming Florida couldn’t find another shot in the 4.4 seconds that remained, and there’s no guarantee USC could have controlled the extra five minutes. Still, missing it didn’t do the Gamecocks any favors.
So when Fredrick bricked that free throw, I began typing, trying my hardest to control my cynical venom because of the sin of missing a free throw. I can roll out of bed and still hit 8-of-10 every morning. With a warmup, forget about it.
It was something along the lines of, “Zam Fredrick couldn’t find the hero’s touch one more time …” and then, right in front of me, Mike Holmes grabbed that rebound and threw a pass that Joe Montana would have envied.
What I remember seeing is Fredrick run in front of it and Florida’s Dan Werner completely toasted. Before I had a chance to think about all the things that could go wrong, Fredrick was in the air, the ball was off the turning-red glass and I said a few words my mother would really not be proud of.
Maybe it’s because I’ve just been around USC athletics far too long and have seen too many teams and individuals give up in crucial situations. Maybe I was just following my gut instinct and looking for The Worst Possible Situation, which has a branch office beside the Roundhouse.
Suddenly, the Gamecocks had taken another step toward respectability. And Fredrick, who I’ve chastised several times, was the guy that never gave up and made the big play.
I’ll be frank – before Wednesday, I liked Zam Fredrick as a person because he’s a great quote. I didn’t like him as a basketball player because I, raised on the fundamentals of the game and in a house where college hoops ruled all, was offended by the way he played the game.
He was a scorer, not a shooter. He’d average 17 points a game and take 30 shots doing it. Against Florida, he scored 15 on 5-of-15 shooting and was a paltry 3-of-8 from the free throw line. For the season, his field goal percentage is .414, the lowest figure on the team outside of Brandis Raley-Ross (.413), who missed six games, Branden Conrad (.323), who’s missed nine games and Robert Wilder (.250), who’s taken four shots all year.
Didn’t like his form, didn’t like how he’d shoot with a man six inches in front of him, didn’t like how he’d never look around for an open man. It was absolutely amazing to me that he could speak fluently about an assist, considering he hardly ever performed one.
When he hit the game-winner against Baylor, I was riding back from Tampa, Fla. I never saw the replay, I just read about it. I figured it was a case of even a blind squirrel finding a nut once in a while.
I held off discussing his deficiencies as long as I could. He hadn’t cost his team a game.
Until Wednesday, when that free throw clunked off the rim and sent yet another USC hope onto Green Day’s boulevard of broken dreams.
Ever had to change your opinion in 3.3 seconds? Then have to wrestle with it the entire next day?
I broke down that game, play-by-play, all day on Thursday, magnifying every time Fredrick had the ball in his hands. He took some bad shots, he made some bad decisions.
But through every bit of it, he tried his hardest and never gave up. He didn’t pout or whine or sit on the bench with his arms folded, glaring at his coaches when they tried to instruct him.
And at the end, when he should have been running for his life, he was running downcourt to produce one of the 10 best plays I’ve seen in a lifetime of college hoops. The guys who splice together “One Shining Moment” had better have that one on standby.
I finished the replay, surgically removed my foot from my mouth and started typing. I’m still not that impressed with Zam Fredrick’s form or fundamentals, but his heart and desire to win stand out, and that’s what this basketball team needs.
Just thought someone should apologize.
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David Cloninger. David is a full-time staff writer for GamecockCentral, and covers Gamecock football, men's basketball, baseball and recruiting. He may be reached by email at david(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.