It has to be said. And if Dickey V won’t say it, I will. J.J. Redick is overrated. I know that Redick is not only the frontrunner for the 2006 Naismith Player of the Year Award, but he is also Duke’s and the ACC’s all-time leading scorer and has made more 3-pointers than any player in the history of the NCAA.
Records don’t lie-Redick truly is a talented basketball player. But is he as good as people think he is? Well, no.
Just as there are some players in the world of sports that you know are going to be money when it matters most (see Brady, Tom; and Jeter, Derek), there are others that you know will buckle under the pressure, disappearing into the shadows when their teams need them to be in the spotlight (see Manning, Peyton; and Rodriguez, Alex). So which one is Redick? You tell me.
Redick’s season and collegiate career came to an end following Duke’s 62-54 loss to LSU in the Sweet 16 last Thursday. Redick, who averaged nearly 27 points this season, could only muster 11 points on 3-18 shooting (including 0-9 from inside the arc) to go along with his four turnovers.
Anyone can have a bad game, but Redick has been doing this since he was a freshman; the bigger the game, the worse he plays. Look at his performances in Duke’s season-ending losses since his arrival there: During his freshman year in 2003, Redick scored five points on 2-16 shooting (good enough for a field-goal percentage of 12.5), including 1-11 from three-point range; in 2004, with a trip to the NCAA Championship Game at stake, Redick scored 15 points on 4-12 shooting against eventual national champions, Connecticut; and finally, in last year’s Sweet 16 loss to Michigan State, Redick scored 13 points on 4-14 shooting. In the last three season-ending losses of his career (to Connecticut, MSU and LSU), Redick, whom many analysts are calling the greatest shooter they have ever seen at the college level, connected on just three of nine three-point field-goal attempts in each game. At least he was consistent.
I know what you’re thinking-surely the regular season has to count for something. I’ll admit that Redick had four solid-if not stellar-regular seasons at Duke. However, in his first six games against UNC, Duke’s biggest rival, Redick shot 35 percent from the field, and never broke the 20-point barrier until his senior season. Redick silenced some of his critics after pouring in 35 points against the Tar Heels on the road earlier this season. But after finally having his break-out game, Redick returned to his normal self on Senior Night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, scoring 18 points on 5-21 shooting (2-10 from beyond the arc), as Duke lost to UNC 83-76.
Still, there are those who think Redick is deserving of the Naismith Award, an honor given to the best player in the country, all while J.J. isn’t even the best player on his team. Believe it or not, the most underrated and least talked about player in all of college basketball is a First-Team All-American, Shelden Williams. In addition to being Duke’s second-leading scorer, at just under 19 points per game this season, Williams led the Blue Devils in rebounds, blocks and steals. Yet the average fan knows neither how productive nor how undeniably vital Shelden Williams really was to Duke this year, which is due in no small part to Redick stealing much of the spotlight.
Williams provided a guard-heavy Duke squad with its lone legitimate post-presence (and no, Josh McRoberts and Lee Melchionni are not legitimate big men). Duke’s second-leading rebounder, McRoberts, averaged fewer than half as many rebounds as Williams (5.3 per game compared to 10.7). Without Redick, Duke still would have been a competitive team, for they possessed a plethora of players capable of having an impact on the perimeter. Without Williams, however, Duke would have struggled to win 20 games this season.
With Redick unable to find his shot against LSU, Williams scored 23 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked four shots. Yet instead of continuing to pound the ball inside with the game on the line (which Duke should have been doing all season), Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was content in letting Redick fight through three screens and come off curls to shoot off-balance fade-away shots 25 feet from the basket. Not surprisingly, Duke lost.
I respect Coach K and Duke’s program, and the fact that Redick stayed in college for four years-which has become an anachronism in college basketball. And while Redick has had a wonderful career and senior season overall, he is still not worthy of being called the best player in America. Redick is a great shooter, but he is not a great player, in the sense that he does not make his teammates better.
Many analysts and fans of the game fail to realize that there is more to basketball than just shooting. And if you’re a shooter and your shot isn’t falling, then, well, what are you? In J.J. Redick’s case, you’re overrated.
