I want to start off by saying that I appreciate everyone who reads my articles and spreads the word about my writing. That’s why I’m not sure if I’m the reason to blame or if everybody else is just dumb.
I’ve often loved college basketball for the Cinderella stories; stories of players that aren’t tall, or players that aren’t major recruits that destroy the college ranks. It’s very rare to find career collegiate players that play for a school for four years and then try to make it in the NBA. That’s why I’m so frustrated. We have two players, count ’em, TWO extremely good career college basketball players that most of America doesn’t know about.
Chris Clemons
First, we have Chris Clemons. A 5 foot 9 inch Senior at Campbell University. Tucked away 45 minutes south of Raleigh, Buies Creek, North Carolina has a population that is just about as small as Clemons is tall. There are only 3,000 people there. Technically, at the 2010 census, 2,942 people lived there. This is significant because Gore Arena/John W. Pope Jr. Convention Center holds 3,095 seats. There is only one level to the place and it does mention that for graduation at the university it can hold 4,000.
Why the numbers?
Alright, alright, I know those seem to be random numbers, but let me tell you, it’s all relevant. The relevancy of the numbers stems from the fact that on the road Saturday against Presbyterian, Clemons became just the 9th player to ever reach the 3,000 point mark for a career.
So yes, Clemons has more points than people in his town. He has a total of 3,033, which is more than the “Big O” Oscar Robertson had for Cincinnati in the late 50’s. Clemons sits at 8th all-time. With three games left in the regular season and conference tournament guaranteed at least one, Clemons will be somewhere around 5th all-time if he sticks to scoring his average. We haven’t seen this kind of career since Doug McDermott, aka Dougie McBuckets, in his Creighton days. By the end of the season, I’d bet Clemons ends up a few points better than McDermott.
What’s to come?
The Fighting Camels of Campbell have three Big South conference games remaining. Currently sitting at 2nd in the Big South standings, Clemons might have to continue leading the nation in scoring by averaging 29.7 points per game to help the Fighting Camels to a regular season title. It may seem incredible that Clemons is very close to averaging 30 points a night, but the fact that the next leading scorer behind him averages 3.2 points LESS than him is the icing on the cake.
Mike Daum
Better known as “The Dauminator”, Mike Daum has been dominating the Summit League for four years now. The Kimball, Nebraska native has been a star for the Jackrabbits. Unfortunately, Daum won’t be scoring more points than amount of people that populate lovely Brookings, South Dakota.
Incredible Career
Over the course of his career, Daum has played in 133 games. On Thursday night, he played arguably his best. Playing IPFW at home, Daum dropped 38 points, 20 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 blocks, and 3 steals. He joined Blake Griffin and Chris Kaman as the only players to have multiple 30 point, 20 rebound performances in Division I. For his career, Daum averages 22 and 9 boards with a 50% field goal percentage. He’s also been named Summit League Player of the Year in consecutive years and the award is already wrapped up for a 3rd straight season.
Chase for 3K
The Dauminator has racked up 2,981 points. All he needs is a cool 19 to be the 10th player to reach 3,000 for a career. It will be interesting to see if Daum reaches that benchmark on Saturday when the Jackrabbits host South Dakota who held him to just four points earlier in the season. Even if he doesn’t reach 3K on Saturday, he’ll have March 2nd, the final regular season game, to host Western Illinois and complete another chapter in his incredible career.
What We Are Witnessing
As I eluded to in the beginning, I want to reiterate what this season has brought to college basketball. We have generational talents in guys like Zion Williamson stepping on the court every night continuing the “One and Done Era”. The media eats up the young man with such fantastic abilities, but forgets that there are fantastic players all over the country. What makes basketball, especially at the collegiate level, is that you never know who or where the next stud is going to come from. For example, we have TWO incredible talents that are carving their names into college basketball history that are hardly known. No era has seen such great basketball being played period, let alone by 18 year-olds who play one season and 4 year starters who may never get the full recognition they deserve.
