Missing: OSU basketball players
Published: 12/27/2009 4:36 PM
Last Modified: 12/27/2009 4:36 PM
Where are all the OSU basketball players?
That's a question people are asking today as they scan -- and comment on -- all-decade lists published in Sunday's sports section.
The sports staff voted on all sorts of all-decade lists and came up with a list of best OSU athletes, best TU athletes, best OU athletes, best ORU athletes, etc.
No basketball players -- zero -- made the OSU's all-decade list. How can that be?
Here's what I think happened: The basketball players all sort of had the same resume, so they ended up stealing votes from each other and neutralizing each other's candidacy.
There were several basketball players on the initial ballot. Desmond Mason, Tony Allen, John Lucas and Joey Graham all made some sort of All-America team while playing for the Cowboys. Mason came within a sniff of the Final Four and the others all played a Final Four game. Mason, Allen and Graham were first-round NBA draft picks.
Who was better? Ask your friends and see if there is such a thing as a consensus answer. Good luck with that one, because you could debate it until the snow melts.
If any of the basketball players had clearly separated themselves from the pack, one of them would surely have made the all-decade list, especially since voters are probably skewed toward the "big two" sports of football and men's basketball. But that didn't happen and they failed to make the cut amid a field of candidates that included NCAA wrestling champions and three national players of the year in golf.
On my initial ballot, six of the 10 spots were "hogged" by wrestlers and golfers. That left four sports for everyone else in every other sport.
In hindsight, I wish I had thrown my support behind a basketball player. Which one? Andrea Riley. She didn't make it either. Tough crowd.
--Jimmie Tramel.
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
