During the past two years, I have questioned the meaning of 1,000 career points, saying that the milestone has lost some of the significance as more and more players see four years of varsity action. For a while, it seemed as if some local hoopster was scoring their 1,000th career point in girls or boys basketball every other day.
A little less than halfway into this season, I've come to reconsider my stance on this argument.
Perhaps the frequency of 1,000 points over the past two seasons had more to do with the number of outstanding players in the area, and not with the number itself.
The past two seasons were a golden age of talent not expected again for a long time. With less players reaching 1,000, the number again seems high enough to warrant attention.
Pingry's Katie Occhipinti and Governor Livingston's Lauren Munick are the only two local girls to reach 1,000 this season and both were three-year stars for their team expected to hit 1,000.
I know this is a debate we had on this blog last season and we don't need to rehash old material, but since I am changing my mind, I'm wondering if the decrease in 1,000 point scores has made any of you reconsider your opinion on its meaning.
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3 comments:
1000 points is still a huge accomplishment for any boy or girl player. I agree that maybe there was some exceptional talent out there the past few years and that's why there were more players achieving it. To me, it's still an awesome accomplishment.
I agree that 1000 points is a HUGE accomplishment. If you look at the math, in order to reach 1000 points by the end of one's senior year, and if she starts playing on the varsity her freshman year, she will need to score 10 points a game (estimating ~25 games/season * 4 seasons) = 1000. Many of the girls scoring a 1000 points, however, didn't start playing varsity full-time until after their first year, especially girls on bigger schools. And I agree with the above poster that last year's class was simply exceptional, especially in our area.
Moving on, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the Somerset County Tournament seeding (chosen sometime next week, correct?). Should be an exciting tourney - the county looks wide open!
The two girls who you mention that have scored 1000 points are on very weak teams, with bad programs traditionally.
Does that make their 1,000 point record more or less meaningful?
Don't know the answer, but stumbled across your blog after seeing a mention of your work on Jerry C's blog, so I thought I would ask this question.
I am a purist, and don't think scoring 1,000 points is that big a deal:
1> It is a TEAM game,
2> The three point shot + poor defense in this part of NJ makes the scoring level inflated.
Keep up the good work.
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