So, tonight, there's some weird/awesome basketball exhibition going on at SPAC, being billed as like a "Midnight Madness" type of deal, except it's at 5:30 PM. I'm probably not going, because it's an hour and a half before a Kid Cudi/Snoop Dogg twin bill. But as an NU sports blogger, I feel the need to preview it.
Dunk Contest: Lots of people will say John Shurna is the likely winner, and he is a good dunker - he won a high school dunk contest, he can dunk effortlessly, and he's relatively athletic. But it would be hard for me to pick anybody besides Drew Crawford - he's the most athletic player on the team, he's got all types of ups, and frequently dunks in games, and when he does, he uses a legit amount of force. Sleepers: Jershon Cobb, Jeff Ryan.
3-point shootout: I've seen conflicting reports as to whether they're having a 3-point shootout, but if there is, my money's on Juice Thompson. Alex Marcotullio might be our team 3-point specialist, but he's still not the spot-up shooter Juice is. Shurna can give anybody a run for their money when he's shooting well, but Crawford is a bit too inconsistent of a shooter at this point in his career. Super-sleeper: Luka Mirkovic.
NU basketball player whose career arc and style most remind me of Kid Cudi: Jershon Cobb. He's relatively new, and I haven't seen him do anything particularly good yet. He's supposedly a rapper, but I've never actually heard him rap before, because he generally just sings stuff in a rappy tone. But he sounds really, really cool and epic, so, I'm down to go to his concert.
NU basketball player whose career arc and style most remind me of Snoop Dogg: Jeff Ryan. First off, it's hilarious that I'm writing something comparing this guy to this guy. The thing about Jeff is, he came in with a different group of guys, and right now seems kind of oddly out of place amongst a newer wave of players. But the weird thing is, with NU's chances for success this year dependent on somebody's veteran leadership, and Snoop Dogg doing features with Katy Perry, both of them are oddly more relevant than ever. Much like Snoop Dogg, who used to be good at rapping but now just kind of shows up on other people's tracks and whispers stuff, Ryan used to be an important figure in NU's offense, but now simply doesn't need to be - we'll use him for his defensive talent and aforementioned experienced running the offense/defense.
