The King of the Preseason

Every year I have to tell myself not to get too excited about preseason games, to focus on individual efforts as opposed to just statistics. Of course, it can be easy to lose perspective sometimes, when the Bills are putting up eye-popping numbers against Division II and NAIA opponents. Heck, even the offensively-challenged squads of the Brad Soderberg regime used to occasionally drop 80-90 points on the opposition back in the day.

So, while I was fairly impressed with the play of new Billiken PF Barry Eberhardt vs. UMSL on Friday night (12 points, 5 rebounds), all I could think of was Vashun Newborne, king of the preseason. In four preseason games at SLU, Newborne put up the following drool-inducing figures:

11/6/04 vs. UMSL - 14 points
11/13/04 vs. Truman State - 14 points, 8 rebounds
11/9/05 vs. UMSL - 10 points
11/14/05 vs. Maryville - 10 points, 4 rebounds

How nice would it have been to have a PF with numbers like that in the regular season?

And of course, who can forget the play of Obi Ikeakor:

11/3/06 vs. UMSL - 9 points, 4 rebounds
11/8/06 vs. Harris Stowe - 10 points, 4 rebounds

Let's hope that Eberhardt turns out to be the real deal.