University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Mistake Of The Head...And The Heart
1/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, January 20, 2010, 10:54 a.m.
Attention Calvin Watson fans. The following may disturb and disgust you. Stephen Howard made a mistake of the head and the heart when it comes to his rankings of the top 10 athletes of the decade when he put Watson ahead of Chris Davis.
First off, I'm biased, I went to school here when Davis was a player and started working here when Davis was still playing so he is and still is one of my favorite players of all-time.
However the argument that Mr. Howard uses as proof that Watson should be higher than Davis is the fact that Watson's team went to the NCAA tournament in 2007 and he hit more "clutch" shots is flimsy.
We are talking top 10 athletes of the decade, which means longevity, achievements, accomplishments, and lasting legacies. Davis, playing in only three years of the decade, far outreaches anything Watson did.
Punishing Davis because of the teams he was part of shouldn't be factored into the equation at all. Davis was a stomach virus away from being the all-time leading scorer in North Texas history. His three seasons in the decade saw him average 18, 22.5, and 19 points a game. Watson had 1,253 points in his FOUR years at NT. Davis had 1,147 points in his junior and senior seasons.
Watson's first three seasons, average to slightly above average. He averaged right at 10 points a game. Davis? How about over 20 points a game.
Davis had two first-team all SBC honors in the decade. The best accolade in the regular season that Watson could muster was a third-team all-conference selection his senior year. Big West Freshman of the Year in 1999-00 for Davis. Watson's freshman season? He played in only 17 games.
Across the board Davis outperforms Watson in nearly every major statistical category. Davis was the only thing keeping NT basketball from the total obscurity. He gave the Mean Green headlines when all it deserved was Page 10.
The one area that Davis can't measure up in is wins and results. Should that be blamed on Davis? No sir. You wouldn't find a harder working individual on a worse set of teams than CD.
Now that I've sufficiently run down Watson, it's time to build him back up. He was one of the purest shooters that I've ever seen in my life. His jump shot, one of the best in my lifetime at North Texas. When the Mean Green needed a big-time shot in 2006-07? Watson was there.
He didn't just surface that year either, he was building towards it but his legacy is going to be with that NCAA tournament team.
His performance against Ark. State in the title game had me thinking he was going to be a lottery pick come June in the NBA draft. Flat out amazing.
But was he the reason why North Texas went to tournament? No. That was a collection of great players. Was his impact more in that one season than Davis had in his three years in the decade? No.
Davis entered the NT Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Watson more than likely will be a candidate, but faces an uphill battle in my opinion.
Guys like Calvin Watson come along to basketball programs once every decade.
Guys like Davis come along to programs once every generation.
That's a ranking nobody can argue.
