Best Unknown Player in America
 

A few years ago, I had heard about a guy from back in my hometown of Memphis that people were saying was pretty good. I saw him play a couple of times at a gym and the dude has some skills. He disappeared for a while but now he's back on the scene. Kind of. He's playing at Tennessee-Martin. Not exactly a powerhouse but don't let the level of competition fool you. Lester Hudson is a serious player. Right now, he's third in the country in scoring at 25.8 a game. He's also averaging 7.8 boards and 4.4 assists a night. He's a 6'3", 190 lb guard. Yes, a 6'3" guard getting 7.8 boards a game. He's had one QUADRUPLE-DOUBLE this year and another triple-double. Check out this breakdown of his numbers:

Games over 25 points-19
Games over 6 boards-22
Games over 6 assists-9

He's had nine games where he went for at least 20-5-5. He's very versatile. I want to say he reminds me of Lafayette Lever but with more scoring ability. And again, don't let the level of competition fool you. He's played four games (all on the road) against major college competition:

35-10-1 against Memphis.....that was his FIRST college game.
27-11-4 against Mississippi St.
26-11-2 against UNLV
36-9-6 against Vanderbilt

That's 31.0 points, 10.3 boards, 3.3 assists. He shot 44% from the field in those four games, 45% on three's. Especially impressive is the fact that he averaged 4.3 OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS in those games. Not bad for a 6'3" guard. That shows what kind of athlete this guy is. Some team is going to take a shot on him in the NBA and I don't think they'll regret it.

Damn...I thought for sure you were gonna say Seattle AllStar:rolleyes:

They just ran a story on this guy on ESPN.COM. I think it is better than he got his head screwed on straight and decided to make the grades. He is a good talent and hope he gets a shot in the NBA.

Jason Thompson from Rider is another that will be NBA bound that most people have never heard of. He's 6'11 250 and averaging 20.3 PPG, and 11.7 RPG along with about 3 blocks and assists per game. He's had three 20-20 games this year. Against the three major conference schools he played he went:

24-15 against NC St
21-10 against Penn St
24-7 against Kansas St

I saw them play twice. The one I was more impressed with is his brother Ryan. The thing that worries me about Jason is that I'm not sure how athletic he is. His numbers against the better teams show one thing but watching him play, I kind of get the sense that he's doing it because he's just physically dominant. For example, in his league, there are three guys averaging over 8.0 boards a game. Besides, him, the other two are 6'4 and 6'7. I'd like to see him exposed more to playing people his size. He's worth taking a shot on though.

Yeah, athleticism is certainly a concern but you know any big frame with some talent is going to be given a chance at the next level. For what it is worth Robin Lopez only managed 8 points and 11 boards in 35 minutes against Siena. In Thompson's two games against Siena he went 23-21 and 26-24 so if nothing else he's better than that giant stiff masquerading as a basketball player for Stanford.

Thompson's brother is a nice player but won't be NBA bound.

I don't like either of the Lopez brothers. Robin is especially horrible.