Guards deserve respect

You won't find much love for the true point guards on the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament's all-tournament team.

In fact, you found very few of them on the ballot, despite several standout performances.

"Point guards are the most underestimated people," said Jackson shooting guard Jake Leet, who assisted backcourt mate Marcus Harris against Notre Dame's press in the tournament's championship game. "Point guards have one of the hardest jobs. They have to bring the ball up, and people don't remember the 30 times they brought the ball up with no turnovers. They just remember the two or three times they turn it over."

Leet, who scored 31 points in the title game, a 61-53 victory for the Indians against rival Notre Dame, made the all-tournament team. But he would not have had as many chances if Harris had been overwhelmed by the pressure defense.

It happens.

And contests quickly become blowouts.

Ask anyone who played Scott County Central and tried to throw a pass past all-tourney selection D.D. Gillespie this week. Well, just about anyone.

Notre Dame's Nick Koeppel, John Unterreiner and Mark Himmelberg steered through the Braves' press well enough to hand the ball on a silver platter several times to Austin Greer, who had a game-high 23 points. Greer made the all-tournament team.

But he said after the 68-60 quarterfinal win against the Braves that the guards were key.

So did Notre Dame coach Paul Hale. "You have to have good guard play to be successful," he said. "You have to be able bring it up the floor against pressure and get it to the people who can score."

With 6 foot 8 Ryan Willen scoring 40 in Notre Dame's 70-67 semifinal win against Charleston, the Bulldogs guards definitely put it in the hands of the player who can score. Willen, of course, made the all-tournament team.

Notre Dame, the No. 5 seed, reached the final despite missing one of its starting guards -- senior Ty Williams.

Koeppel stepped in and delivered clutch performances all week. He capped it with 10 points in the championship game, his best scoring outing of the four days.

"He stepped up and took a bigger role than he had before," Hale said. "With Ty out, everyone has had to step up and play bigger roles and longer roles."

Hale said he was "pleasantly surprised" by Notre Dame's ability to handle Scott County's and Charleston's pressure on back to back nights.

Someone else was surprised as well.

"I was surprised," Charleston coach Danny Farmer said. "We thought our pressure would win the game for us."

It didn't, thanks in large part to Koeppel, who wasn't on the all-tournament team. In fact, he wasn't on the ballot.

But he was in good company among point guards.

Charleston's Antonio Riggens wasn't on the list, and he capped his tournament with 21 points against Cape Central. Riggens spent the rest of the week distributing the ball to Donald Dixon, who was on the all-tournament team, and Brian Parham. That's just one of the many things Riggens does well.

"He's probably one of the best defensive players in the area," Farmer said. "He also can score for us when we need him to, which he showed tonight and I'd like him to do it more often. He's definitely one of the best players in the area."

But not on the all-tournament team.

And, in the end, there's something that matters more.

It's not points.

Harris had only three of those Saturday night, but it was a big 3-pointer at the end of the third period to give Jackson a five-point lead.

"Most of my job out there is getting these other guys great shots," said Harris, who fed all-tourney player Hunter Grantham as well as Leet. "Every once in a while, they'll catch on to that and start doubling down on them and I'll get open, and I'll take the shot. If I take them, I want to make them. I was just fortunate enough to get that one to fall."

It helped the Indians claim the championship for the first time since 2004, which was coach Darrin Scott's first season at Jackson after coming over from Notre Dame, and end a two-year championship game losing streak since.

"For me," Harris said, "respect is winning. It's the same thing for football or any other sport. As long as we're getting those points on the board and winning, it's fine with me."

Spoken like a true point guard.

Toby Carrig is editor of semoball.com