Originally Posted by
Cameron
DJ Augustin, Darren Collison, Sean Singletary, Ty Lawson (when healthy), AJ Graves, Tyrese Rice, etc. all come to mind as more talented point guards. And, call me biased, but I'd put Paulus on the above list as well (he may have been outshined in the assists department when Duke and Davidson met last year, but Greg pulled his team out on top). This is all very subjective, however, as different people point toward different reasoning when arguing point guard greatness.
That said, a player who leads the nation in a statistical category relating to a specific position does not automatically make said player the best at what he does. Any educated basketball fan understands this. One explanation for his explosion of assists could just be that he played with perhaps the best shooter in all of the college game, benefiting statistically much like our own Greg Paulus did his freshman year in Durham with JJ Redick roaming the three-point arc. Just because Rahim Rahim from Providence (fictional athlete) leads the country in rebounds or shot blocks during a season when his team reaches the Elite Eight, he's not automatically the best center as a result.
Now, I know that Stephon Curry is not the only reason for Richards' numbers a season ago. First and foremost, he was a gamer, the type of player that would bring it each and every night. Very solid. And, as you pointed out, he was a part of an Elite Eight team. One has to be a special, special lead man to direct his club through three victories in the Dance, and just one shy of the Final Four.
It my opinion, however, that he was far from the nation's best. If you want a prime example of this, watch his performance against Kansas in the regional finals. Even though he recorded his usual assist numbers to the Wildcats' perimeter gunners, his overall floor game was nothing but average and his decision making, in regards to shooting, overly erratic. This was noted by many pundits, too.
Simply put, his all-around polish was not the best the country had to offer. It's about more than just assists or advancing to the Elite Eight. If we're basing it off team success, for example, then Russell Robinson is number one.
I'd be confident in placing Richards' as top ten point in 2007-08, however. There is no doubt about that. Just not number one.