WYR: Markel & Jimmer

We used to play a little game in college we dotingly called “would you rather have Reggie Bush’s career or Rahaun Woods’ career or do you just want to go back to talking about whether or not Reggie Bush could juke a cheetah?” When we realized that would never work as a book title (or blog post title for that matter) we shortened it to WYR: [fill in polarizing athletes] and argued for hours on end. Thrilling stuff I know, my parents are on the phone with the bursar’s office right now showing them this script trying to get a refund for “lack of institutional control” I’m sure.

So let’s play a round or three, shall we? The first rule is that there aren’t really any defined rules. When I say would you rather have Desmond Mason’s 2000 season or Chase Budinger’s career you have to look at it from an Oklahoma State perspective (as it relates to OSU) but other than that no parameters exist. The answers are, essentially, whatever we want the questions to be. You have free reign to hammer me in the comments section. Enjoy.

Jimmer’s 2010-2011 season or the rest of Markel Brown’s career
I don’t like saying “this is tough” for two reasons. 1. Because I came up with these so to infer that my own ideas are “without equivalent” is a bit narcissistic. 2. Because that’s the nature of the game, they’re supposed to be tough.

That being said…this is tough.

Jimmer’s having a potential national player of the year-type season and doing it all while out-Chuck Norrising Tim Tebow with overly-hyperbolic vignettes abound. It’s hard to go against that. Who doesn’t want a short white kid who doesn’t play D and only cares about scoring, shooting, and winning. It’s like what would happen if Keiton ate Dwight Howard’s cape.

Markel, on the other hand, has a Kareem Rush-ish ceiling. Yes, I know he has a long way to go before we start comparing him to any of the Rush brothers but it’s there, you can see it. I’m not saying he’ll ever average 21 a game like Rush did as a Sophomore, only that we know that’s a best case scenario. Worst case? Terrel Harris 2.0

So because I like to think about what could be and the fact that it’s tough to beat three years of a Kareem Rush ceiling with any single season besides Durant’s Freshman year I’m going Markel by a sliver.

The rest of Reger Dowell’s career or Aaron Bruce’s career
This seems kind of like a no-brainer at first glance. Bruce averaged around 12 points a game for four years and Dowell is an unproven third-string point whose best game included a game-ending foul that sent BJ Holmes to the line and, eventually, into a fit of haughty braggadocio as he wagged a proverbial finger at the OSU student section in a one point win.

But I can’t shake the feeling there was just something about that A&M game for Dowell. Maybe it was the confidence he played with, as if he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to play like an All-American. Maybe it was when he tried to hammer on Khris Middleton for the win with 15 seconds left. Or maybe it was the swagger he carried – telling GIA “hey, I belong here, this is what I’m supposed to do, I’m your guy.”

I’ll say Bruce’s career but I’m not excited about it. Bruce didn’t do a whole lot that did excite me to tell you the truth.

Tony Allen’s career or LeBryan Nash’s career
The only reason I’m even putting this on here is the fact that Nash’s has a chance (albeit not a high one) of being longer than Allen’s, which only lasted two years. Those two years though, they were something special. I think we’re pretty quick to lose Tony in the Victor Williams/Melvin Sanders to John Lucas/Joey Graham torch-passing, but we shouldn’t be. On a side note: how good were the pick-up games going on in Stillwater during the 2002-2003 season? Sanders, I-Mac, Victor, Lucas, the Grahams, Tony, Andre Williams, and Cheyne Gadsen (who was probably a pick-up legend). It was like the homeless man’s version of UCLA in the 70s when their Freshmen team was better than their actual team that won a national title. Like the really REALLY homeless man’s version.

We don’t really know what’s going to happen with Nash’s career. He could be Allen 2.0, he could struggle his Freshman year and stay all four years, he could stay one year and make the leap in 2012. And who could blame him if he did? If high schoolers could still get drafted, he’d be a top-20 pick this year. So I don’t think we know his ceiling, but we also don’t know his floor which is what scares me. He could roll in the first practice, curse the ground Travis Ford walks on, punch Keiton in the face, and pee all over the 70-year old maple floor in GIA and I actually wouldn’t be completely surprised. I might be a little rattled but not entirely stunned. So I’ll take Tony, if only because the stability of his career outweighs the potential volatility of Nash’s. Also, I promise you that’s the first time anything related to or associated with Tony Allen has been described as “stable.”

Let the debate rage in the comments section. Try to keep it clean (i.e. no Mormon jokes, nothing about Tony Allen’s gun collection, and take it easy on the Australian slurs)