Last season Fresno St.'s Paul George gained national notoriety with an electrifying dunk at St. Mary's that turned out to be ESPN's Sportscenter's No. 1 "Play of the Day." In addition, SI.com has named George "Most Entertaining Player" in the West.
Not bad for the freshman from Palmdale, CA who played the 5 spot at Pete Knight High School. Fresno St. head coach Steve Cleveland, says that, "He's making the transition from the 5 in high school to the 3 at the collegiate level well."
This could be the understatement of the day.
Far from one dimensional, George's game is diversified. "The thing is he has a full line and that demonstrates his contribution and that he's active."
Active like a volcano. Coming into tonight's game at the Save Mart Center versus UC Davis (3-6), George is leading the Bulldogs (4-5) in scoring (17.3 ppg), rebounding (7.9 rpg), steals (2.8 spg), free throw shooting (91.3%) and minutes (33.3 mpg).
Three point shooting range is part of the recipe here too. As a freshman George shot 44.6% and as a sophomore he's currently at 40% from beyond the arc.
The awe inspiring, game changing dunks may be the sizzle but numbers like these are the steak. And NBA scouts are getting hungry.
Continued development with ball handling skills and overall strength are keys to George making it in the NBA. At the rate he's developing, his already meteoric rise may be just the beginning.
Staying with the steak dinner theme it's like the Sinatra lyric, "We've only tasted the wine. We're gonna drain that cup dry."
And so it may be with George's game. Just like the guy from Hoboken sang: "The Best Is Yet To Come."
Tidbits on the Aggies visit to Fresno St
George, 6'8", 210 lbs along with 6'10", teammate 6'10", 235 lbs senior Sylvester Seay 17 ppg were voted to the WAC's second team in the preseason poll. Freshman Greg Smith, 6'10', lbs is 14th in the country in FG% (63.4%) completes the formidable front court of the Bulldogs and averages 12.4 ppg. The trio is responsible for 69% of the Fresno St. offensive production.
Injuries continue to mount for UC Davis according to Connor Teakautz of the Davis Enterprise with a few game time decisions as to who will suit up, most notably Joe Harden.
Freshman guard Ryan Sypkens was a bright spot in UC Davis's 85-69 loss at Stanford going for 16 points.
Coach Cleveland is "extremely impressed" with the improvement of UC Davis senior, Dominic Calegari, 15 ppg, 40% three point field goal percentage. "You don't normally see things like that (ability to shoot the three in addition to play in the post.) from a 6'10" guy."
One can only speculate that Paul George will be asked to defend Calegari which will be a great match up to watch.
Cleveland calls the Aggies "tough to preare for" due to the 1-3-1 zone, the extended 2-3 zone and defending the Princeton style offense of the Aggies. Like Calegari, things you don't normally see. "We're expecting a very, very tough game."
Fresno St. lost to Cleveland's former team, BYU on Saturday night at the Save Mart Center, 72-62, as the 'Dogs committed 21 turnovers.
Coach Saul Phillips and the Bison of North Dakota St. visit Fresno St. on Saturday. North Dakota St. defeated UC Davis in a squeaker at the Pavilion back on November 24th 63-62 so the Bison are back in California for the second time in two months.
In addition to North Dakota St., there are two other common opponents- Colorado St. and Seattle University on both team's schedules.
Tonight's game is the return game of the Bulldogs 71-70 win over the Aggies in an ESPN BracketBuster matchup last season.
It's homecoming for UC Davis freshman DeAndre Medlock who played at Clovis West High School. Medlock has appeared in all nine games averaging 6.7 minutes per game.
Tonight's game can be heard on KFSG 1690 AM & KLIB 1110 AM on the UC Davis radio network as well as streaming at www.ucdavisaggies.com with pregame coverage at 6:45 PM Pacific.
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