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The Way I See It
YOU'VE got to hand it to Courtney Alexander. He's been done in more times than Jason Voorhees in "Friday The 13th," but he keeps getting up and stalking the NBA millions that are rightfully his. Bulldogs’ Alexander
just won’t be deniedWhen Fresno State's season began, Alexander had a stress fracture in his foot, and you never know about those things. He could've returned to the lineup, as he did Dec. 4 against Northern Arizona, but reinjured the foot a few games later.
Scheduled opponents crossed their fingers.
But Alexander simply threw his game into gear and established himself as one of the NCAA's deadliest scorers.
What stress fracture?
He showed up to play Hawaii here on Feb. 5 with his nonshooting wrist and hand bandaged. Jerry Tarkanian stood in the Hawaii upper gym shaking his head.
Good act.
Alexander single-handedly erased a 10-point Rainbows lead in the second half that night with stunning quickness and authority.
Oh, and then he suffered a hip pointer and missed Fresno State's game against SMU on Thursday. As a result, the Bulldogs lost their second game in a row.
BUT watch out, Billy Tubbs. Alexander donned Jason's hockey mask again for unsuspecting TCU on Saturday night, scoring 34 points - 20 in the second half as Fresno State won, 98-93.
Right now, Alexander leads the nation in scoring (25.2 ppg), two-tenths of a percentage point ahead of George Washington's Sirvaliant Brown.
If he's injured, he's found a way to transfer his pain to his opponents.
But injuries are not the only kind of obstacle Alexander has had to overcome en route to the NBA.
In August 1997, after he'd led Virginia in scoring the previous ACC season, he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend, who claimed he hit, choked and kicked her in the ribs. He spent four days in jail, was suspended indefinitely from the team, left school and sat out a year.
The initial list of bidders included Connecticut, Syracuse, Kansas, UCLA and Georgetown, but Tarkanian won out.
Alexander could win Tarkanian the WAC title next month.
But if the Huskies had gotten him, he might have combined with Khalid El-Amin to make sure the NCAA champions made a better effort at retaining the crown.
Turning to a colder subject, the NHL had another near tragedy last night when Marty McSorley of the Boston Bruins sent Donald Brashear of the Vancouver Canucks crashing to the ice with a two-handed swinging slash to the head.
Brashear was twitching and bleeding profusely as he was treated and then carried away with a concussion.
It happened with 2.7 seconds left in the game and even McSorley said he couldn't believe how stupid he was to do it.
I recall when NHL players started wearing helmets and goalies started wearing masks back in the 1970s, and I can't help thinking of what a few coaches warned back then.
They said the fear of retaliation had lessened with the new protective gear and we could expect more thoughtless attacks during games than ever before.
Back in the days of bare-headed players and unmasked goalies, the NHL was a lot more civilized.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.
