Getting Jimmered

I am happy for the hoopla surrounding this year's winner of every college basketball award in the land. What I like about the BYU senior is that while the temptation for him proudly to inflate his sense of self must be great, he remains a humble and likeable kid.

I am surprised by the "Jimmer" jokes circulating on the internet however. They have a Chuck Norris-like feel to them; e.g. "Death just had a near-Jimmer experience"; "HD watches basketball in Jimmer"; "I just saved 15% on my car insurance by switching to Jimmer"; and "When the Jimmer goes swimming, he doesn't get wet-- the water gets Jimmered."

I wonder how he'll do in the NBA. Especially because I really only know the college game and rarely watch the NBA. My amateur guess is that he'll fare much like J.J. Redick: he'll be a solid three-point shooter who can score coming off the bench and quickly put up some points when needed, but that he won't be a superstar.

Note: the Jimmer and J.J. Redick are both white, but that doesn't mean you can't compare white players to black ones, and vice versa. It was interesting to see how many white players the Jimmer got compared to last season, and how much difficulty some people had comparing him to black players.

Some people doubt the Jimmer. They say his defense is bad. They say he doesn't have many assists. He averaged 3-4 assists a game, and often had more. I think that's a good assist record.

The best assist I got from him in class yesterday. I have a student from Glens Falls, Jimmer's hometown. We had just read a story in French in which an Eskimo laments that the old ways are disappearing and are being replaced with strange, new ways. The book says to ask students if they can think of anyone who similarly struggles with straddling the line between "the old ways" and modernity. My student from Glens Falls said Jimmer Fredette is like that. When he was in New Orleans with Team USA basketball people, everyone went out for a night on the town, to go drinking. Not the Jimmer. He stayed in the hotel and read the Bible. He is a Mormon.

That gave me the opportunity (on an assist from the Jimmer!) to say I am a Mormon, too, and that I didn't drink either. I always look for opportunities to let my students know I'm Mormon, so I was happy for this long-distance, 'cross two-time-zones assist from the Jimmer.

That day we all got Jimmered, in the best way.