WholeHogSports
SEC TOURNAMENT : Ball Hog
Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/219484/
FAYETTEVILLE — It may be the greatest short story in the history of Arkansas basketball.
Patrick Beverley, at 6-1, is on the verge of leading the Razorbacks in rebounding for the season.
The leading rebounders listed in Arkansas’ media guide go back to the 1952-1953 season — when 6-6 Walter Kearns averaged a team-high 6. 8 caroms, as they used to be called — and in all that time no player shorter than 6-4 has held such a distinction.
Now Beverley, a sophomore from Chicago averaging 6. 7 rebounds, is set to become the shortest player to finish a season as Arkansas’ leading rebounder in at least 56 years.
“I know Patrick doesn’t have great physical size,” Razorbacks Coach John Pelphrey said. “But if you crack his chest open and look at his heart, it may be 7 feet.”
Beverley indeed has the big valentine, as Eddie Sutton used to say about Sidney Moncrief, who at 6-4 is Arkansas’ all-time leading rebounder with 1, 015 and led the team in rebounding per game for all four of his seasons from 1976-1979 when Sutton coached the Razorbacks.
Moncrief, a former Little Rock Hall star who is now an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors, is the last guard to lead the Razorbacks in rebounding, averaging 9. 6 as a senior 29 years ago.
That was nine years before Beverley was born, but he’s familiar with Moncrief’s name and career.
“Of course I know Sidney Moncrief is one of the greatest to ever play here and had a great NBA career,” Beverley said. “It’s an honor to even be mentioned in the same sentence with him.”
Beverley has done his best rebounding against the toughest opponents, averaging 8. 3 rebounds in SEC play to rank fourth in conference games.
Every other player among the SEC’s top 10 rebounders in conference games is at least 6-7, with Ole Miss’ 6-8 senior Dwayne Curtis and Alabama’s 6-9 junior Richard Hendrix averaging 10. 1 to lead the way.
Beverley was a solid rebounder last season, when he averaged 4. 5 rebounds along with a teamhigh 13. 9 points. He continued at that pace in 14 nonconference games this season, averaging 4. 9 rebounds, but took off once SEC play began.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Beverley said. “That’s just how it happened.”
Earlier this season Beverley led the SEC in rebounding in conference games after having 15 against LSU, 13 against Alabama and Ole Miss, 12 against Florida and South Carolina and 10 against Mississippi State.
Beverley’s pace has slowed a little bit, but he had eight rebounds in the Razorbacks’ most recent game, a 77-64 victory last Saturday over Auburn.
Arkansas assistant Rob Evans said it’s gratifying to see a player such as Beverley, who came into this season known as a scorer, now take so much pride in rebounding.
“I’ve never seen a 6-1 guy rebound like Patrick, and I doubt if anybody else has, either,” said Evans, who has been in coaching for 38 years. “He’s a good athlete, but not a great one. He’s not going to outjump or outquick or outrun everybody, but he has such a big heart and he’s just driven to rebound now.
“ Patrick just wants it more than anyone.... He just wants to get the ball, and he goes out and gets it or he takes it away from somebody.”
At times this season Beverley has taken it away from some of his teammates who appeared to be in better position to get a rebound but couldn’t beat him to the ball.
“I don’t want to have to elbow him or drop him on the floor, so I let him have the rebound,” Arkansas 7-0 senior center Steven Hill said with a laugh. “You can be greedy when it comes to rebounding. and nobody goes after the ball harder than Patrick.
“ I think it’s incredible what he’s doing. It shows his heart, shows how hard he plays and what he means to this team.”
Of Beverley’s 202 rebounds, 163 have come on the defensive end, but Pelphrey said what the Razorbacks are doing with their man-to-man or zone defenses doesn’t lend itself to Beverley piling up rebounds.
“Nobody can take credit for that except Patrick,” Pelphrey said. “It’s in him. It is desire, it is heart. Patrick has ‘it’ when it comes to chasing that basketball.”
Beverley’s rebounding exploits have caught the attention of other SEC coaches.
“One of the reasons he’s rebounding so well is that — as we try to convince our guys — you can’t be selective in the ones you go after,” Ole Miss Coach Andy Kennedy said. “You have to try and get them all and then hope the law of averages works in your favor.
“ It’s working in [Beverley’s ] favor because of the way he pursues the ball.”
Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie said he’s impressed by Beverley’s consistency. He’s had six or more rebounds in 11 of 16 SEC games.
“He obviously understands how to play the game, and his motor is always running,” Gillispie said. “When the shot goes up, he thinks the ball has his name on it.”
Arkansas has five players on its roster 6-8 or taller, and it’s logical one of them — not Beverley — would be leading the team in rebounding.
But Beverley said it’s because of players such as Hill, 6-10 Darian Townes, 6-10 Michael Washington, 6-10 Vincent Hunter and 6-8 Charles Thomas that he’s able to get so many rebounds.
“All the big bodies we’ve got make it easier for me to rebound,” Beverley said. “My teammates have been doing a great job of battling with the other team’s big guys, and I go in there and pick up the loose change.
“ I’ve just been at the right place at the right time.”
Going into Arkansas’ SEC Tournament quarterfinal matchup Friday against the winner of Thursday’s Vanderbilt-Auburn game, Beverley is averaging 12. 2 points to rank second on the team behind senior forward Sonny Weems, who is averaging 14. 9 points.
So is it better to lead the team in scoring, as Beverley did last season, or lead in rebounding, as he’s doing now ?
“Leading the team to the NCAA Tournament is bigger than all of that,” Beverley said. “That’s what I care about.”