DIAL #11 FOR (MIS)INFORMATION

MVU's Matt St Amour selfishly hogs the ball away from an Enosburg player who would have preferred an uncontested lay-up

I’ve been covering high school sports in Vermont for almost eight years. Granted, I’m not exactly a seasoned veteran but after covering hundreds of games and playing in a few hundred more, there aren’t many firsts left for me.

But this afternoon I witnessed a first, and hopefully a last. Nobody expects high school sports fans to be the most rational thinkers. However, I was more disgusted than surprised during the second half of MVU’s 67-39 win at Enosburg when the Hornet student section began chanting “Ballhog! Ballhog!” every time Missisquoi’s Matt St. Amour touched the ball.

I call this a first not because I’ve never heard the “Ballhog” chant before, I have. I’m just quite certain I’ve never heard it shouted at a team’s assist leader. 

Yes, St. Amour leads the Thunderbirds in scoring, by a lot. But he also has almost half of his team’s total assists this year (MVU is averaging 7.8 assists per game, St. Amour is averaging 3.7). He led his team in assists today.

St. Amour might be the best passer I’ve ever seen. It’s tough to tell. Players like BFA’s Ben Cote come to mind as great distributors. But how do we compare St. Amour to anyone when it comes to passing? Most other great passers are pure point guards, St. Amour is not. Most great passers don’t average north of 15 rebounds a game, St. Amour does. 

That’s right, 15+ rebounds a game! Today he collected 19. Maybe the Enosburg fans were just mistaken in their word choice, because he certainly was a rebound-hog today. I guess anyone would look like a ball hog when he pulls down 19 boards. How rude of him to not let anyone else have some rebounds!

I’ll give the Enosburg students this, St. Amour is a scorer. The junior reached 1,000 career points before the new year. He’s already posted a high of 43 this year and smart money says he’ll top that. 

The Hornets gave St. Amour more room to work today than any opponent I’ve seen this season. They lost by 28. 

More room to work doesn’t mean single coverage, he was still doubled quite a bit. It just means Enosburg wasn’t willing to send an athlete to the hospital to try to win a game.

What made the “Ballhog!” chant so ridiculous today was the fact that St. Amour scored just 22 points, one of his lowest season totals. He used the extra space to pick up six assists and at least another six passes that helped set up a basket. His nicest pass of the day was a beauty to the low post right in front of a group of Enosburg students chanting “Ballhog!” St. Amour even looked toward the student section after that pass and flicked his jersey, which was the classy thing to do as opposed to yelling “SHUT THE &^*% UP!” (which is the route I would have chosen). 

If MVU coach Jim Bose made any decision other than to run the ball through St. Amour on every single possession, he’d be run out of town. St. Amour’s supporting cast is improving (St. Amour played well in MVU’s two losses to Enosburg as well, today’s win was the first time the rest of the team played this well), but you don’t waste a talent like St. Amour.

I’ve seen plenty of great high school basketball players; I had the misfortune of usually playing against Cote and Burlington’s Tyrone Conley, but I still found time to watch while they were lighting me up. BFA’s Nick Swim, Enosburg’s Jade Desroches and Fairfax’s Seth Rebeor also come to mind right away. Those players might all have been as good as St. Amour (Conley might have been better, but I may be biased because he scored roughly 12,351 points against my teams from 5th-12th grade), but none of them had the “don’t look down" effect that St. Amour does. 

When I’m covering a game, if I need to adjust my camera or send a text message or make a note I just do it. Except when St. Amour has the ball in his hands. It seems like every single game he does something I’ve never seen before. Whatever I need to do can wait until St. Amour gives up the ball because I don't want to miss whatever's happening next.

Of course, sometimes he does that without the ball in his hands. St. Amour had one block today that would have made Dikembe Mutumbo jealous. Well, I say one, I mean one in each half.

In the second half today, St. Amour went to the bench to get a towel so he could clean up some sweat he’d left on the ground after drawing a foul. It must have been a nice break for the Enosburg defenders since he’d been using them to mop the floor most of the night. 

I’ve never seen a player so universally hated simply because he’s good. Enosburg’s aren’t the only fans who call him a ball hog. It seems like fans of opponents are grasping for anything because it would seem wrong to chant about what a well rounded basketball player (and incredibly nice person) St. Amour is. 

I think it goes without saying that I’ll be catching as much St. Amour as I can. To this point in the season, Enosburg had been the best team I’d seen. The Hornets beat MVU 2 out of 3 chances I have no doubt they could make it 3 of 4 if given another shot. I fully expect to watch the Hornets play for a Division III title in Barre this spring, which makes today’s performance all the more impressive for MVU.

And if I have to settle for watching a ball hog every time I watch the Thunderbirds, I think I’ll be ok with that. As long as I don't have to look down.