Mom been nagging you to unglue your eyes from the TV screen and your hands from the Xbox controllers? Does your roommate unwillingly wake to the sunrise and the sharp insults of your Xbox Live trash-talk?
If yes, then fret no longer. Tell your mom, your bunk-buddy and your professors that two of the most successful college students in the country spend hours upon hours of their own free time playing Halo 2.
That’s right, according to USA Today, NCAA basketball’s top Player of the Year candidates Adam Morrison and J.J. Redick are busy filling up Halo’s carnage report when they’re not busy filling up the stat sheet.
Each player has been downright slaying the competition during their record-setting seasons. Gonzaga’s Morrison has been flaunting his stenciled ‘stache and shaggy coif all the way to 28.8 points per game and a top-five national ranking for the Bulldogs. His reckless style and crazed passion hides any sign that the superstar is playing with Type-1 diabetes.
Redick, is picking off record after record with his ability to snipe threes from anywhere on the floor. With five regular season games left, he’s already broken the NCAA three-point record. Plus, he’s on pace to break Duke’s all-time scoring record, and he’s 60 points from the ACC scoring title set in the ‘50s by the sharp-shooting Dickie Hemric of Wake Forest. He has had his team in the top-two all year and his Blue Devils would be number one if not for the beat down they received by way of Georgetown’s back-door cuts.
While the battle for the hallowed Player of the Year honors is on between the most hairy and most hated players in college basketball, these two assassins are happy to settle their differences on Xbox Live. They battled each other all offseason with plasma grenades and Warthogs instead of v-cuts and pick-and-rolls.
Those who are looking to drop StAcHeOFthaYR and DvlsAdvoct4 just like any other newb are in for a surprise. Morrison has played over 6,000 matches earning himself a rank of 31. Redick seems to spend a little more time working on his jumper, he’s ranked a bit lower, at 25.
Just a couple of normal guys who crave the hypnotic gaze that grips us after playing nine straight games of Team Slayer.
But it’s the on-court play of these two gamers that has fans mesmerized. The two young guns have most recently been dueling for the 2006 scoring title. Only a tenth of a point separates them as of Wednesday, with Redick averaging 28.9. It’s a pairing that may be the best in college basketball since Larry Legend and Magic. The two most recent stars have never squared off before, but there’s always March.
Even if these future millionaires can never give us a show on the hardwood, they can give college students everywhere something they’ve been longing for.
Finally. Justification for spending absurd amounts of time in front of a TV screen, working on finger-eye coordination. Hey, it works for Morrison and Redick. Why not the rest of us shmucks?
Just make sure mom thinks you’re taking care of homework in between games.
