LAS VEGAS — In the Mountain West Conference, who got Jimmered the worst?
Who did this guy mess up? Who got taken to the woodshed? Who squealed the loudest or nobly withstood the barrage of his arsenal?
The league's player of the year and CBSSports.com national player will roll out his wares today in the Thomas & Mack on the campus of UNLV for the final time under the league's banner. The Jimmer show will proceed here as long as the Cougars keep winning.
Most all of the league's programs have been Jimmered in one form or another this season. Even New Mexico, the only team that defeated BYU in the regular season, got Jimmered in the sense the Lobos really didn't hold the Cougar senior under his average.
Jimmer Jimmered the league pretty well this past year.
There is no way to gloss over it.
He forced every team to drastically change their defensive game plans and make designs specifically to slow him down. He drew defenders for 60 feet. He saw double teams, traps, triple teams, collapsing secondary and third lines of defenders. He saw multiple players try to force him to his left side and keep him boxed along the boundary as an extra defender.
In the first go-around of the MWC, Jimmer averaged 34 points a game. Once league opponents had him scouted, adjusted defenses and faced him again, Jimmer averaged 28.75 against them, still better than his nation-leading average of 27.
It was sick. The MWC was Charlie Sheen trying to find normal.
Fredette forced the league's officiating crews to manage the games he is a part of. Referees officiated him differently the second round. Jimmer had the league's officials discuss theories, practicalities, execution, balance of calls and non-calls and what would qualify as fouls in the paint. He couldn't shoot 30 free throws on their watch, could he? They received plenty of advice from the league's coaches from the sidelines and, I suspect, in complaints to supervisor Bobby Dibler.
The Jimmer factor is now a MWC benchmark, 2,395 career points, 864 this season, so far. He's made 767 of 1,683 field goals, for a career .456 accuracy. From distance, he has made a school-record 271 of 684 for a career .396 accuracy rate. From the line, he has made 590 of 669, an .882 conversion for his time in a Cougar uniform.
Here's who's been Jimmered the worst in the MWC this season:
No. 8: TCU gave up just 44 points on 12 field goals, 15 free throws, five 3-pointers and 11 assists. Respectable, in a croaking Frog sort of way.
No. 7: Air Force allowed Jimmer 47 points on 14 field goals, 11 from the line, eight from distance with seven assists. Nice job — these guys do defend our country.
No. 6: Wyoming yielded Fredette 64 points on 19 field goals and 20 of those points came from the free-throw line and he had six baskets from 3-point land with six assists. Dandy with the lariat, the whirling lasso, rope of hope and a yippie ki-yay.
No. 5: The Lobos swept BYU, but with Fredette averaging just more than 27 points a game, he got 65 points, easily made his average on 22 field goals, 14 from the line with seven treys and seven assists. The howling pack allowed an average of 32 from Jimmer and did get the bone.
No. 3 (tie): UNLV saw Fredette score 68 points, a 34-point average on 18 field goals, 24 points from the line with eight treys and 12 assists. The Rebs take pride in aggressive, hands-on felony defense.
No. 3 (tie): San Diego State, top-10 ranked team, surrendered 68 points to Jimmer, 43 the first time in Provo and 25 in San Diego. Fredette got that 34-point average on Steve Fisher's team. Aztec altar: sacrifice wins to stop Jimmer.
No. 2: Rival Utah bequeathed Fredette 70 points on 23 field goals, 16 from the line, eight treys and 11 assists. That is an average of 35 points in the two games home and away. Utah's defense put Jimmer on SportsCenter.
No. 1: Colorado State relinquished the most points to Jimmer: 76 points on 18 field goals, 30 from the charity zone with six assists and six from beyond the arc. Ram tough put him on a parade route to the line; Hackist hacksters of the year.
Breaking it down, Fredette scored the most points when his team needed it the most, especially in title showdown games with the league's preseason favorite SDSU and the league's most improved team, CSU.
I asked Jimmer why he scored his best on the road in hostile arenas, if Utah's MUSS with Hobbit insults or SDSU's religious bigotry carnival in Viejas really drew it out of him. He said it all came down to his teammates needing an extra lift on the road.
Simple as nuts on ice cream.
e-mail: dharmon@desnews.com