There comes a point when you realize that an athlete has established himself as a great player. Sometimes it's when you don't wish but rather expect him or her to come through with the big play in the final minutes. Other times, it's when an athlete impacts the game with his or her mere presence or simply with the threat of doing something spectacular.
In what has been an up-and-down season for the men's basketball team, co-captain Mark McAndrew '08 has taken his game to another level, making the big plays down the stretch and affecting the game even when he doesn't have the ball. But if you ask me, McAndrew has arrived in another impressive sense. Along with Head Coach Craig Robinson, he has started to dwell on even his smallest mistakes, never satisfied regardless of his final stat line.
Take last Friday's 70-66 triumph over Harvard. McAndrew finished with 19 points on a stellar 6-of-9 shooting and threw in a couple of hustle plays to begin the second half that energized his team and broke the game open. It was an effort more than worthy of the proverbial gold star, yet McAndrew still found things to critique.
"We definitely had some spurts where we weren't executing well, and it's probably my fault since I got a little lazy with the ball," he said. "I didn't let the action come to me as much as I should."
Sure, he finished with four turnovers, but with the style of basketball the Bears play and the amount that McAndrew handles the ball, four turnovers is a more than reasonable number. And if he actually went through stretches of forcing the issue, it didn't last long, as his high shooting percentage showed. But he finished the game feeling that there was room for improvement - as did his coach.
"We won in spite of the fact that Mark didn't have a good game," Robinson said. "Isn't that something ... 6-for-9 isn't good enough for this kid?"
Either Robinson's standards of excellence are absurdly high or he was just doing what good coaches do and keeping his star player hungry. Regardless, it says something when both coach and player can have such a ho-hum attitude toward such a solid performance.
The modesty didn't stop after the Harvard game.
McAndrew pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds during the following night's 20-point blowout of Dartmouth, but his initial response upon seeing his stats was, "Yeah, I guess I had a lot of rebounds." Granted, a double-digit rebound game is not a novelty for McAndrew, seeing as he grabbed 13 earlier in the season against Cornell. But give yourself a little credit. Be a little boastful about your burgeoning reputation in the Ancient Eight.
Rest assured, neither McAndrew nor Robinson will ever let the other be satisfied, regardless of how much McAndrew continues to pack the stat sheet. It won't matter if he averages 25 points and 10 boards for the remainder of the season. It won't matter if he makes First-Team All Ivy or even wins league Player of the Year honors. McAndrew has reached the point where it simply isn't enough to put up impressive stats - it also matters how he does it.
But just for a second, imagine how scary it will be for Brown's Ivy foes when there's nothing left to criticize.
Chris Mahr '07 would be ecstatic with shooting 6-for-9 from the floor in one of his IM games.
