Can probably  apply to Patrick (whom I never forgave for that foul vs Teme) but that is not who I was looking for.0

My guess would be Yinka Dare. The word "dominates" is influencing my choice. 
 

Miguel Cartagena

Yegor

Kireev?

Answer is Sasha Koul. Kudos to Mayhem and GWAA.

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (8/11/2021 9:09 pm)

Like I said, assist to Mentzinger.  Without his guess of Yegor, I'm not sure I'm coming up with Koul.

A few things about Sasha.  First, the fouls.  Like I said, early on in his career, I felt that he was being called for numerous ticky tack fouls or simply bad calls.  What I looked forward to would be his upperclassman years where refs would be more familiar with his game and he would receive the benefit of the doubt on questionable calls (as seniors often do).  The problem is that either he couldn't adjust his game or the refs never let up on him.  Probably a combination of the two.

As  a result, Sasha never averaged under 26.1 minutes per game and never averaged more than 28.1 minutes per game.  Foul trouble has a way of suppressing those minutes.  Here's an illustration regarding the fouls:

Freshman year, Alex was called for a foul every 7.0 minutes.
As a sophomore, every 7.2 minutes.
Junior year, every 7.4 minutes.
Senior year, a slight regression to every 7.3 minutes.

By contrast:

Pops:  6.3 (a fouling machine his freshman year), 7.2, 8.8, 9.1..Substantial improvement every year

KevLar:  15.9, 15.8, 21.1, 15.5 (for a guy his size, Kevin had little interest in fouling)

Yinka:  8.9, 10.3


Sasha seemingly was never given the benefit of the doubt.  Was there an anti-Soviet bias working against him?  While no ref would ever openly admit to this, I seem to recall maybe a handful of refs getting close to this line, calling basketball an American game and the like.  It's worth noting that Koul, Yegor, and Andrei Krivinos were among the first international players in the U.S. college game, and were clearly among the first Soviet players.  (Krivinos was nicknamed "The Baby-Faced Assassin".  Wonder if this would fly today?)

Despite the near-constant level of foul trouble Sasha was in, his play was remarkably consistent and impressive.  He averaged 13.5 points per game during his 4 years at GW, on 61% career shooting, and never averaged fewer than 12/game in a season.  He also averaged 7.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while at GW. 

I'll end this with a story I've told before on the old board but maybe there are a few here who have not heard it or don't remember it.  During Sasha's freshman year, GW played an ESPN game at Duke which I thought at the time I was fortunate enough to attend.  What wasn't so fortunate was watching GW fall behind 40-8 (not a misprint) inside of Cameron Indoor Stadium.  Anyway, Sasha's english was not very advanced and he had to rely upon signs from the sideline to comprehend the plays that were being called.  

As you likely know (since GW copied it), Duke has a tradition where once an opposing player fouls out, the students begin to make a noise as the player leaves the court, culminating in a loud "Sit Down" when the player takes his seat.  In the case of Sasha, somebody must have gotten through to him before the game and was able to effectively communicate what he should do if he were to foul out of the game.  He would not take a seat, but would instead stand at the far end of the bench with his arms folded.  

Well, this game was never close and MJ saw nothing to lose by playing Sasha with 4 fouls.  When Koul fouled out, there was well over 8 minutes remaining in the game which amounted to maybe 15 minutes of real time.  The Duke students screamed and Koul stood upright and stared.  The students wouldn't stop and Koul refused to sit.  Finally, with about 1 minute left to play, the students broke out into a "you're not worth it, you're not worth it" chant while pointing to Sasha, which actually cracked up several of the GW players.  Have to admit that was funny.

Koul's treatment by refs is the major reason I hate the striped sobs.  I'll never forget a foul called by a ref who had is back turned up court and not back where Koul was just standing there when an opposing player not looking where he was going just ran right into Koul.I'll never forget that play nor forgive it either.

Ukrainian team came to DC for preseason exhibition.