Jimmer vs. Tim Tebow

Glens Falls native Jimmer Fredette has captivated the entire country.  The BYU senior guard is the nation's leading scorer and has the Cougars in the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time ever!

There are many people comparing Jimmer to former University of Florida quarterback, Tim Tebow.  They're going with the thought that these are guys with great college careers that will never amount to anything in the pros.

But I'm here to tell you otherwise.

Fredette, not Tebow, will be the more successful player at the next level.

Why?  Quite simply, he's a better player.  Jimmer is probably one of the most fundamentally sound players we've seen in college basketball in a very long time.  He sees the floor, he's two steps ahead of everyone else and he can shoot the basketball from anywhere on the court.

The one big knock against Jimmer is that he's too slow.  But the last time I checked, most of his points come from layups or drives.  He might not be very "fast" but he's super-quick.  Think about how many times he's able to get a defender off balance even a tiny bit and then blow by him for an easy bucket.  For a guy that's supposed to be slow, I don't think that would be possible.

Not only that, but the Glens Falls High School graduate has gotten better and better every year.  His ballhandling skills are what an NBA point guard's should be.

Tebow was a great competitor and a real winner at the University of Florida.  He won 2 National Championships and a Heisman Trophy.  But he's not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.  It's the NFL.  And quite frankly, Tebow doesn't have the skills to be an NFL quarterback.

Let's face it, Tebow was in a gimmicky offense at Florida that inflated his stats.  He ran every play from shotgun and very rarely threw the ball downfield.  Not only that, but his Florida Gators were just so much better than the opposition at almost every position.  That makes it pretty easy for a quarterback to either find an open receiver or find holes in the defense to run through.

Tebow ran that style of offense for over 8 years (he even ran Florida's spread-style offense while in high school).  When NFL types got a hold of him, they made him completely change his throwing style.  Think about that - they fundamentally changed the way a 23-year old guy was throwing the ball.   Considering he was doing it wrong for years, I just don't see a player like Tebow "learning how to throw like an NFL quarterback" on the job.  Sorry!