Hype Off! Beasley v. Rose

When not frothing over the March Madness in November! aspect of some of the early season upsets, the college basketball community has been a twitter over a couple of freshmen, namely Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose.

Rose's well-deserved slobbering is a result of his sick dunks, amazing athleticism and blinding quickness, all from the point guard slot. Beasley has been deified for putting up absurd numbers in his first two games in the NBDL, er, college. And because no amount of shouting or flowery feature stories could possibly do the debate justice, we go to oldest trick in the book of bloggery, the tale of the tape to compare the players early season performances.
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Stats
Rose: 19.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.0 apg, 1.5 TO, 1 spg, 2 bpg, 58.3 FG%, 3/9 3-PT
Beasley: 31.0 ppg, 19.0 rpg... alright this one is over, shit.

Advantage: Beasley

Opponents
Beasley- Sacramento State, Pittsburg State
Alright, so he set the Big 12 single game record in his first game but he did it against a team that was 10-19 last year, returned two starters, has no player taller than 6-8 and has a coach who wets the bed. Alright not all of that is true, but they suck... well, actually they don't suck, at least compared to Pittsburg State. The D-II, so void of talent that they lost the H in a pick-up game, couldn't hold Beasley under 30 but actually led at halftime. I don't care what your stats are, you must destroy Pittsburg State.

Rose- Tennessee-Martin, Richmond
I've heard of Richmond, which is a good start. They are in the A-10, a conference less fraudulent than Conference USA, excluding Memphis of course. But the Tigers only had a one-point halftime lead, allowing the Spiders to score just five fewer points than Maine did the entire game two nights before. Tennessee-Martin at least had a player who could score, Lorenzo Hudson's 35 and were named the Skyhawks, which can be distracting (you know, because there aren't any land hawks, think about it man). Memphis buried those stoners anyway and Rose was all over the place.

Advantage: Rose

Recruitment Shadiness
Beasley: Committed to Charlotte because they hired his AAU coach, then changed his mind to K State after they stole his AAU coach from Charlotte, then wanted to leave when Huggins left KSU, then stayed because the Wildcats promoted his boy and the assistant that recruited him.

Rose: Has been linked to Fonzworth Bentley of basketball, William Wesley, who apparently has more pull within recruiting circles than even John Calipari or Cadillac.

Advantage: Push, seems like pretty routine stuff to me.

Media Fellating
Beasley- Andy Katz and the indestructible time capsule that is his hair, deemed him Player of the Week. High praise indeed.

Rose- Is carrying the torch for David Stern's age-minimum rule and may be Jesus.

Advantage: Beasley, can't argue with Mr. Katz.

Pro Potential Witnessed So Far
Beasley: Already has an NBA body and made his stance known that rebounds are to be his and only his. Can shoot a little from the outside and beat most guards down the court. He also has very little interest in playing anywhere besides the NBA, and enthusiasm is always a plus to employers!

Rose: To the prophets of NBADraft.net, he is the No. 1 pick next year. He is also compared to Dwyane Wade and Gary Payton, which means at some point during his NBA career he will mooch off himself to win a championship. He's 6-4 and faster than all of the other players, plus he could be a terror defensively after some good coaching.

Advantage: Rose. There are plenty of versatile big men in the NBA, not a lot of point guards with Rose's combination of athleticism and skill (Kidd, Paul, Williams, Wade, Arenas, that's it).

The clincher, Dick Vitale's opinion
Rose: "The bar was set high with the outstanding performances of Derrick Rose in wins over Tennessee-Martin and Richmond. Rose's explosiveness, size and speed makes him so tough to defend. He is a special player from out of Chicago. I still can't believe DePaul and Illinois didn't get to keep him in-state." He later went on to say, "Baby."

Beasley: "Kansas State has a man among boys in 6-10 Michael Beasley." Not sure how this conflicts with his "Diaper Dandy" status but I'm certainly giving Chris Hansen a call.

Advantage: Rose. The object of this category was to have Vitale and his rampant senility favor you less and Beasley being put in the same exuberant sentence with "man," "boys" and Vitale is a recipe for disaster.

Congratulations to Mr. Rose, he will now face Brett Favre in the finals.