When Marquette takes to the floor late Saturday afternoon against the Pirates of Seton Hall, VOLUME SHOOTERS everywhere will raise their basketballs in tribute (and then promptly shoot off-balance, contested 15-footers) as Seton Hall senior guard Jeremy Hazell laces 'em up for the final time in front of his home crowd.
Tomorrow's contest promises to be a bittersweet one for those of us who love VOLUME SHOOTERS: we'll be sorry to see Hazell go, of course, but we'll take comfort in the fact that he'll probably attempt 46 shots on his Senior Day.
Sadly, Hazell's star has been somewhat eclipsed this season by fellow Big East VOLUME SHOOTER Kemba Walker, but make no mistake: when you look at their career bodies of work, Jeremy makes Kemba look like Jason Kidd.
We take a look back at Hazell's history of chuckin', after the jump.
Check it:
In his freshman season, Hazell deferred mightily to his teammates and had a mere six games where he attempted fifteen or more shots. That number exploded to TWENTY-ONE games with 15 or more shot attempts in Jeremy's sophomore year, including eight games where Hazell attempted 20 or more field goals. (In case you're wondering: in those eight games where he attempted 20 or more field goals, he shot 50% or better exactly once, when he went 15-for-26 against Fairleigh Dickinson in a 30-point romp. At the other end of the spectrum, Hazell went 5-for-21 in a loss to Georgetown, and 5-for-22 in a loss to UConn.)
All that, however, was prelude to Jeremy's sublime junior campaign; though the number of 15-plus-attempt games dropped from 21 to 18, and the number of 20-plus-attempt games increased only to nine, Hazell outdid himself with back-to-back THIRTY attempt games in late December. First came an overtime loss to West Virginia, when Hazell attempted a staggering thirty-three field goals including 19 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (yes, if you're scoring at home: that's nineteen exclamation points) three-point attempts on his way to 41 points in a six-point loss. Just three days later, Hazell put up 31 shots in 37 minutes against 'Cuse, including a much-more-modest fifteen attempts from three-point land, as he scored 38 points in a seven-point defeat.
But the number of attempts alone isn't the most remarkable thing about those games. No: what made VOLUME SHOOTERS everywhere tip their caps was this: in those two games, Hazell played a combined 80 minutes and had TWO total assists, including a donut in the overtime loss to WVU. This, friends, is the Mona Lisa of VOLUME SHOOTING.
Hazell's senior season has been cut short by a wrist injury and a frightening episode where he was robbed and shot in NYC. Still, Jeremy has pressed on, racking up eight 15-plus-attempt games in his sixteen starts. And now, it comes down to his final game in front of the home faithful in a game where nothing would shock me: 40 attempts? Wouldn't be surprised. Twenty three-point shots? Sure, why not? Zero assists? Wouldn't have it any other way.
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