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[Jetsfan80]

https://seahawkperch.substack.com/p/okauru-uncw-and-the-elusive-triple?r=ivpj8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR0oiuUMFpbi2inRr9UzzBmef6lo94OK2nina7aPW3DFd7GQdUOvRtd_vks&utm_source=url

 

Okauru, UNCW and the Elusive Triple-Double

The graduate guard holds a unique place in Seahawk basketball history

Brant Wilkerson-New 29 min ago   1

 

John Crouch

By Ken Swarthout

(Note: We’re excited to share this post from UNCW graduate Ken Swarthout, whose voice and music selections you’ve come to know over the years at Trask Coliseum and Brooks Field.)

While I was prepping for the season’s final home game against JMU and reviewing the write-ups for each of our seniors, it struck me as odd to find out, over two years after the fact and following a coaching change, that Mike Okauru posted UNCW’s only official, recorded triple-double in program history on Nov. 26, 2019.

Since the feat (12 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists) occurred against D-II Emory & Henry in the final year of the C.B. McGrath era, it has of course been relegated to a mere footnote in UNCW lore, and rightfully so. Mike himself would surely agree that he’s had far more memorable and better games since arriving on campus. In fact, he had six other contests in his UNCW career where he flirted with a triple-double against fellow D-I competition (more on that later).

But what this realization did highlight is just how difficult it is to record a triple-double, not only in UNCW program history, but in NCAA D-I history. Before looking at other UNCW men’s players who came close to hitting the triple-double achievement in our history, I was sent down a fascinating (at least to me) little rabbit hole when looking at the history of the triple-double at the collegiate level at large. 

With some time to kill until the CAA Tournament gets started, I invite you to take a closer look along with me.

According to the official record books, only six players in NCAA D-I history have recorded five or more triple-doubles. Now, you might expect to find some legendary NBA triple-double kings on this list, like Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati, 1957-60) or Magic Johnson (Michigan State, 1977-79). 

And if the official stats had recognized the assist during those years, you would have been correct. Unfortunately, the NCAA did not keep track of assist totals from 1951 until 1983. Thus, while Robertson and Magic have unofficially been credited with 10 and 8 triple-doubles in their collegiate careers, respectively, neither make the official list of all-time triple-double leaders. 

That list then becomes more than a bit disappointing, albeit with one lone — and large — exception:

All-time NCAA D-I Triple-Double Leaders, per NCAA.com:

1. Kyle Collinsworth, G, BYU (2010-16): 12

2. Michael Anderson, G, Drexel (1984-88): 6

3. Shaquille O’Neal, C, LSU (1989-1992): 6

4. Shawn James, C, Northeastern (2004-08): 5

5. Kevin Roberson, C, Vermont (1988-1992): 5

6. Brian Shaw, G, Saint Mary’s / UC Santa Barbara (1983-88): 5

At least we see one future NBA Hall of Famer and all-time great, O’Neal, make the list. You’ll also notice a familiar CAA player in Shawn James from NU and a pre-CAA Drexel player in Michael Anderson who made the cut.

The all-time leader in the category, and an extreme outlier, Kyle Collinsworth went undrafted in 2016 but played in 32 games for the Dallas Mavericks in 2017-18. He currently plays for the SeaHorses Mikawa of the Japanese B.League. It’s thus safe to say that his “glory days” occurred at BYU. In his senior season, he put up video game numbers, averaging 15.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per contest en route to taking home WCC Player of the Year honors. He recorded 6 of his 12 career triple-doubles that season, and thus would have been at the top of the list even if you only counted his senior year performance.

Besides the strange decision by the NCAA to stop recording assists for over three decades, also keeping this feat from happening very often is it is obviously very difficult to put up a triple-double in a 40-minute basketball game. 

Those eight extra minutes that the pros get makes an enormous difference. In addition, NBA players are in their physical prime and thus large ballhandlers are much more capable of dishing out dimes while also having the physicality to put up big rebounding numbers. In that light, seeing a guy like Russell Westbrook regularly accomplish the feat over his career (thought not so much since joining the Lakers) is seen as not being a big deal on any given night. Big point guards who can board is a trait that has never gone out of style when it comes to collecting triple-doubles, from the Big O to Russ. But guys like that are rare, even in the NBA and even more so at the collegiate level.

Meanwhile, the advent of the “point forward”, which started with Magic and Larry Bird and has continued with the likes of LeBron, Nikola Jokic, Giannis and Luka Doncic, has been much more difficult to take hold at the collegiate level. 

It’s exceedingly rare to find an 18-22 year old capable of handling the ball AND being an interior defender consistently in close proximity to rebounds, much less be able to win the battle for 10 of those in a contest. And even when those rare talents are discovered, they bolt for the NBA before they begin to see that triple-double potential play out in the college game. Perhaps NIL will be a game-changer in that respect, but until then, those who are cynical or dismissive of the NBA can at least appreciate the beauty of watching a 6-10 to 7-footer with the handles of point guards nearly a foot shorter, because those really don't exist at the college level and take time to develop.

Coach Takayo Siddle certainly has given the "point-forward" concept a shot here with Jaylen Sims, but that hasn’t exactly led to a large assist total: his season high after the scheme change was six (both occurring against Hofstra, one of which included a Sims double-double). Sims is physically built for the point-forward job, but again, it takes time to develop the court vision and become the versatile monster necessary to produce those atypical assist numbers.

So, when you look at the numbers, it’s not a surprise to find that only 23 triple-doubles have occurred so far in the 2021-22 NCAA D-I season, with only one player, Walker Kessler of Auburn, accomplishing it twice. The total number of triple-doubles across the landscape is pretty consistent with the numbers that have been seen in recent seasons. From 2015-2020, an average of 26.6 triple-doubles occurred per season. When you consider that a typical NCAA D-I season features about 5,800 to 5,900 total games played in a given year, you’re talking about less than a 0.5 % (or 1 in 220) chance of witnessing a triple-double in any given game.

Now, let’s take a look at UNCW “close calls” over the years. Again, you might expect some of our biggest names in program history to have been the ones who ended up coming the closest to a triple-double. 

But again, you would be wrong. The closest was arguably (drumroll)…

Temi Soyebo.

If you’re asking yourself “Who?” Then you are likely not alone, even as an avid follower of the program.

Ken Blevins / StarNewsOnline

Don’t believe me? Check out the box score for yourself, from a Seahawk 67-55 home win over Colorado on November 29, 2006.

Soyebo’s final line: 12 points (6-8 shooting), nine rebounds, eight steals, five assists in 35 minutes as the starting point guard.

That’s right, eight steals. He not only nearly pulled off the triple-double, but would have done so with an extremely unlikely metric representing one of the categories. The diminutive Soyebo (listed at 6-0 but was likely shorter) led the team in steals that year (1.9 per game) and also had one of the top-10 highest steal totals (54) in a season in UNCW history, so racking up steals was certainly one of his strengths.

And to be sure, that team under first-year coach Benny Moss pushed the pace of play, which always led to the potential for some big numbers (mostly for the opposing offense), but eight is still absurd. For Soyebo, of all players, to have been just one board and two swipes away from having been the only Seahawk to ever produce an official triple-double against a D-I team is equally absurd.

As for the other players who flirted with triple-double performances, let’s work backwards and take a look at some of the recent players (since 2014) who came closest on a year-by-year basis, starting with this past season:

2021-22
• G Jaylen Sims (2/7/22 @ Hofstra): 12 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists
• G Mike Okauru (1/12/22 vs. Elon): 13 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists
• G Shykeim Phillips (1/24/22 @ Northeastern): 13 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists

2020-21
• G Mike Okauru (1/31/2021 vs. Hofstra): 30 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists
• G Mike Okauru (12/18/2020 @ Norfolk St): 7 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists
• F John Bowen (12/7/2020 @ ECU): 6 points, 8 rebounds, 6 blocks

2019-20
• G Mike Okauru (1/18/2020 vs. Northeastern): 16 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists
• G Mike Okauru (12/16/19 vs. Mercer): 8 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists
• G Mike Okauru (12/30/19 @ Drexel): 14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 steals, 4 assists

2018-19
• G Kai Toews (1/26/2019 vs. Elon): 13 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds
• G Kai Toews (1/3/2019 @ James Madison): 12 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds

2017-18
• G Jordon Talley (2/22/18 @ William & Mary): 18 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds

2016-17
• G C.J. Bryce (1/5/17 @ Drexel): 11 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists

2015-16
• G Jordon Talley (1/16/16 vs. William & Mary): 13 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists
• G Jordon Talley (2/16/16 @ William & Mary): 6 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds

As noted earlier, Okauru appears on this list six other times in addition to his actual triple-double against E&H. None of the other entries are particularly surprising, with the exception of John Bowen and his six-block performance against hated rival ECU.

Recent jersey retiree, current NBA player and NCAA D-I single-season double-double record holder Devontae Cacok didn’t make the cut because he was never a big man who dished out many assists (66 total for his career, single-game high of three) — and why would he when it was much easier to let him just be on the other end of an assist — and his single-game highs in steals (5) and blocks (4) never threatened double digits either.

When it comes to other Seahawk legends, digital record-keeping being what it was at the time doesn’t make it easy to perform the research aside from painstakingly looking at each box score one at a time. And that was only really possible from 2000-2014. 

Anything earlier than that and individual game box scores are lost to the ages as far as the internet is concerned.

Since Brian Rowsom was an automatic double-double basically every night but never recorded many assists (1.3 apg for his career) or blocks (0.8 bpg), it’s pretty to safe to say that, despite how great he was, we can rule him out of the triple-double conversation. Seahawk old-timers with a long memory and can, perhaps, produce some physical evidence that demonstrates otherwise are invited to do so.

I can also tell you that it was point guard Barron Thelmon, not Brett Blizzard, who came closer to a triple-double during Blizzard’s legendary tenure with the Seahawks. 

As a senior against Alcorn State on Nov. 18, 2000, Thelmon posted 8 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds, making him the Seahawk who came the closest to a triple-double against a D-I team other than the aforementioned Soyebo.

Since Blizzard was the go-to scorer and rarely dished out many assists, and the pace and style of play was a lot slower and more physical under Coach Jerry Wainwright, Blizzard didn’t come much closer to a triple double than any of the Seahawk players already mentioned. Still, he posted a ridiculous 26-6-7 line against Wake Forest in 2001.

Assist machine John Goldsberry had quite a few double-doubles in his career but was never a prolific rebounder. His closest encounter with a triple-double, which got him closer than Blizzard, came against Butler in 2005, when he posted a 21-7-8 line. Later that same 2005-06 season, he also had a 6-steal game against William & Mary. He scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds that day, but his assist total (2) was lacking for his standards. 

Playing in Brad Brownell’s even slower-paced, rock-fight style than his predecessor of course did Goldsberry no favors in the quest for a triple-double.

Thanks to the faster Benny Moss era pace of play, T.J. Carter came even closer than Blizzard or Goldsberry, in 2007 at Hofstra. He finished with a 23-8-8 line in the 87-83 Seahawk victory. The following season he hada 21-7-8 game against Georgia State.

Keith Rendleman, much like Cacok, never was an “assist guy,’ but he did have a six-steal game in 2012 against non-DI Coker, a game in which he also recorded 21 points and 13 rebounds. I think we can forgive Rendleman for only coming close against a non-DI given his 41 career double-doubles. Those performances included massive 24/18 and 26/12 games against Delaware in two separate seasons, a 29/11 game against Liberty in 2011, and a 14/21 board-fest versus Towson.

That covers many of the Seahawk legends in the better record-keeping era. Again, if anyone has any data to report any other triple-double close calls, please feel free to comment on that!

Chad Tomko had, I am obligated to note, a few close encounters as well. 

He had a 21-13-7 line in 2011 against Hofstra, a 19-9-7 game @ Northeastern that same season, and a 12-6-8 performance in 2009 @ Richmond. He also recorded three games with at least 6 steals, one of which (2009 @ Towson) where he produced 25 points and 15 assists. I have nothing further to say about any of that.

So there you have it. 

UNCW has had exactly one triple-double — Okauru’s performance vs. E&H, a non-DI program.

The closest we’ve come to a triple-double against a D-I opponents came from Soyebo and Thelmon.

College Hoops can be strange sometimes. But it is always fascinating.

John Crouch

[Maxman]

Hey this is great!

But I am pretty sure you were published long before this. 

[Jetsfan80]

UNCW headed to the CAA Title game against Delaware.  7 PM tonight in DC on CBS Sports.  Check it out.  Go Seahawks.

[Beerfish]

I would have bet on romance novels.