NEW ORLEANS — His chin was bandaged from a spill on the floor, his gait hobbled from a knee to his calf. His legs had finally turned to rubber. His thumbs went up to the appreciative crowd, and Jimmer Fredette left it all on the floor as he walked off for the final time as a sensational college basketball player.
He scored 30 points one more time. Make it 32. He scored 32 even though his outside shots weren’t falling. He scored 32 points even though he didn’t get his first until the 14-minute mark. And he scored 32 points even though the bigger, tougher Florida Gators knew Fredette was the only BYU player who was scoring in the second half.
Finally, in overtime, Jimmer and his Fredettes wore down. The Gators, behind a starting lineup that goes five-deep in scoring, outlasted BYU 83-74 in an NCAA Sweet 16 game Thursday at the New Orleans Arena.
The Gators advance to the NCAA Elite Eight, where they will meet Butler on Saturday. The Cougars, with Fredette finishing his senior season as the nation’s leading scorer, bow out with a 32-5 record.
“It’s tough that it’s over,” Fredette said. “Hasn’t really sunk in yet that it’s fully over right now. But I’ve had a great time.”
He was at times spectacular one last time. Most people think of Fredette as a shooter. In this game he was a scorer, scoring his first 15 points off drives to the basket that resulted in six layups and three free throws.
The shot that brought the relatively sparse New Orleans Arena crowd to its feet, though, came on a basket that was patent Jimmer with 4:57 remaining.
Down three, Fredette had just dribbled past the halfcourt line. He took two quick dribbles as if he was going to drive, when he pulled up from somewhere along Poydras Street.
And drained the trey. The score was tied 67-67, the crowd erupted, and Florida coach Billy Donovan, sensing momentum shifting BYU’s way, called a timeout.
As college became too small for the 6-foot-2 Fredette, people tried bringing him down by projecting his game at the NBA level. No one in the NBA can stop a 33-footer off a dribble drive.
“There’s no question he has the offensive capability to be a terrific NBA player,” Donovan said. “I think his biggest challenge is going to be is, what kind of defensive player can he be? I know he’ll work hard at it because he’s worked hard at every other part of his game.”
At BYU, Fredette attacks so deep offensively, expends so much energy, that he has to take the occasional breather on defense. With the far more physical Gators pounding away at the Cougars, Fredette carried his team until he could carry them no more.
In the final two minutes of regulation, and until the final seconds of overtime — when with the game decided, he was taken out for a career-ending bow — Fredette was 0-for-4 from the field, all from the 3-point arc, with three turnovers.
The legs that were so quick to paralyze defenders off the dribble, so high into the air to separate on his jumper, simply went dead.
“Maybe a little at the end,” Fredette said. “We played the whole game and I was a little bit tired. But it’s not an excuse.”
After his media session at the podium, Fredette limped back to the locker room, and ducked into a small coaching room. The players’ locker room was full of media, but the reporters were there hoping to ask Fredette one last question as a college player.
He stayed in the room and closed the door.
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
