Udoh finally got to introduce himself to Warriors fans last night... Enchanté

 

Flash back to June 24, 2010. It was night of bitter disappointment for many Warriors fans. First we saw a bigman who many thought could be the answer inside for the Dubs snatched up by our Nor Cal rivals from Sacramento. Then a few minutes later, before W's fans had time to lick their wounds, they were thrown another curve ball... Ekpe Udoh? How do I even pronounce that?

Well, a lot of things have changed since that night. Cousins has had some flashes of brilliance, but overall he and the Kings have been struggling. His rebounding has been solid, but he hasn't found a consistent offensive game yet in this league, scoring at 17.4 points per 36 minutes (highest per minute volume on the Kings) on .476 TS% (very poor efficiency, though sadly better that Tyreke's .458... ouch). While I'm sure there are still many true believers in Sactown, there must be a healthy dose of disappointment about their promising young big.

On the flipside, Warriors fans all but forgot about Udoh after the team's surprising move to land David Lee, the free agent signing of Amundson, and Udoh's preseason wrist injury. Many Warriors fans had written this season off entirely for Udoh, with expectations reaching about as low as you can get for a top ten pick. After last night's impressive performance, in his first game getting extended minutes, I think expectations are rising fast. It was only one game, but Udoh didn't waste any time reminding Warriors fans what good interior defense looked like. It took a few minutes to set in, but after a healthy dose of eye-rubbing, we all began to realize that defense can be fun to watch, and it even helps you win games! Now if only the rest of the roster could manage to D up half as well as Udoh did, we might have pulled out the victory.

So in the long standing sports tradition of making one game way more important that it actually is, let's look out for the Udoh-Cousins match up and pretend that it means something about who will be the better pro, or who was the better pick. It will make the game a bit more interesting while we wait for Steph, Andris, and Lee to get 100% healthy and make that inevitable late season run to pull us out of any decent draft position. I love being a Warrior fan!

By the way, make sure to vote on the Homer Heat-Check poll of the day!