The Most Important Player for USF Basketball - Number 8

I made a countdown in the preseason list of our basketball roster based on their importance to the overall success of the team.  Now I'm going back to see how well I did. To recap, here is the countdown so far, with their preseason rank in parenthesis:

15. B.J. Daniels (14)

14. Jordan Dumars (7)

13. Ron Anderson Jr. (13)

12. Justin Leemow (12)

11. Mike Burwell (9)

10. Shaun Noriega (8)

9. Alex Rivas (11)

Now onto the countdown! People have been waiting on this guy since number 11, but he just kept rising up the charts. He made the biggest jump on the countdown, coming in at Number 15 on the preseason version to Number 8, its the USF Human Victory Cigar Ryan Kardok!

via image.cdnl3.xosnetwork.com

I made some pretty drastic predictions when talking about Kardok in the preseason, including stating if he played more than 90 minutes this year I would buy someone lunch* if it happened. I also stated that his biggest duty this year should be waving a towel like a madman, jumping up and down on the sidelines, and working on personalized handshakes with all the starters ala Eddie House.

I was wrong. I didn't know that his defensive intensity would make up for his lack of athletic abilities. Kardok played smart, he played hard, and Coach Heath valued that over what guys like Mike Burwell and Shaun Noriega brought to the table.

In 20 games this year, Kardok averaged 7 minutes, .9 of a point, and .7 rebounds a contest. His biggest play of the season happened during the Providence comeback, when he kept the ball alive after Dominique Jones stole it away from Sharaud Curry.

  (via LETHALWEAPONMV)

I'm gonna miss that guy.

As always readers of V5, the question is who will be Number 7 on TMIPFUSFB countdown? The answers are below.

*Velcro, if you're reading this, send me an email with your name and address and I'll get you that giftcard.