D’Marcus Simonds is good, but RJ Hunter was great

With Seniors Jeremy Hollowell, Willie Clayton and Isaiah Dennis graduating this year, it’s no question D’Marcus Simonds is now the leader and future for the Georgia State men’s basketball team.

A question that may seem intriguing, though is whether Simonds will be a better player than Georgia State’s baby-faced assassin RJ Hunter.

I know some spectators may be under the impression that Simonds will indeed be a better player than Hunter, being that he was ranked as high as No. 72 in the ESPN top 100 ratings. Not to mention, Simonds was also limited to playing in 29 games this season, due to an injury, but still managed to average 13.4 ppg– which was good enough for second on the team.

Furthermore, Simonds was named Sun Belt Freshman of the year. But perhaps the most impressive stat for Simonds was being named tournament MVP of the Cancun Challenge and earning all-tournament MVP honors.

Not to discredit Simonds for his impressive freshman season, but it would be pure blasphemy to say he will be a more dominant player than Hunter was during his collegiate career.

Hunter is considered to be one of the best, if not the best, scorers in Georgia State history.

While Simonds has proved to be a lethal scorer himself, Hunter torched opposing defenses in every facet of the game.

If you’re wondering why Hunter is considered one of the most prolific scorers, he asserted himself as such when he scored 527 points in his freshman year.

If you like math, that’s 188 points more than what Simonds recorded– considering Hunter only played two more games than Simonds. Hunter has also scored 1,819 career points at Georgia State.

It’s a tall task to eclipse the 1,000 point mark, but to finish your collegiate career just shy of 2,000 career points is quite remote.

Not to continue to drown you in a wave of Hunter’s stats, (he does have a strong resume) but he was also one of three freshmen in the country to average at least 17 points and 5 boards per game.

And let’s not forget his three-point shooting ability. Hunter made 73 long bombs his freshman year, compared to Simonds’ 16.

Nonetheless, there is lots of upside to Simonds’ game. This season, he showed the ability to score at will, although his three-point shot is suspect at times.

I will state the fact that Simonds is undoubtedly more athletic than Hunter was, which allows him to be more of an aggressive player. Aggressiveness with the attitude and fire that Simonds plays with could very well lead to him possibly flirting with scoring the amount of points Hunter did throughout his collegiate career.

If Simonds intends on playing all four years at Georgia State, which I’m sure he will, then he certainly has a legitimate shot at creating his own legacy.
Hopefully, Simonds will follow Hunter’s footsteps of being drafted to the NBA.  But let it be known that Hunter is truly one of Georgia State’s greatest basketball players.