I DOUBY BELIEVE! Tired from a long day of signing autographs and taking pictures for fawning fans after the debut of my column last week, this knight called it an early Tuesday and retreated to my castle for a lazy night in front of the television.
After watching a half-hour of mindless drivel, I decided it was time to go to sleep. But because I had just had a large iced coffee only an hour ago, it was easier said than done. I spent several minutes looking for some Nyquil to do the trick but after no such luck, I did the next best thing: I put Jay Leno, who had just started his monologue, on the old boob tube and started slipping into sleepy-land.
I was already dreaming of the future Mrs. Knight when I got a phone call that abruptly woke me up. I took one look at my phone and saw that it was one of my good friends on the other line and knew that this must be good.
"Brian Johnson! How you doing?"
"C.W. are you watching this?!?"
"No, Brian, you know Leno always puts me to sleep during his monologue. I can't even make it to Kevin Eubanks."
"Not Leno, you crazy witless knight, put the Kings-Lakers game on. Quincy Douby has 20 points, and it's only the third quarter."
"Whaaaaaat!!"
So I quickly turned on the TV and found the game. Seems Brian wasn't pulling my chain. Not only was Douby actually getting playing time, he was producing.
I watched the rest of the game and then watched the rerun of the game later that night, and it brought a tear to my eye.
It wasn't just the 32 points in 34 minutes, it was the way he did it. A twenty-five-foot three-pointer, another 25-footer, a lay-up, some free throws: It was all too reminiscent. It was as if Douby had discarded his No. 8 purple Kings Jersey for a scarlet and white No. 5 Rutgers version instead.
Then my mind started racing. I started thinking of all the old Douby performances in that familiar Scarlet Knights jersey: Iowa State, St. Mary's, Syracuse, Villanova. I decided it was time to bring out the old scrapbook and take a look back at some vintage Douby games.
December 3, 2003: The first time Scarlet Nation saw the potential of No. 5. Douby dropped 21 points on 11 shots against Temple in only his fourth collegiate game.
Three and a half months later, Douby stuck it to the Owls again. This time it was in the NIT tournament. Douby scored 28 points on 14 shots and hit six three pointers. It wasn't his last big-time performance on the big stage. Thirteen days later facing Iowa State at the World's Greatest Arena, Douby lit up the Cyclones for 35 points to help the Knights eke out an 84-81 win to make it into the NIT championship game.
Douby built off his NIT run to make the leap his sophomore year. While he had no outrageous performance, he did increase his consistency. Douby also increased his scoring average to 15.4 points-per-game, good for 11th in the Big East.
Then came the year no Rutgers basketball fan will ever forget. Douby tormented Temple again, this time dropping in 27 points against the Owls at the RAC. No. 5 topped himself the next time out with a 36-point night against St. Mary's that Scarlet Knights fans are still talking about. Douby hit 60 percent of his shots, four shots from beyond the arc, poached three steals and also grabbed 11 rebounds despite his skinny 6'3" frame.
December 10: Douby started a run of 11 straight games where he reached 20 points by scoring 24 against Buffalo. The run ended when Cincinnati held him to only 19 points.
But you can't keep a good Knight down for long and Quincy had everyone Dou-believing again when Rutgers rolled into Syracuse and Douby led RU to within a Terrence Roberts three-pointer at the buzzer at the end of overtime upset of the Orange with a career high and Carrier Dome opponent record 41 points.
Douby would finish the season scoring 20 points in all but one of his 12 remaining games and at least 30 in half of those games. Of course, the guard went off into the collegiate sunset by scoring 30 points in his last three games and ending the season leading the Big East in scoring that year.
