He Missed?

Frankenmuth's Brad Redford has finally missed a free throw. The Senior stud, who will be playing for Xavier next year, recently broke an MHSAA record for consecutive free throws made in a season. In Friday nights game against Vassar, he connected on 10 for 10 from the charity stripe giving him 102 straight free throws made. He is #1 in the MHSAA record books and SECOND in the national record!!! Redford is a freak on the basketball court. He has started for 'muth since his freshman year.

I've had the privilege of seeing Redford play over the years. I watched him his freshman season in the district finals against Cass City. At the time, he was just a pretty good player for a freshman. There were two twins on the team that kinda overshadowed him. Then I watched him his junior season beat up everyone in the disticts, including Cass City again. In one particular game his junior season, he put up 48 points in a losing effort to North Branch. With his domination of the Tri-Valley conference, there have been rumors the last few years that Redford would transfer to a bigger school to get more attention from larger colleges. The kid is probably not even 6 foot tall.

Anyway, I had not had a chance to see Redford play this year. Just highlight after highlight on the local TV sports stations. Oh, I forgot to mention that Redford toasted Vassar with 50 points on Friday night. I think that was his career best. He had a game a few weeks ago where he scored 27...in the FIRST FREAKIN' QUARTER! (6 3-pointers in the first quarter.) He only finished the game with 44 points. North Branch and Muth were supposed to play last Friday. Since my cousin coaches the North Branch team, Mandy and I were going to go watch the game. However, because of the weather, the game was postponed until tonight. So, Mandy and I went tonight instead. Side note: Frankenmuth was entering tonights game 16-0.

We got to the game with about 3 or 4 minutes left in the first quarter, Muth having the early edge. As the quarter went on, Redford was being his usual self...draining 3-pointers with hands in his face...well beyond the 3-point arc. Well, Redford was driving to the paint and got fouled. Two shots coming up. These were his first two attempts for the game. 102 stright. Dribble...dribble...release...BRICK. Yup, he missed his first shot of the night. It seemed like an eternity before the whole crowd and NB student section realized that he actually missed. I was sitting in the 3rd row, right across from the free throw line. In my opinion, as soon as he stepped to the free throw line, something didn't look right. The magic wasn't in the air.

After the miss, the Muth coach called a timeout before he could shoot his second attempt. Again, it took the crowd a few seconds to realize what just took place and why the coach would take a timeout. Eventually everyone realized and stood up to give him the standing ovation he deserved.

102. Gone. Done. But that's not all. In the 4th quarter, he missed again.

The final score was 90-65. I'm not sure how many points he finished with, but since he is averaging 35/game, I'm guessing he got around 30. In just his 3rd game of the season, he set the school record for most points scored in Frankenmuth history. In that 3rd game, he passed the #2 and #1. The #2 guy on the list...his coach.

You can check out the link of the MHSAA basketball record books if you like. It appears nothing has been updated for the 2007-2008 season. But, you can be amazed at how many records Drew Neitzel is involved in.

In my opinion, Redford is the best I've ever seen at the high school level. Incredible. His range is the half-court line. He has Reggie Miller's shooting ability off the screen and "Rip" Hamilton's endurance to run, run, run, and run some more until his opponent quits. Brad plays usually the entire game unless they are winning by 20 in the 4th quarter. If you give him 1 cm of space, you are finished. He's so quick on the dibble, if he gets any room, you are toast and might as well get back on offense. I thought Jordan Bitzer was the best, but even though Bitzer and Redford play two different styles, I have to edge in favor of Redford. I predict Muth to cruise thought the Districts, but will struggle in the Regionals. I expect them to finish undefeated, as they have beat all their remaining opponents by +15 points the previous time they played. Muth has absolutely no height and no large size. Everything they have is speed. If they run into team with some size or height (which you would think at the class B level), they will be in trouble. But, when you have the best player on the court, it doesn't matter. He can shoot lights out. I believe they lost in the regionals last year by one point...a close miss by Redford at the buzzer. Oh, Redford is also a "Mr. Basketball" candidate.

Well, I better stop man-loving on Redford before "Mike and Mike" play Chad Pennington and Brady Quinn music. (Probably only Adam will get that.)

Oh, I almost forgot the best part. After the game, Redford was signing autographs for at least 10 minutes and doing side interviews. He's worth the $5 admission price.