Looking at basketball box scores are often times deceiving, and the perfect example of one’s gravitas outside the numbers is Norwich senior guard, Derek Hughes.
Hughes has just one game this season in which he scored more than 10 points, and as far as he is concerned, points mean nothing. “The only points that Derek cares about are the ones on the scoreboard,” said Norwich’s longtime varsity basketball coach, Mark Abbott. “Derek not caring about scoring, I guess in this day and age, that’s not normal.”
Hughes once described “his” perfect game to Abbott, and it was something similar to the statistics produced by Boston Celtics guard, Rajon Rondo. “Derek said he’d like a triple-double with something like 13 assists, 10 rebounds, and 10 steals,” Abbott said. Not surprisingly, points did not enter Hughes’ triple-double equation. “He said he didn’t care if he scored, he just wanted the other (statistics).”
In the span of five days last week, Hughes accumulated some of the best statistics of his career. Against Maine-Endwell, he had a career-high 14 assists to go with five rebounds and three steals. He followed that up against Owego scoring a career-high 13 points, while adding eight assists and eight steals in just about half a game’s time. Finally, against Oneonta – again playing about half a game – Hughes racked up seven more assists and three steals. The senior guard has proven an integral and invaluable component of this year’s Tornado team, and was selected as a co-Evening Sun/Smith Ford LLC Athlete of the Week.
“Really, he does everything for us, and he’s replaced Timmy (Clark, last year’s starting point guard) without us missing a beat,” Abbott said. “That was not an easy thing to do. Timmy was a quiet leader, but Derek is definitely our verbal leader on the floor, especially on defense.”
Last year, Clark set a team record for drawing charges over the course of the season. What Clark didn’t do was set the single-game record for taking charges. That record now belongs to Hughes, who stepped in front of oncoming opponents to take four charges in the Schwan tourney championship win over Massena.
Hughes doesn’t bring an inordinate level of athleticism and speed to his position, yet, opponents have yet to figure out a way to keep him away from the basket. Norwich’s dribble-drive offense is predicated on ballhandlers beating their man off the dribble to create opportunities for themselves or teammates. Hughes is front and center executing the offense, and is more than willing to distribute to his capable teammates. With Hughes leading the way, Norwich is averaging over 66 points a game, a sum better than last year’s Section IV championship club. “He’s as unselfish as a player can be,” Abbott said. “I’m not sure if other teams game plan to stop Derek, but they better understand they need to keep the ball out of his hands, because he’s so darn good with it. Just to watch him with the ball in his hands, it’s a real treat. He’s not really fancy, but he always finds a way to get past people and find the open man.”
As a result, Hughes’ team-first attitude has Norwich in contention to repeat as sectional champions.