Jaquon Parker (44) of Suffolk in NCAA tournament action against Ohio State. Photo courtesy of BearcatsNation.com.

In his column on the “glue guys” to watch in college basketball next season, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports Network named Jaquon Parker of Cincinnati the “toughest player in college basketball.”

(Rothstein qualifies this remark by saying that Parker is the toughest player “pound for pound.” I didn’t realize that college basketball recognized weight classes. Rothstein could have just called Parker college basketball’s toughest guard.)

Anyhow, congratulations to Parker, who hails from Suffolk and graduated from King’s Fork High, for the well-deserved national attention. Parker was a key component for this year’s Bearcat squad, which overcame national attention of the negative variety before advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.

Parker made 24 starts in the 30 games in which he appeared this season. As Rothstein points out, Parker played out of position for much of the season, but still averaged 9.4 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game. Parker’s rebounding average was second on the team behind Yancy Gates, the Bearcats’ bruising 6’9″, 260-pound forward.

Parker will be a senior next season and will look to lead the Bearcats even deeper into March.

In other news, Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated has published version 2.0 of his NBA mock draft. Local fans will be disappointed to learn that Kyle O’Quinn of Norfolk State has dropped out of the first round.

Amick changed some things around following the draft combine, but Anthony Davis is holding steady at number one. In other news, the sun rose in the east this morning.