Anybody who knows me knows I'm the most down-to-earth person they'll ever meet. Yet, I'll admit one thing — I know my basketball.

I dare anyone to stump me on anything about the NBA from the late 80s to today, whether it's where players went to college, any team's records and most of all, anything about the Milwaukee Bucks. There is a pretty good chance I'll answer it correctly.

If I'm not studying box scores or falling asleep in class, you can find me working the front desk as a DR at Straz Tower. At work Saturday night in the nearly deserted residence hall, I sat back and listened to the Bucks/Pistons game.

During the second quarter, Joe Petek, a sophomore in the College of Communication, came down and inquired about why he didn't have hot water. For whatever reason, we started talking basketball for nearly an hour and his basketball IQ blew me away. He named every time the Lakers lost in the NBA Finals (14 times) and every player to have his number retired by the Celtics. He answered questions I could only scratch my head to.

To top all of this, he asked me if I would like to take an NBA trivia quiz he created. I gladly accepted the challenge, and I was stumped.

There were questions I knew were right, but chose the wrong answer. Who won the most MVP awards? Obviously it's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with six, but I chose Bill Russell who had a measly five.

Then there were the questions I couldn't answer. Did you know Karl Malone has the most turnovers in NBA history? This sounds like something I should have known, but didn't.

Through 25 questions, I learned Bob Pettit is third all-time for career rebounding average behind Wilt Chamberlain and Russell. John Stockton only led the league in steals twice, despite having the most steals in league history.

I now know I have a long way to go before I become the next Marc Stein or Stephen A. Smith. I need to learn more about the roots of the Association rather than knowing where Austin Croshere went to college.

Now that I am once again human to the basketball world and you may feel superior to my being, let me ask you, besides Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson, who is the only other player to average 30 points in his rookie season?

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Nov. 30, 2004.