Quinn Blair made strides his sophomore season, becoming the Tribe’s most reliable player off the bench and a fan favorite.
“Feed Quinn!”
Those two words — shouted so many times by Brendan, John and I along with our friends at Kaplan Arena or at home to my poor, much-abused television — summarize my relationship with Quinn Blair, or more accurately, my fandom.
Over the course of last season, the sophomore forward (now a rising junior) from Livonia, Mich., became one of my favorite players to root for, coming off the bench. And I cheered him on from both the stands in Kaplan and my living-room couch.
As I said in my Season in Review for Luke Loewe, Blair was my third favorite player to watch last season, after Nathan Knight (No. 1) and Loewe himself (No. 2).
What I liked most about Blair — besides him being the occasional baby-faced assassin who could shoot the three — was that he got fired up with us in the crowd. When we cheered, he leapt off the bench, waved his arms up and shouted at the top of his lungs to pump up his teammates on the floor.
That happened during our home game against Northeastern Jan. 30 — a nail-biting, 59-58 win, which came down to the final, game-winning layup by Knight.
Whenever the Tribe started to slip and fall behind its opponent, as it often, sadly, did in games down the stretch, we’d yell, cheer, scream, heckle the opposing players (in good fun, of course) and do whatever needed to do vocally to help our team win. We were relentless, especially against the Huskies that day.
And Blair joined us in that effort. He cheered loud and hard that evening as his starting teammates began to struggle, looking right at us as he leapt up, raised his arms and got the whole crowd to rise. He jumped for joy once Knight made that clutch layup, and so did we.
One of the most exciting home games I ever attended and one of the best Tribe basketball games I ever saw, despite what a massive struggle it was for our team, the triumph over Northeastern ended with us high-fiving Knight, Blair, Loewe and all the players, who came charging past the stands toward the locker room.
It was also one of Blair’s best games all last season. Coming off the bench for both Knight and Andy Van Vliet, Blair left Kaplan triumphant that evening with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 1-of-2 from three. He also grabbed two rebounds on offense and completed both of his free throws.
One of Blair’s strongest and most memorable performances, the second game against Northeastern was one of five double-digit scoring outbursts last season. The others were at Stanford — his first career double-digit performance — at home against Morehead State, at home against Delaware for the Gold Rush and at home against Elon for Senior Day and the regular-season home finale: 10, 12, 13 and a career-high 14 points, respectively.
At Stanford, in what was only the sixth game of the season, Blair played well and shot 3-of-5 from the field, including 2-of-3 from three; but the Tribe lost in a lopsided, 81-50 defeat.
And then Blair followed up his strong performance with another one against Morehead State, the seventh game, in which he shot 5-of-8 from the field, including 1-of-4 from three. The Tribe won that game in a high-scoring, 95-84 victory.
Sadly, I missed the exciting Gold Rush against the Blue Hens — I was out of town! — when Tribe Athletics photographed John and Brendan in face and body paint, an image that’s still being used promotionally. (Ed. note from Brendan: this is one of my finest achievements in life.) But I heard that Blair had an excellent game that day. He shot 5-of-6 from the field and completed all three of his free throws; the Tribe won that game in a narrow, 81-77 victory.
And I was fortunate enough to see Blair play up close during the regular-season home finale against Elon, which I had the pleasure of covering for The Flat Hat — my one men’s basketball assignment before the disastrous, 68-63 quarterfinals loss against Elon and before the country was stricken ill with COVID-19.
In just 24 minutes of play against the Phoenix, Blair staged a record-setting performance, in which he became the team’s fourth leading scorer with a career-high 14 points. He scored nine of those points in the first half and grabbed four defensive rebounds (out of six total) in the short span of 12 minutes. He shot 3-of-4 from the field before halftime, including 1-of-2 from three, and made both of his free throws.
Blair ended the game shooting 4-of-5 from the field, 1-of-2 from three and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, as the Tribe secured a hard-fought, 86-79 victory.
Although I had to stay silent so I could record the game, no one cheered harder than me inside my mind that the Tribe won the game and that Blair staged such a strong performance. I left my table courtside full of nervous and excited energy, finishing another Pepsi and trying to steel my nerves as I prepared for the postgame interview, my first (and only) with head coach Dane Fischer, Knight and Van Vliet — or any members of the men’s basketball team, truly.
Blair finished the 2019-20 season with 155 points in 32 games and 501 minutes, averaging almost five points per game (4.8) as the team’s top scoring reserve. Those numbers showed significant growth from the previous season, in which he played only 19 games, started two, and was on the floor for a total of 153 minutes — less than a third as many, 348 fewer minutes.
During that time, he totaled only 35 points and averaged less than two points per game (1.8), so his median production increased by three points from 2018-19 to last season.
In the 2018-19 season, Blair shot 36.4 percent (12-of-33) from the field, including 30 percent (6-of-20) from three, and he completed 71.4 percent (5-of-7) of his free throws. He also grabbed a total of 27 rebounds, seven on offense and 20 on defense.
Last season he shot a much-improved 46.6 percent (55-of-118) from the field — up more than 10 percent — including 30 percent (15-of-50) from three, and he converted a team-best 78.9 percent (30-of-38) of his free throws in another, 7.5 percent improvement. Additionally, he grabbed 68 rebounds, 16 on offense and 52 on defense, giving him 41 more rebounds total than the season before.
Interestingly, Blair played better down the stretch as the team around him began to struggle. He played with passion, enthusiasm and drive while his teammates started to slump, both physically and emotionally sometimes in games.
In conference play, Blair shot 55.1 percent from the field and averaged 5.5 points per game. And in the final five games of the season, he averaged 8.6 points per game and shot a remarkable 75 percent (15-of-20 from the field), including 62.5 percent (5-of-8) from three; he also hit all eight of his free throws.
It was those numbers and my eye test that made me think of Blair as the team’s baby-faced assassin, shout “Feed Quinn!” whenever he made a three and react with frustration when we played him for only 14 minutes against the Phoenix in that crushing quarterfinals loss, our sad rematch after our glorious Senior Day win.
In that extremely winnable contest, whose final score was only a five-point difference, I thought Blair deserved more minutes for how well he’d been playing previously. Thornton Scott, who had a very up-and-down sophomore season, as Brendan explained in his Season in Review, spent 21 more minutes than Blair off the bench (for 34 minutes total) and staged a slightly worse performance that game.
Both players finished with five points, but Scott shot 1-of-3 from the field (his lone field goal being a three) and 2-of-4 from the foul line, while Blair finished with perfect 2-of-2 shooting, including 1-of-1 from three.
Loewe also had a rough game that day, finishing with five points on 2-of-5 shooting and 1-of-4 from three.
Hopefully, Blair will be able to clock in more minutes next season (assuming we have one, which seems, sadly, less and less likely). He was our best man on the bench and a fan favorite, and he showed remarkable growth from the previous year.
Until then, as if the man were completely starved, famished and on the brink of death — starved for minutes, perhaps — I’ll be shouting to whomever listens: “Feed Quinn!”