“What can you say about Dererk Pardon?” Chris Collins pondered at his post-game press conference.
No more than an hour earlier, Pardon was on the ground in what seemed to be significant pain. He grabbed his ankle. His teammates crowded around, and the crowd, which had been repeatedly riveted in the last hour by his rebounds, dunks and blocks, was silent.
In unison, the crowd of 7,108 knew the answer to Collins’s half-joke, half-question: “M-V-P.” The big man hopped up, and a few minutes later, when Pardon left with 19 points and a career-high 22 rebounds, those three letters again filled Welsh-Ryan Arena.