Jimmer Fredette charms national media at the NCAA Tournament

NEW ORLEANS — Helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave ... and all that other Boy Scout stuff.

Plus he's humble.

BYU's Jimmer Fredette took the podium Wednesday after practice to handle media questions. One of them involved comparisons with Danny Ainge, who took the Cougars to the Elite Eight in1981. Fredette quickly deferred to the player with whom he has most often been compared, calling Ainge's game-winning drive against Notre Dame "the biggest play in BYU basketball history."

"I've seen it many times, and we've talked to Danny in July and he's a great guy," Fredette said, "and he's the best player that's ever played here, and his legacy will always be here. He has the biggest shot of all time, so hopefully we can match that and make it to where they made it."

Fredette's fame has been a frequent subject during this year's NCAA Tournament. There are the Youtube videos, the hip-hop songs, the T-shirts, the slogans. One that made him laugh, he said, was a sign that said, "Jimmer/Romney 2012."

"It's great to have people really like you and your teammates and your whole team. That's the position you want to be in. You'd rather have that than have them hate you."

Asked earlier this week about the commotion surrounding him, Fredette said, "Sometimes I don't see all the stuff. Mostly I get told by people what's going on. I see it on Facebook or whatever, so sometimes I'll see (news)paper articles, whatever is written.

"But most of the time someone else tells me something has been written on Twitter — I don't even have a Twitter account to go on. But I see all the stuff and it's crazy. It's funny to see guys talking about you, that you looked up to and are in the NBA now ... and All-Stars. It's fun to see them talking about you and having their respect. It's real cool."

e-mail: rock@desnews.com

Video Courtesy of KSL.com