2005 Greats of the Game #155 Andre Owens

Andre Owens played basketball for the University of Houston from 2002 to 2005. He was one of the team's leaders since his first game as a Cougar where he was the high scorer. He had a very solid career at UH.

Career stats
Points: 1,407 Avg 16.2
3-Pointers Made: 227 (a career high for UH at the time)
Career high points: 41 (1 of 11 Coogs to score 40+)

Team leader
Scoring: 2003-04 (16.0) and 2004-05 (18.3, also led Conference USA)
Free throw percentage: 2002-03 (.764) and 2003-04 (.733)
Assists: 2002-03 (3.2)
Steals: 2002-03 (0.9) and 2003-04 (1.2)
Three Pointers Attempted: 2002-03 (198) and 2003-04 (197)
Three Pointers Made: 2003-03 (65), 2003-04 (62), and 2004-05 (100)

He was team co-captain in 2003-04 (with Marcus Oliver) and 2004-05 (with Lanny Smith). For his efforts in the 2004-05 season, he was named All Conference USA 2nd Team.

As an undrafted free agent, he signed with the Utah Jazz for the 2005-06 season where in played in 23 games. He played 31 games for the India Pacers in the 2007-08 season. Since then he has played in Serbia, Turkey, and Russia.

Today's card is the 2005 Greats of the Game #155, one of Owens' rookie cards. This card has a limited production of 99. There is also a gold variation limited to 25.

I have mixed opinions on the design of this card. I really like that the card is designed to make the player's photograph the focal point. But to do that, almost all color is removed from the card. The background of the photo is grayed out to a distorted black and white. Then you have a border that's a gray/silver overlay of a parquet floor. An odd choice because when I think of parquet floors, I don't think of gray. Finally with the exception of the red Fleer logo, all of the other text and graphics are black and white. Add it all together with a white basketball uniform with a primarily black team logo, and this card is essentially colorless.