Now that the U.S. is on daylight savings time, we here in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, are eight hours ahead of EDT, 11 hours ahead of PDT.

So, late afternoon/early evening sports events in the U.S. are right in the middle of the night, here, and those that I will get up to see are rare, indeed. The end of the Super Bowl, maybe. The World Series. Game 7 of the NBA Finals, if I get it on TV.

And Jimmer Fredette.

Jimmer is the BYU guard who is the NCAA’s leading scorer this season, at 28.4 points per game, almost four points per game more than the next-highest guy. Which is a lot in an era with more than a few games that end in the 60s or even 50s.

His exploits were a major current through the 2010-11 college basketball season. I really have not been paying attention to college hoops, but even I managed to pick up on the “Jimmer” sensation. Jimmer Fredette. BYU. Lots and lots of points.

He clearly falls into that “brain-dead gunner” fraternity that doesn’t have all that many members.  Rick Mount was a name that popped into my head. Pete Maravich, of course.

Those are guys who have the ball in their hands all the time. For whom no shot is a bad shot. Whose teammates run screens just to get the ball into their hands, because the opposition has a guy whose first job is to deny the shooter the ball.

So, I decided I wanted to see Jimmer at least once. I checked the time of BYU’s game with Gonzaga, figured out that it would begin about 4 a.m. here, and let myself fall asleep in a chair at about 2 a.m., knowing I wouldn’t last all night in that position. And when I woke, at 5 a.m., I went right to the TV and, taking advantage of our new, expanded (but far, far short of comprehensive) satellite package went to ESPN America …

And found the final minutes of Butler and Pittsburgh. Not that it was a bad thing, because I saw the final two seconds of the game; it just took several minutes. The dumb foul committed by the Butler kid … the Pitt guy swishing the free throw to tie … the Pitt guy (who had been 4-for-4 from the line) rimming out the second FT … the Butler kid rebounding the ball as “overtime” went through my head … and the ultimate dopey foul, from the Pitt guy who thought it a good idea to club the left arm of the Butler guy with :00.8 left on the clock.

So, Butler makes a FT, another Big East team goes down in flames, and that’s always good. But where is Jimmer?

Then, ESPN switched to him. BYU already was leaving Gonzaga in the dust, and Jimmer already had 25 points, but it was fun to watch him play. Again, I thought of Rick Mount, the Purdue kid that gave UCLA trouble in the 1969 the title game, and the even more-prolific Pete Maravich of LSU.

Jimmer is more like Mount than Maravich. More of a pure shooter than Maravich. Not that Maravich wasn’t a good shooter. He was. But he could do things I’m not sure are in Jimmer’s repertoire. Maravich was a ridiculously good passer and outstanding in the open court and he played with a showman’s panache that Jimmer (like Mount) has some of, but not like Pistol Pete did. (Maravich at times seemed more interested in a show than in winning.)

But what they all share is that rare essence of being so good that the normal rules of basketball — that it’s bad to depend on one guy to carry you, and to build a team around that one guy — don’t apply.

So, in the final 12 minutes or so of BYU-Gonzaga I got a nice look at Jimmer. Actually, he was the only guy I watched. Dribbling, probing, jab-stepping and pulling up for a three, going to the rim for a layup, getting into the lane and hanging to put up a short jumper. I saw him score nine points, and I saw that oh-so-rare sight of a defense trying to grapple with a perimeter scorer so great that the game just completely changes.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the whole exercise was watching Jimmer off the ball, when he was circling like a shark, and Gonzaga guys were trying to deny him touches. Circling, stopping, reversing himself, using screens from teammates. Eventually, Jimmer got the ball on every possession. I didn’t see Gonzaga keep it out of his hands even once. And when he got it, he usually let it fly.

Anyway, it was fun. I didn’t regret the decision as I tried to get another few hours of sleep.

And can Jimmer play? At the collegiate level, for sure. Oh, yes. It will be interesting to see which of the college superpowers will be able to shut him down … or, more likely, limit him to 25 points on 8-of-24 shooting, something like that. Could be Florida, next weekend. Or Wisconsin/Butler after that.

What kind of pro will he make? Hard to imagine him, at 6-2, 195, getting the same shots in The League. But he would be a great pick for the Utah Jazz, who in the past year have lost their big scorer/rebounder (Carlos Boozer), their coach (Jerry Sloan, fired or quit) and their best player (Deron Williams, traded to the Nets). A hometown hero on that Jazz team might make Utah fans forget about those other disasters.

Could Jimmer carry BYU to the Final Four? Weirder things have happened. Mount got to an NCAA title game, though Maravich did not.

Anyway, I’m just pleased to have seen what this Jimmer Thing is all about.

Don’t know if I’ll make any more 5 a.m. dates with him, though.