Dude, Marcus Williams was the PG for our most talented team ever. They barely made it past their first three tournament games and lost to an 11 seed in their fourth
I think you're overrating the talent of the 2006 team a little bit. They were long, they were athletic, they were strong, and they were intimidating, but in terms of skill and pure basketball ability we tend to sensationalize a bit with that squad. They were much like the 09 team - an abundance of commodities, but ultimately held together at the binds by one PG (Marcus in 06, AJ in 09). Clearly, the wheels came off the bus when either of those players were taken away - the 06 team was devoid of a complementary ball-handler/play-maker, and after Dyson went down in 09, Kemba was the only other perimeter player who could create, and he was hit or miss. Our frountcourt was really good, but not unbeatable by any means, and certainly not suited to hold a candle to the 04 group. Hilton and Josh were good college players that were glorified by pundits and NBA scouts, as evidenced by the fact that they were out of the league in a few years. Rudy may have been the most talented player in the country, but he was a limited ball-handler, shooter, and distributer. Defensively, he didn't change games the way a player of his caliber probably should have, and his willingness to embrace the big moment and toss the team on his back wasn't exactly a trait he was born with. Rashad, Denham, and Jeff were similarly effective college players with similar limitations. Don't get me wrong - it was a really good team, full of players every coach and in the country would have loved to have on their roster - but the notion that they were "our most talented team ever" and unbeatable when they wanted to be is revisionest history. Even keeping up with the narrative that "they had other things on their mind" (which seems like a convenient excuse to justify the massive expectations we had for that team), I still think Florida would have waxed a completely focused, balls-to-the-wall 06 UConn team the following weekend had we managed to get by GMU.
Relating this back to Marcus: if you had replaced him on that 06 team with a run-of-the-mill college PG, UConn surely would have been bounced in the second round or sooner. So while Kemba was clearly a far superior player to Marcus, both at the college and NBA level, I don't think it's ridiculous reasoning to grant Marcus a spot at the starting PG position on this hypothetical all-star team on the basis of his tremendous court vision and uncanny passing ability.
FWIW, my team:
Kemba
Ray
Caron (I give him the nod over Rip for his defense)
Donyell
Emeka
Bench:
Rip
BG
AJ
Jeff
Hasheem
Ater Majok (I'll admit this seems really stupid, but if we're actually constructing a team to win games, I want somebody with unfiltered energy with the foot speed to disrupt stretch fours and the wingspan to protect the rim. If he can give me spurts of what he brought in that Texas game, I'm happy to have him on the team)
Ricky
