8 of the best individual NCAA tournament runs ever | The Boneyard

8 of the best individual NCAA tournament runs ever

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Another factor to keep in mind: Of the guys on this list who won a title, virtually all of them had a great sidekick — except Walker. Magic had Greg Kelser. Manning had Milt Newton. Laettner had Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley. Anthony had Gerry McNamara. Not saying Kemba was playing with a bunch of scrubs, but he didn’t have a teammate of that caliber.

Man, not to take anything away from Kemba but that run doesn't happen without Jeremy Lamb. And if you're going to reference Gerry McNamara as a great sidekick to Melo, you sure as hell should give Lamb credit. During that 11-game run, Lamb averaged 15 points a game on almost 55% shooting per game and hit over 50% of his threes. That's a great sidekick.
 

Mr. French

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Another factor to keep in mind: Of the guys on this list who won a title, virtually all of them had a great sidekick — except Walker. Magic had Greg Kelser. Manning had Milt Newton. Laettner had Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley. Anthony had Gerry McNamara. Not saying Kemba was playing with a bunch of scrubs, but he didn’t have a teammate of that caliber.

Man, not to take anything away from Kemba but that run doesn't happen without Jeremy Lamb. And if you're going to reference Gerry McNamara as a great sidekick to Melo, you sure as hell should give Lamb credit. During that 11-game run, Lamb averaged 15 points a game on almost 55% shooting per game and hit over 50% of his threes. That's a great sidekick.

Was just going to post about this exact point.

My initial thought was "I guess he didn't have one single consistent sidekick that's memorable" but really, you're right.

McNamara is only remembered for those few hot streaks of 3s, but just looking at their tourney performances Lamb was absolutely a solid Robin.

Piggybacking on that point, I think other than for UConn fans, no one really remembers anyone but Kemba about that team. Even though some of the guys the article listed were sorta no-namers, it seems like the writer was trying to give a further notch to Kemba because he just owned that tournament.
 
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Lamb is seemingly discounted for his short college career and to this point non-impactful NBA career. All of those guys probably had better college careers than Lamb, but aside from the Dook guys Lamb has had a better pro career than Kelser (maybe equal), Milt Newton or McNamara - so that should even out the fact that the other guys played longer & thus had more impactful college careers.
 

BUConn10

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I'm glad the NCAA allowed profits and greed to ravage the UConn athletic program despite their commitment to values and the student athlete, all so they could bury us in the history books with these crap ranking articles every week looking at the past.

This feels like when the pilgrims decimated the native Americans and then built museums to look at all the "history". /rant
 
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Lamb is seemingly discounted for his short college career and to this point non-impactful NBA career. All of those guys probably had better college careers than Lamb, but aside from the Dook guys Lamb has had a better pro career than Kelser (maybe equal), Milt Newton or McNamara - so that should even out the fact that the other guys played longer & thus had more impactful college careers.

In that sense, I feel as that Shabazz misses out on the inclusion of a lot of those articles. The 5 in 5, especially in the old BET combined with the fact that Kemba is an all star now seems to have him on all of those articles taking the "Uconn Spot." There should be two spots for Uconn in these articles as much as the writers don't want to do it. Shabazz averaged 21.1/5.5/4.5 on a team where no one will likely ever see an NBA court. Lamb isn't an all star, but he is still playing and making $10 mil a year. There's just too much greatness in our runs over the past 7 years.... I guess that is a good thing :{)
 
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In that sense, I feel as that Shabazz misses out on the inclusion of a lot of those articles. The 5 in 5, especially in the old BET combined with the fact that Kemba is an all star now seems to have him on all of those articles taking the "Uconn Spot." There should be two spots for Uconn in these articles as much as the writers don't want to do it. Shabazz averaged 21.1/5.5/4.5 on a team where no one will likely ever see an NBA court. Lamb isn't an all star, but he is still playing and making $10 mil a year. There's just too much greatness in our runs over the past 7 years.... I guess that is a good thing :{)
Totally agree. In fact, I would bet that if Shabazz had done that at another school, he'd be on the list. No way they would put two UConn guys in the top 8 ever, but he absolutely belongs there. He had a much weaker surrounding cast than Kemba. And was straight money in the tournament.
 

RichZ

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Totally agree. In fact, I would bet that if Shabazz had done that at another school, he'd be on the list. No way they would put two UConn guys in the top 8 ever, but he absolutely belongs there. He had a much weaker surrounding cast than Kemba. And was straight money in the tournament.

Not to mention that in the end, Bazz put a much bigger dog to sleep.
 

BUConn10

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Not to mention that in the end, Bazz put a much bigger dog to sleep.
Really though? All the hype aside, I really did not think that 2014 UK team was good at all, hey looked like they had no natural ball players, just athletes. The rest of the tournament field up to that game maybe, but I wasn't especially threatened by that Wildcats team, the media just went out of its way to remind everyone the name on the front of their jersey means they are automatically better than the competition.
 

scoobydoo

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I can't believe they don't have Kris Dunn on the list.

He got PC to the round of 32!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible. Unreal. Magical. Special.
 

BUConn10

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I can't believe they don't have Kris Dunn on the list.

He got PC to the round of 32!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible. Unreal. Magical. Special.
A truly unthinkable feat, titanic in nature.
 

ctchamps

We are UConn!! 4>1 But 5>>>>1 is even better!
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No.

Sdhusky is often imitated but never duplicated and unfortunately boneyard castrated
So who's the dude who periodically shows up on the men's bb forum to go head to head against @FriarJ whenever Providence is discussed?
 
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This feels like when the pilgrims decimated the native Americans and then built museums to look at all the "history".
It also feels like when people want to selectively, alternatively, demonize some and whitewash others.
Like, for example, neglecting to mention that Native American tribes notoriously enslaved conquered foes, brutally raped female captives, tortured captured warriors, and conducted ritual sacrifice. Oh yeah, and they made money capturing and selling slaves to Europeans, and some owned African slaves.
Feels like that, right?
 
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Totally agree. In fact, I would bet that if Shabazz had done that at another school, he'd be on the list. No way they would put two UConn guys in the top 8 ever, but he absolutely belongs there. He had a much weaker surrounding cast than Kemba. And was straight money in the tournament.
I disagree on Bazz having a much weaker supporting cast. Maybe a slightly weaker supporting cast. Bazz didn't have any other NBA players in the bunch but they were a veteran core and Boat was an outstanding second guard. Once DeAndre kicked it into high gear it was a truly outstanding three lead players. Kemba's team was as young as it gets, there was some talent for sure but they were all kids.
 

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