All-Time "Best" UConn Team

[Strummer]

Interesting thoughts on this thread.
I think that history tends to over-emphasize failures and successes, and I'm sure I'll get killed for this.

If Donyell, for example, had led the team to a championship in '94, then he'd be the greatest Husky ever, by most people's standards. Instead, he misses frees, and his legacy is tarnished. For want of a couple of wins, his entire career is downgraded.

On the flip side, Hamilton hits a fall away winner and is part of a NC team, and suddenly he's better than the 22/5/3 guy with less than average defense that he was his final year.

Donyell's final season was amazing. He was amazing. He was dominant, and could shoot from deep, shoot off screens, rebound, and he was, importantly, a phenomenal defender. He was the whole package. His failure to thrive in the NBA will always be a mystery to me.

But, from a college perspective, Hamilton was a great scorer and, overall, a very good college player. But he was nowhere near Donyell's level.

That's just one example - there are many more.

 

[RoderickSpode]

I appreciate your point, Strummer, but even if you disregard a player's postseason performance and value the entire body of work equally I think you're undervaluing Rip in a major way. Guy was a two time Big East player of the year, essentially unguardable, and ridiculously calm and composed under pressure. His final season, we were a possession away from going undefeated with him in the lineup. His presence on the floor went beyond stats.

 

[superjohn]

The starters are easy- Kemba, Ray, Rip, Donyell, Emeka. I love Caron but no way in hell could he be first team over Hamilton. Rip was a two time Big East player of the year and final 4 MVP. Some really crazy stuff in this thread, Sheffer over Kemba is absurd, Adrien over Donyell is laughable.

 

[tzznandrew]

The starters are easy- Kemba, Ray, Rip, Donyell, Emeka. I love Caron but no way in hell could he be first team over Hamilton. Rip was a two time Big East player of the year and final 4 MVP. Some really crazy stuff in this thread, Sheffer over Kemba is absurd, Adrien over Donyell is laughable.

Agreed.

I think if you are making a best player by position team, those five are obvious.

If you're constructing a team to actually play, share the ball, and D it up, it can get more complicated. Emeka is still obvious there. He brings D, rebounding, and low-post scoring. But Kemba was better off the ball, so you could see someone thinking of taking him, Ray, or Rip off the team to replace them with a distributor who could shoot (which is where Sheffer or Williams came in).

Again, I'm not sure I totally buy it.

But, let's take those 5 as our starters even if our goal is to win. With that being the case, I'm looking for a back-up point guard who can distribute and shoot (give me Napier), a guard who can come in and shut down an opposing guard who might be going off (Ricky), a player who can light it up with no conscience (Rashad), and a bruiser down low who could be an enforcer and play with heart (Adrien or Lyman). Probably on a 12 man roster that leaves me space for Caron, Hasheem, and Khalid.

 

[Marty Jackson]

different era but the Poughkeepsie Popper belongs on that list.

 

[stick]

Interesting thoughts on this thread.
I think that history tends to over-emphasize failures and successes, and I'm sure I'll get killed for this.

If Donyell, for example, had led the team to a championship in '94, then he'd be the greatest Husky ever, by most people's standards. Instead, he misses frees, and his legacy is tarnished. For want of a couple of wins, his entire career is downgraded.

On the flip side, Hamilton hits a fall away winner and is part of a NC team, and suddenly he's better than the 22/5/3 guy with less than average defense that he was his final year.

Donyell's final season was amazing. He was amazing. He was dominant, and could shoot from deep, shoot off screens, rebound, and he was, importantly, a phenomenal defender. He was the whole package. His failure to thrive in the NBA will always be a mystery to me.

But, from a college perspective, Hamilton was a great scorer and, overall, a very good college player. But he was nowhere near Donyell's level.

That's just one example - there are many more.

Great points. The flipside to that is Kemba. Kemba will always be considered an all-time great for what he did in nyc and the tourney. But in his final year, he also went through a lengthy stretch where he couldn't make a shot (pretty important esp. for a guard) and the team went on a long losing streak.

 

[UConn77]

For those of you that never saw Tony Hanson in person he was something special. He would, in my opinion start on any UConn team in the Calhoun era even up until now. Terrific athlete, massively hard working on both ends of the floor. Wore the blue and white with distinction.

Agree 100% Tony was an incredible player who simply dominated. JC would have loved the guy.

 

[hoophuskee]

center

 

[hoophuskee]

A friend of mine and I were going back and forth about our respective programs' "all-time starting lineups." So I came up with a starting lineup and a bench squad for our beloved Huskies.

Two notes:

1. This is based on COLLEGE, not NBA, performance. Basically, I'm picking guys based on their peak at UConn. Otherwise, Andre Drummond is starting on this team and grabbing 20 rebounds a game for us.

2. I'm excluding anyone I never saw play (e.g., Earl Kelley '86 (I'm sure I saw him but I don't remember), Corny Thompson '82, Toby Hanson '77, Wes Bialosuknia '67, Toby Kimball '65, Art Quimby '55, and Red Sox 1B Walt Dropo '47).

Starters:
C Emeka Okafor '04 - 17.6 ppg 11.5 rpg 4.1 bpg
PF Donyell Marshall '94 - 25.1 ppg 8.9 rpg 3.2 bpg
SF Richard Hamilton '99 - 21.5 ppg 4.8 rpg 2.7 apg
SG Ray Allen '96 - 23.4 ppg 6.5 rpg 3.3 apg 115 3's
PG Kemba Walker '11 - 23.5 ppg 5.4 rpg 4.5 apg 1.9 spg 75 3's

Bench:
C Hasheem Thabeet '09 - 13.6 ppg 10.8 rpg 4.2 bpg
PF Cliff Robinson '90 - 20.0 ppg 7.4 rpg
SF Caron Butler '02 - 20.3 ppg 7.5 rpg 3.0 apg 2.1 spg
SG Ben Gordon '04 - 18.5 ppg 4.7 rpg 4.5 apg 1.4 spg 104 3's
PG Shabazz Napier '14 - 17.9 ppg 6.1 rpg 5.5 apg 1.8 spg

Honorable Mentions below. A lot of PGs. I do wonder -- if we're really considering chemistry -- whether Marcus Williams would be the best option for the PG1 spot, since he was the best pure distributor in school history. But Kemba was just crazy as a junior; I can't take him out. And Napier is having one of the best individual seasons in UConn history. Kid is killing it. Chris Smith was awesome; it's tough to leave him out. Sheffer had an amazing final season, too. But I can't put either ahead of Gordon. Note that every non-Israeli on this list played in the NBA.

In no particular order:
Charlie Villanueva '05 - 13.6 ppg 8.1 rpg 1.8 bpg
Scott Burrell '93 - 16.1 ppg 6.0 rpg 2.1 apg
Nadav Henefeld '90 - 11.6 ppg 5.6 rpg 2.9 apg 3.7 spg
Marcus Williams '06 - 12.3 ppg 8.6 apg
Chris Smith '92 - 21.2 ppg 3.7 apg 81 3's
Rudy Gay '06 - 15.2 ppg 6.4 rpg 1.8 spg 1.6 bpg
AJ Price '09 - 14.7 ppg 4.7 apg 82 3's
Doron Sheffer '96 - 16.0 ppg 4.8 rpg 6.1 apg 1.9 spg 95 3's
Khalid El-Amin '00 - 16.0 ppg 5.2 apg 1.7 spg
Jeff Adrien '09 - 13.6 ppg 9.9 rpg 1.2 bpg
Hilton Armstrong '06 - 9.7 ppg 6.6 rpg 3.1 bpg

Thoughts?

I agree 1st team.

2nd team---
c Toby Kimball
pf Butler
sf Tony Hanson
sg Gordon
pg El-Amin

********Revision**********
Taking off Gordan and adding COrny Thompson to pf. Then move Butler to sf then move Hanson to sg.