Bazz's place among the all time UConn greats ?

[dogfan96]

Not in the Big Dance when it was his turn to lead.

Not even before that.. the original poster saying on-court performance wasn't close is just flat out wrong. I'd say over the course of the 40 game season, Napier was the best player on the floor in at least 30 of those games.. maybe more. All-American, CPOY, Cousy Award, Final Four MOP, cut down the nets.. .. what else can one do, other than winning NPOY?

 

[Joobie]

All I can do is shake my head as I am reading the replies on this thread & smile at how many exceptional players we have had at UCONN that we can even have this discussion. IMO, they all have had success & completely different strengths that made them great players. To say one is better than another? WHY?

 

[Strummer]

Those guys were all elite superstars, whereas Napier was a very good player who won several games he shouldn't have.

I had not intended to post under this user name again and was going to start posting again late summer, but couldn't resist responding to this post.


If you're not a UConn fan, then well done Troll.
If you are a UConn fan, then you're a f-----g dimwit, and you should have your user name forcibly changed to "callme$h1tforbrains."

For comparison,
Ray was 26/6/3 in his last year. Shabazz was 18/6/5 from the point. 2 NCs, critical contributor to both teams. Captained the ship through his Soph/Junior year storm. Played huge when it mattered. Shabazz is tops for me, and number 2 is some distance behind. Calhoun built this program, but Shabazz will likely be remembered as the guy who was substantially responsible for heralding in the golden age of UConn the Blueblood. If Shabazz had left, we'd have struggled mightily to stay relevant, and it could have been a very, very long rebuilding process. By my reckoning, the program owes Shabazz a huge, huge thank you.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

This is the right time to talk about this. Two months ago people said Kemba was higher on the list judging Napier based on his career up to that point. I think its appropriate to say that's no longer the case. Napier proved his worth in a great championship run. I don't know about Connecticut's past basketball glory as I'm a fairly new fan... But I definitely gotta put Napier at least above Kemba. The other guys, I can't compare because I wasn't around...

 

[TheRogers]

If there was only one face available in UCONN's MT. Rushmore......his is it. What more does he need to do?

He's going to leave the program in good standing.
He stayed with the program at it's worst.
He had ZERO off court incidents that put the school in a bad light.
He was a great ambassador to the program.
As a back-up, he won it all.
As the go to player, he won it all....AGAIN.

He's freakin BAZZ-tastic!!!!!

 

[uconNYC]

greatest ever husky.

 

[Gurleyman]

I also think it is easy to confuse some of these guys with their post-UConn careers, but that's a pretty fair list. I might be inclined to include Khalid el Amin somewhere near the top mostly because he brought a level of swagger/confidence that UConn needed to get over the top after in what was beginning to feel like a never ending string of Elite 8 losses. And he was a good player, too. Shabazz reminds me a bit of him. Same ice water in his veins when the game is on the line. Ray Allen wins over Donyell easily I think.

You're giving El-Amin credit for the wrong thing if you are trying to say he was the reason why we finally got over the Elite Eight hump. You can say his swagger and moxie helped us beat Duke and I think that's a fair point - but Rip and Free got us through Gonzaga. El-Amin was a human disaster film in that one.

 

[tzznandrew]

You're giving El-Amin credit for the wrong thing if you are trying to say he was the reason why we finally got over the Elite Eight hump. You can say his swagger and moxie helped us beat Duke and I think that's a fair point - but Rip and Free got us through Gonzaga. El-Amin was a human disaster film in that one.

One of my favorite Huskies ever, but yeah, that was like going through a meat grinder.

 

[noeynox]

To me he is number one because he stayed when he could have transferred, and he returned when he could have entered the draft. He helped steady the program during a critical period, and when people were ready to declare the P5, the kings of the revenue sports, he made people pause and say "what about UConn".

He delivered big, when it mattered most IMO. #1 with a bullet. Not the most talented, but probably the best.

 

[tentoes4rings]

Agree with most of this. Especially the top 5 on Rushmore. If you had to cut it to 4, sorry Ray. No ship, no Rushmore. I'd put Donyell at #6.

I agree. I love Ray, Donyell and several others but for a program that has won 4 National Championships, I just can't put players who never even made a Final Four over the great players who have. For that reason, here's my top 10:

Shabazz
Kemba
Rip
Emeka
Ray
Donyell
Ben
Caron
Chris Smith
Burrell

 

[Waquoit]

He was a great ambassador to the program.

And for all college basketball players.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I agree. I love Ray, Donyell and several others but for a program that has won 4 National Championships, I just can't put players who never even made a Final Four over the great players who have. For that reason, here's my top 10:

Shabazz
Kemba
Rip
Emeka
Ray
Donyell
Ben
Caron
Chris Smith
Burrell

There has to be room for Cliffy in the top 10. Bump Gordon or Burrell.

 

[Gurleyman]

I keep wavering on this topic. He's on Mt. Rushmore, no question (Bazz, Kemba, Rip, Emeka - IMO, with Ray as the 5th if we're choosing five). Those are the four Alpha Dogs on national title teams, and Ray was 49-5 in the Big East with two 2 seeds and a 1 seed in his career (he and Doron had the best overall careers in UConn history for entire body of work- that three-year run was pure dominance). All five were first-team A-As in the top three in the NPOY race..

Of those five, only Emeka and Ray did not have a bad season (Emeka was part of a 5 seed as a soph, which was inconsistent, but not bad)
Of those five, only Rip and Emeka did not have a bad postseason loss (Rip BET as a freshman, notwithstanding)
Of those five, only Kemba and Bazz were the sole All-American caliber players on title runs doing all the heavy lifting (Rip had KEA, Emeka had Ben)
Of those five, only Rip and Ray led their teams to 1 seeds (Kemba was part of one as a freshman as a reserve, Emeka probably would have without injuries - they were an awesome 2)
Of those five, only Bazz won twice (obviously), but he was the only one who played all four years

I personally still lean Kemba by a nose (Kemba-Bazz-Rip-Emeka-Ray would be my order, based on UConn-ness). He had a team of freshmen around him (and a sophomore AO), and was a notch more dominant in his postseason run than Bazz was, who had more upperclassmen help around him (Boat-DD-Giffey, and to some degree Kromah, who was older but new to the program). That 11-for-11 run is something special. And he was our best player on the floor for (perhaps) all 11 of them, with the exception of maybe the Butler game (he may have still been our best player despite shooting 5-18, given his energy level, nine hustle rebounds, etc.), but he was probably a bit drained by the title game and perhaps you could hold that against him (but then you have to make note that Brimah bailed Bazz out in the first round - Bazz dribbled off his leg o/b with two mintues to go and missed a chippy that Brimah followed up). DD was our best player against ISU/Florida and Boat might have been our best player against St. Joe's (but Bazz also allowed DD to be our guy on those two days he had it going by taking on a facilitating role, so that shouldn't be held against him).

Bazz gets bonus points for sticking with us and his importance to the program, but Kemba's run was almost as important, because people were kicking sand on our graves after the NIT year, JC's impending retirement, and our recruiting "failures" that led to the Napier-Giffey-Olander-Lamb-Smith class. Bazz wins that standoff, though - would have been easy to leave, and with the conference realignment problem and an umproven KO, we could be wallowing right now without him.

It's a tough call - but I do enjoy the problem of trying to sort out where all this greatness fits together. Maybe I lean Kemba because of the 5-in-5 on top of the title, but I have no issue whatsoever with those who say two rings gives Bazz the edge.

If this was the Premier League and every game counted the same, then I'd probably lean Ray by a nose over Rip (in my lifetime) with Emeka, Donyell, and Kemba 3-4-5 and Bazz a smidge behind. Ray had two A-A years for top five teams. Donyell had maybe the best singular season, but Ray-Rip-Emeka were better as sophomores. Bazz would drop since he was never part of a team that finished in the top 20 in the regular season. But this isn't the Premier League, so this paragraph is meaningless.

 

[Waquoit]

There has to be room for Cliffy in the top 10. Bump Gordon or Burrell.

No freakin' way unless you want factor in NBA longevity. He never made it to the NCAA's, that 89 year was very disappointing. The year after he leaves UConn went to the Elite Eight.

 

[Rondogg]

Do you all remember when we used to make fun of Bazz pounding the ball and pointing all over the place? Man all that yelling and pointing won him a Championship.

As for the question, its no disrespect to other stars saying that he had the best 'career' in a UConn uniform. The kid was mentored by the former best (Champion Kemba), lost a HOF coach (Calhoun), lost about 6-8 players along the way, was ineligible for post season play, and had to play for a brand new 'inexperienced' head Coach. In spite of all that he became a 1st team AA, Bob Cousy award winner and led his team to a Championship Title. Oh and sprinkle in a little help he gave to student athletes, getting meal plans changed.

Not sure anyone else could have done that, and I'd like (and want) to forever think that only Bazz could, making that his legacy.

Excellent point about the meal plans for athletes. He was pretty much directly responsible for that. He was also, (for better or worse) responsible for publicly humiliating the NCAA president on national television. No other Husky has been as big off the court as he has.

 

[UConn17]

I'll try to be clearer. He's getting a lot of bonus points because the team beat other teams that were, over the course of the season, better than they were. They beat Florida twice, but Florida, on the balance of their performance throughout the year, was the better team. Unless you think that Houston was better than UConn this year.



I'm judging on actual on-court performance. Allen played basketball better at UConn than Napier did, and it's not all that close.

lol

 

[UCONNfan1]

Best body of work for sure, along with Giffey (and yes, Olander). But most talented? No. Best leader? Not necessarily as he wasn't the starting PG when he got a ring 4 years ago. BUT... fan favorite? Sure. He was right up there as one of my all time favorites, but was completely pushed over the top with his "This is what you get when you ban us from the NCAA's. We are hungry huskies..." comment. And he followed it up with more comments at the presser. So yeah, my all time favorite Husky...

 

[rover]

Kemba is the best Husky of all time. What he did in 2011 is unprecedented and imo better then what Shabazz did (Shabazz was leading a veteran laden team, Kemba had Alex Oriakhi and some freshmen) and he also contributed more to the 2009 Final Four run then Bazz did to the 2011 run

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

How did he contribute more in 2009? I'm not saying that's wrong, necessarily, but I remember him having a big game against Missouri and that's about it.

 

[otp85]

I had not intended to post under this user name again and was going to start posting again late summer, but couldn't resist responding to this post.


If you're not a UConn fan, then well done Troll.
If you are a UConn fan, then you're a f-----g dimwit, and you should have your user name forcibly changed to "callme$h1tforbrains."

For comparison,
Ray was 26/6/3 in his last year. Shabazz was 18/6/5 from the point. 2 NCs, critical contributor to both teams. Captained the ship through his Soph/Junior year storm. Played huge when it mattered. Shabazz is tops for me, and number 2 is some distance behind. Calhoun built this program, but Shabazz will likely be remembered as the guy who was substantially responsible for heralding in the golden age of UConn the Blueblood. If Shabazz had left, we'd have struggled mightily to stay relevant, and it could have been a very, very long rebuilding process. By my reckoning, the program owes Shabazz a huge, huge thank you.

Great point, people are glossing over the fact that all those other guys had Jim Calhoun and the stability of the University their entire careers. What Shabazz did; along with KO, is going to be as important to our future as Tate George's shot. We can argue who's better than who forever; your preference probably goes with your age. Shabazz is just another in our line of greats; I personally hope we can have this argument with someone new soon......and thank you Shabazz

 

[tcf15]

How did he contribute more in 2009? I'm not saying that's wrong, necessarily, but I remember him having a big game against Missouri and that's about it.

I remember Kemba the bed against MSU. 1-5 from the field, 3-9 FTs and 4 turnovers.

I remember Shabazz sealed the game against Kentucky with 2 free throws to get UConn in the National Championship game (granted, Shabazz was 1-7 against UK and had 3 turnovers, but that doesn't help my argument ).

 

[tzznandrew]

I remember Kemba the bed against MSU. 1-5 from the field, 3-9 FTs and 4 turnovers.

I remember Shabazz sealed the game against Kentucky with 2 free throws to get UConn in the National Championship game (granted, Shabazz was 1-7 against UK and had 3 turnovers, but that fact doesn't help my argument ).

This did happen. But Kemba's performance against Mizzou was the only reason they made the Final Four.

Also, Kemba stepped up big time in general after Dyson's injury. He was initially just a change-of-pace, high energy guy. Once the back-court became him, AJP, and Austrie, his role intensified. Especially since 2009 AJP couldn't get into the lane as well as 2008 AJP (and that was never a major strength of AJP, at least relative to Dyson).

 

[Gurleyman]

That big game against Missouri was a really big game - 24 points and we needed all 24. Napier was important to allow Kemba to play off the ball, but his numbers weren't great (1-6 against Butler too). However, he did run the point the whole second half against Butler when we played a lot better offensively, and he had a couple of great passes after Butler tried to go zone. Those were key plays - sometimes the gimmick defense works and swings momentum (I say gimmick because Butler never played zone and was desperate), and instead I think Bazz's passing took the final wind out of their sails (stats show he had two assists, but they were in key spots, or he threw to guys who were fouled).

 

[UConnSwag11]

Best body of work for sure, along with Giffey (and yes, Olander). But most talented? No. Best leader? Not necessarily as he wasn't the starting PG when he got a ring 4 years ago. BUT... fan favorite? Sure. He was right up there as one of my all time favorites, but was completely pushed over the top with his "This is what you get when you ban us from the NCAA's. We are hungry huskies..." comment. And he followed it up with more comments at the presser. So yeah, my all time favorite Husky...

I'm pretty sure bazz was captain since his sophomore year, ran the show since kemba left and stayed with the school through everything makes him a pretty great leader and as for most talented i'd say he's right up there... he's no freak athlete like gordon but he's with gordon, ray, rip etc

 

[Huskybass]

Bazz did it on the biggest stage under the brightest lights in 2014 and played a significant role in 2011. That's why I consider him the greatest Husky of all time.