Best Basketball Player from State of CT (played HS in state)

[businesslawyer]

Great thread. A few thoughts.

1. If the question is best high school player, I wouldn't even touch it because there is no right answer. Too many choices, and none of us saw all the candidates play enough games to judge. Murphy is obbiously on the list. So is Sly Williams.

2. If the question is had the best NBA career, I don't think anyone but Vin Bakier can challenge Calvin Murphy.

3. Where it gets interesting for me is best college player. Calvin Murphy is the safest answer, but who saw him play more than a view times and how do you compare huge numbers at Niagara to being all-league in the Big East or A Ten? So if you're asking me the best CT high school players to have an impact on the NCAA since the fall of UCLA (which to me is the start of the modern era), a few thoughts (and these are not necessarily the best or in order).

A. Mentioned a little, but John Bagley to me was one of the two best guards in the country. I'm not sure I'm going to list anyone else about whom that can be said other than Marcus Canby.

B. Not even a mention for the Bear? Yeah, John Pinone was never first team All Big East because he happened to play at the same time as a guy named Ewing: But the guy led 'Nova to Big East titles and an Elite 8, and may have been the best fundamental big man I've ever seen.

C. I hate talking about Marcus CAnby, but he is probably the answer.

D. One guy who wasn't the best, but had a way, way underappreciated career was Bridgeport Central's Harper Williams "All" he did was win A-Ten POY honors and take a UMass team to an Elite 8.

5. Sly Williams was Lamar Odom before Lamar Odom. Unbelievable skills for a man his size. But never played quite up to his talent level.

Drummond's one year of college doesn't get him in the discussion. While I don't watch PC a lot, Kris Dunn may need to be in it when he's done.

 

[DaddyChoc]

This is a really interesting thread and got me thinking. First thing I looked at that list and looked for my father. He played for Uconn in the early 60's and actually at one point broke the single game high school scoring record(at the time) while playing at Milford prep(now academy) with 39 points! He did not play much at Uconn as he was my height about 5'9 but man could he shoot. They called him Radar. His name was Larry Gofberg and he played for the 62/63 squad.

It also made me think of my High school days and the stars of that time. Windsor High school(my home town) had a guy who averaged over 20 a game who was 6'3 had mad hops and could shoot. He took them to the class LL semifinal where they lost to Hillhouse and Anthony Harris. This was unheard for Windsor. They beat Weaver that year who had two stars, one was Micheal Williams who went to Umass(I can hear the boos). But Weaver had another guy that year who we were far more impressed by. We went to weaver to watch them play Hall. They had a guy named Herdol Christie. He has like 6'3 and had an NBA body. We saw him dunk over 2 guys in the hall game and back then that was a big deal. This thread made me look him up. I figured he never played anywhere else but he went to bridgeport and was a real star for them in division 2. I guess just a little small for someone with big man skills. Anyway great thread, go HUSKIES!

We called "Herdale" (spelling) Ren Rean or Reen.

Weaver also beat Ant Harris team in the Championship... Weaver featured Mark Lurry

Charles Easterling aka The Beast was similar to Herdale

 

[DaddyChoc]

Most of you are too young for him, but a guy who went to my high school - Weaver in Hartford - John Egan wasn't too shabby. Led them to an undefeated season his last year including winning the great old New England tournament, was an AA at Providence and then played several NBA seasons as well as coaching in the NBA.

The best player not to play in the NBA was probably Eddie Griffin from Hartford Public. Great high school player.

But I'd give Murphy the vote. Pound for pound the best. Williamson would be a close second.

that what my 75 yr old uncle says as well

 

[DaddyChoc]

Pooch Toliver
Shorty Davis
Shotgun Adger
Duffy Jernigan
Uzi Williams (already mentioned) was tough in the Pro-Am's and Over-30's
Owen Mahorn (not Rick)
Keith Morgan
Kendrick Moore?

 

[mauconnfan]

Shorty Davis was excellent also. That team with Owen and a younger Ricky Mahorn in the early 70's was very good.

And BL had Sly Williams which I believe we left out and I have no idea how, a tremendous talent who fell short only because of himself. Another kid from CT that played on that URI team was the Nelson kid from Hall High who could play the game and really shoot the ball. Also from those years a nice player at PC was Billy Eason.

 

[cohenzone]

that what my 75 yr old uncle says as well

I'm a baby compared to your uncle. Griffin was a year ahead of me. I don't know if he's still at it, but at one time he coached at Bloomfield High

 

[DaddyChoc]

I'm a baby compared to your uncle. Griffin was a year ahead of me. I don't know if he's still at it, but at one time he coached at Bloomfield High

not sure but he took the Bulkeley Bulldogs to the title about 10-15 yrs ago

 

[WhiteDressWes]

not sure but he took the Bulkeley Bulldogs to the title about 10-15 yrs ago

Eddie coached Bulkeley to championships in 2000 and 2009. He was terminated because he established a permanent residence in South Carolina.

 

[superjohn]

Great thread. A few thoughts.

1. If the question is best high school player, I wouldn't even touch it because there is no right answer. Too many choices, and none of us saw all the candidates play enough games to judge. Murphy is obbiously on the list. So is Sly Williams.

2. If the question is had the best NBA career, I don't think anyone but Vin Bakier can challenge Calvin Murphy.

3. Where it gets interesting for me is best college player. Calvin Murphy is the safest answer, but who saw him play more than a view times and how do you compare huge numbers at Niagara to being all-league in the Big East or A Ten? So if you're asking me the best CT high school players to have an impact on the NCAA since the fall of UCLA (which to me is the start of the modern era), a few thoughts (and these are not necessarily the best or in order).

A. Mentioned a little, but John Bagley to me was one of the two best guards in the country. I'm not sure I'm going to list anyone else about whom that can be said other than Marcus Canby.

B. Not even a mention for the Bear? Yeah, John Pinone was never first team All Big East because he happened to play at the same time as a guy named Ewing: But the guy led 'Nova to Big East titles and an Elite 8, and may have been the best fundamental big man I've ever seen.

C. I hate talking about Marcus CAnby, but he is probably the answer.

D. One guy who wasn't the best, but had a way, way underappreciated career was Bridgeport Central's Harper Williams "All" he did was win A-Ten POY honors and take a UMass team to an Elite 8.

5. Sly Williams was Lamar Odom before Lamar Odom. Unbelievable skills for a man his size. But never played quite up to his talent level.

Drummond's one year of college doesn't get him in the discussion. While I don't watch PC a lot, Kris Dunn may need to be in it when he's done.

2. Nobody can challenge Murphy but Camby was as good as Baker and Charles Smith strangely gets no mentions in this thread, Michael Adams is also underrated and Drummond will probably be better than all of them.
3. Camby was as good as it gets as a college player. He was the best player in college his junior year, even better than Tim Duncan.

 

[businesslawyer]

2. Nobody can challenge Murphy but Camby was as good as Baker and Charles Smith strangely gets no mentions in this thread, Michael Adams is also underrated and Drummond will probably be better than all of them.
3. Camby was as good as it gets as a college player. He was the best player in college his junior year, even better than Tim Duncan.

Charles Smith had a good NBA career (colored negatively to Knicks fans by his mediocre career there) and a really good NCAA career, although I don't rate him, for his college play, at the top level of CT HS players.

Michael Adams was a very good and exciting basketball player at BC, but he wasn't near Bagley's level. Frankly, if I'm looking at CT natives who went to BC, give me Jay Murphy before Adams.

 

[CallMeBruce]

3. Camby was as good as it gets as a college player. He was the best player in college his junior year, even better than Tim Duncan.

He was better than Duncan, but I disagree that he was a better player than Ray Allen, who put up bigger numbers in a much tougher league.

 

[superjohn]

Charles Smith had a good NBA career (colored negatively to Knicks fans by his mediocre career there) and a really good NCAA career, although I don't rate him, for his college play, at the top level of CT HS players.

Michael Adams was a very good and exciting basketball player at BC, but he wasn't near Bagley's level. Frankly, if I'm looking at CT natives who went to BC, give me Jay Murphy before Adams.

I was talking about Smith and Adams as NBA players, Adams was easily the better pro over Bagley.

 

[superjohn]

He was better than Duncan, but I disagree that he was a better player than Ray Allen, who put up bigger numbers in a much tougher league.

Camby was national player of the year and took his team to the final 4 because of that Camby has to get the edge. The real shame is that Ray and Camby didn't play together at UConn, we wouldn't have had to wait all those extra years to win our first title.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Camby was national player of the year and took his team to the final 4 because of that Camby has to get the edge. The real shame is that Ray and Camby didn't play together at UConn, we wouldn't have had to wait all those extra years to win our first title.

He doesn't have to get the edge because I'm capable of parsing other information. Allen played better against better competition over the balance of the season. Yes, it sucks that he lost two games earlier in the tournament, but that doesn't take precedence over the players' individual performance. Also, UPI and USA Basketball both picked Allen as NPOY.

 

[superjohn]

He doesn't have to get the edge because I'm capable of parsing other information. Allen played better against better competition over the balance of the season. Yes, it sucks that he lost two games earlier in the tournament, but that doesn't take precedence over the players' individual performance. Also, UPI and USA Basketball both picked Allen as NPOY.

It seems you are just trying to be argumentative. Camby is considered to have swept the NPOY in 1995-1996. USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year isn't even a college award and has nothing to do with the 95-96 college season, it's an award for how you fared in international competition. In my opinion Camby had the better season individually and from a team perspective. Camby's team had 2 losses all season, beat 8 ranked teams including the #1, #3 and #4 teams and lost to the national champions in the final 4 game. UConn had 3 losses all season and lost in the sweet 16 to Miss. State. I don't have the UConn schedule in front of me but their strength of schedule was 31st, UMass was 25th. I'm trying to be objective here as a UConn fan and objectively speaking it's pretty hard to say Ray Allen had a better season than Camby.

 

[eireman]

Two not mentioned that played in state were dave hicks and ernie digregario. The best i ever played against was calvin, in a pickup game....