Best Dunker in UConn History?

[Mr. Wonderful]

Tell me more, nelson. Goes great with morning coffee!

 

[mauconnfan]

Sticks was a mediocre defender and depended heavily on a back to the basket turn around for offense. Neither are signatures of tremendous athletes. Sticks had a great vertical and long arms so he gave good dunk. He had average quickness and end to end speed for a starting Big East small forward. He would get caught flat footed defensively, and did not have great recovery against the top scorers, another sign of a good, not great athlete.

Sticks worked hard on his offensive game (I can't say the same for his D) and turned into a pretty good scorer. But calling someone a GREAT athlete by Big East standards is putting them in the same league with Burrell or Donyell or Rudy Gay or Hamilton. Sticks was not close to the athlete those guys were.

Sticks got his "great athlete" label in recruiting, because compared to high school players, he was a great athlete. Compared to Big East small forwards, he was not a great athlete.

Wow think you are lost in real good basketball instincts, good skills defensively and offensively with "athleticism".........you can be a great athlete without being a great basketball player. I'm guessing 98% of the people believe that while you are thinking a bit differently and quite honestly you are wrong.

For instance Doron Sheffer and Nadav Henefeld never got "caught flat footed defensively" but people did get by them..........were they great athletes then? NO.............Rashad Anderson didn't rely "heavily on a back to the basket turn" nor did Travis Knight....were they great athletes? NO............please rethink your position here and call it miscommunication because you are so far off from reality here it's ridiculous.....and we know you're an intelligent poster....

Sticks was a tremendous 6'8" athlete with superb hops which led to "acrobatic displays of ability", very good quickness for his size but wasn't quite gifted with in all areas.

 

[Waquoit]

Sticks was a tremendous 6'8" athlete with superb hops which led to "acrobatic displays of ability", very good quickness for his size but wasn't quite gifted with in all areas.

Very true. I'm not sure I ever saw a player in person grab a rebound at it's highest point that was higher off the floor than Sticks. His hops combined with his long arms and it was like "Whoa!" But we didn't see that enough. He also should have been a more consistant shooter. At the end of the day, he left a lot on the table IMO.

 

[joober jones]

Got me ..... my bad joober....should have known.....please accept my apology as i thought and knew you were much smarter than that!!

No problem, it happens

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Sticks was a mediocre defender and depended heavily on a back to the basket turn around for offense. Neither are signatures of tremendous athletes.

This could also apply to Andre Drummond, no? Out of position all the time on defense and virtually no offensive game outside of 2 feet. Was he an average athlete too?

 

[pepband99]

God, this crap again from Nelson? It was @##!%@#^#$ the first 17 million times he typed it. His defense of his ridiculous position is even ridiculous. The fact he, repeatedly, did his "basket turn around for offense" WHILE IN MIDAIR doesn't impress you? The dunks/layups off inbounds plays? Jay Bilas saying he should wear a helmet as he was that close to the rim? double pumping dunk from barely inside the foul line, with 2 hands? need I go on?

Still one of the dumbest things I've seen on this board, and I've been here a while...

 

[BugsyCT]

Not the best dunker, but my favorite UConn dunk of all time was Kirk King in the '96 BET Final (comes at 5:19 of the video) during that epic comeback. The putback & scream to cut the lead to 1 had the place goin' nuts.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Wow think you are lost in real good basketball instincts, good skills defensively and offensively with "athleticism".........you can be a great athlete without being a great basketball player. I'm guessing 98% of the people believe that while you are thinking a bit differently and quite honestly you are wrong.

For instance Doron Sheffer and Nadav Henefeld never got "caught flat footed defensively" but people did get by them..........were they great athletes then? NO.............Rashad Anderson didn't rely "heavily on a back to the basket turn" nor did Travis Knight....were they great athletes? NO............please rethink your position here and call it miscommunication because you are so far off from reality here it's ridiculous.....and we know you're an intelligent poster....

Sticks was a tremendous 6'8" athlete with superb hops which led to "acrobatic displays of ability", very good quickness for his size but wasn't quite gifted with in all areas.

For a big guy, Travis Knight was actually a very good athlete by college standards. He could catch and shoot or finish in transition, and usually beat his guy down the court on the break.

Great athletes are almost always very good defenders unless they are dogging it. Sticks was not lazy on the court, but he was also not a good defensive player. He had slow feet. He didn't blow by people down the court. He had good ups and a few memorable dunks.

One of the most athletic plays I have ever seen in a college game was Edmund Saunders grabbing an Elton Brand thunder dunk in mid-air and slamming it down on top of Brand, then cocking his head while staring Brand right in the face. Saunders got called for a foul, but pretty much everyone on the court, in the stands, and across the nation knew that Saunders had just stuffed Brand's s***. Think about that play. Brand would go on to have a 13+ year NBA career and make 2 NBA all-star teams. He would be the #1 pick of the draft within just over 2 months from that game. And Saunders, at full speed, caught a ball Brand was slamming into the basket, stopped the momentum of the dunk cold, and then turned it back on Brand, all within the space of a second. I don't consider Saunders a great athlete by Big East standards, but he was capable of very athletic plays, including one like that one which was a combination of speed, vertical leap, strength and coordination. Sticks couldn't have made a play like that against a guy like Brand if they played each other every day.

People remember Sticks throwing it down on some guard or uncontested. What did he do in traffic, while getting bumped, against top competition?

If you are calling Brand a GREAT athlete, you are putting him in the same class as Rudy Gay, Scott Burrell, Donyell Marshall or Richard Hamilton. That is ridiculous.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Sticks couldn't have made a play like that against a guy like Brand if they played each other every day.

People remember Sticks throwing it down on some guard or uncontested. What did he do in traffic, while getting bumped, against top competition?

If you are calling Brand a GREAT athlete, you are putting him in the same class as Rudy Gay, Scott Burrell, Donyell Marshall or Richard Hamilton. That is ridiculous.

I beg to differ with the first sentence I quoted here. Sticks wasn't strong, but he was long, quick, and springy. He could come out of nowhere and pin a layup or dunk attempt against the backboard.

To the second sentence, I don't think you saw Sticks play much. BTW, he had far more than a few memorable dunks, wich is why he has been mentioned frequently in this thread.

The last quote: swap Rip with Sticks, please. Rip was nowhere near great by athletic standards. Good but not great.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Not the best dunker, but my favorite UConn dunk of all time was Kirk King in the '96 BET Final (comes at 5:19 of the video) during that epic comeback. The putback & scream to cut the lead to 1 had the place goin' nuts.

I mentioned Kirk King earlier in this thread. He certainly deserves to be on the list of best dunkers in UConn history (top 10). He had some real monsters particularly that season. I remember some nasty alley-oops and facials.

 

[rip81]

Rodney Purvis....ok, ok, sample set of one is too small. but that one was nice.

as someone mentioned earlier Doug Wrenn as an honorable mention...too bad he only played a few games in Storrs