Best Of The Best: UConn's Top Ten Players

[MJL243]

Best Of The Best: UConn's Top Ten Players video is posted:

 

[EricLA]

Hard to argue with the list.

1. Dee
2. Stewie
3. Moore
   
4. Bird
   
5. Lobo
   
6. Charles
7. Rizzotti
8. Sales
9. Bascomb
10. Jefferson

Personally, if it's only based on college, I can't see how Stewie isn't #1 - 4 NC's, 3 time POY - Dee didn't achieve as much either as a team, or personally. But hey, it's really splitting hairs. I'd have put Stewie first, but it's pretty clear the holy trinity is Dee, Stewie and Maya as far as UCONN greats goes...

 

[DefenseBB]

Top 3 is clear, 4-10 is where the discussion gets serious. No Tina Charles? She is the one who prevented Maya from getting 3 POY awards as she won it her Senior Year (Maya was a Junior).

 

[eebmg]

Top 3 is clear, 4-10 is where the discussion gets serious. No Tina Charles? She is the one who prevented Maya from getting 3 POY awards as she won it her Senior Year (Maya was a Junior).

#6. And that is after only having 2 elite years. Geno very complementary.

 

[ncteacher]

Stewie had Tuck and MoJeff. Dee had...... well, Dee (final two years). Plus, she's "Dee!" I put Dee first also.

Jenn is one of my all time fav's, but Sales probably should be ahead of her.

 

[meyers7]

Hard to argue with the list.

1. Dee
2. Stewie
3. Moore
   
4. Bird
   
5. Lobo
   
6. Charles
7. Rizzotti
8. Sales
9. Bascomb
10. Jefferson

Personally, if it's only based on college, I can't see how Stewie isn't #1 - 4 NC's, 3 time POY - Dee didn't achieve as much either as a team, or personally. But hey, it's really splitting hairs. I'd have put Stewie first, but it's pretty clear the holy trinity is Dee, Stewie and Maya as far as UCONN greats goes...

I can argue. Leaving off a 3x AA. The only 3x AA's were DT, Stewart, Moore and yes the one they left off, Svetlana Abrosimova. Sorry, you can't have a Top 10 without Sveta.

 

[Zorro]

What about Shea?

 

[meyers7]

What about Shea?

1x AA, 1 NC. Probably her injuries kept her from off. She just couldn't get the numbers as compared to the others.

 

[j66kicker]

Great list. So DT, Stewie, Maya and Sue on Mount Rushmore. Sounds exactly right to me.

 

[Mdoggie]

I agree. DT Maya and Stewie. 1,2 and 3 in that order.

 

[JB123]

I think it's a good list. I would quibble a bit with the ordering -- Jefferson is too low -- but overall they did a very good job. If the list had included a few more than 10, that would have made room for players like Kara Wolters (constantly underrated in my opinion), KML, Morgan Tuck, and Abrosimova.

 

[trb123]

100 times better than the previous thread.
The full list is there and I will watch the video tomorrow.
Thanks a lot.

I hope the panelists acknowledge a 1995 bias. Culmo was a coach and Wolters a player on that team.
I also would like to see each panelist's list. If Moriah made it without Culmo's vote, she must have been pretty high up on the other 3.

 

[MilfordHusky]

They don't note that Moriah was the National Defensive Player of the Year. They knock her down because of her supporting cast, but Moriah was in charge! She was the only player who could tell Stewie what to do.

 

[Boreifs]

100 times better than the previous thread.
The full list is there and I will watch the video tomorrow.
Thanks a lot.

I hope the panelists acknowledge a 1995 bias. Culmo was a coach and Wolters a player on that team.
I also would like to see each panelist's list. If Moriah made it without Culmo's vote, she must have been pretty high up on the other 3.

The only one of the four who had Moriah in their Top 10 was the announcer. She made it because of the ballots of the sportswriters on the selection Committee. IMHO, leaving off a three-time all-American and a POY was very unfortunate. They were left off because their teams won only one title, which seems like a double standard. Bascom didn’t win any. When all is said and done, a team with Rizzotti, Walters and Sales (two POY) didn’t win a championship? Yet, all three deserved to be on that list. Championships are only one criterion and not necessarily the most important one. After all, the best UConn team ever assembled (2001) didn’t win one.

 

[eebmg]

They don't note that Moriah was the National Defensive Player of the Year. They knock her down because of her supporting cast, but Moriah was in charge! She was the only player who could tell Stewie what to do.

" Stewie. Be the best player in the country."

 

[borninansonia]

If it were based upon best season, I think Stephanie Dolson's senior year was among the 10 best. "She averaged 12.5 points and a team-best 9.3 rebounds per contest, while she shot 56.4 percent from the floor and was fourth on the team at 3.4 assists per game. She became only the second Husky all-time to register a triple-double with a 24-point, 14-rebound, 11-assist effort against Oregon." And she may have been the best setter of effective screens ever at UConn.

Dolson hauled in 371 rebounds, which was one shy of tying UConn's single-season rebound record held by Tina Charles. She blocked 93 shots, which was the third-highest total by a Husky senior.

Thank you Wikipedia.

 

[MilfordHusky]

" Stewie. Be the best player in the country."

That's like Geno coaching Lou: "Remember Stewie? Just do what she did!"

 

[Bigpetunia]

Top ten lists such as this one are fairly impossible to compile, especially once one gets past the two or three most elite players, and are therefore inherently flawed. Personally, I have no major quibble about the list, though I agree with those who think Sveta cannot be excluded. But there is one player on the list, especially in the light of lots of current musings on our Board, whose fully-deserved inclusion interests me most, and that is Tina.

One of the undisputed characteristics of Geno's coaching genius falls in the area of player development. No one argues with that reality, but it seems to be routinely forgotten, as is the case in all the hand-wringing that goes on on the forum about the progression, or lack thereof, of the current Freshman class. I can't imagine anyone who understands basketball who'd be willing to leave Tina off the list...the level of greatness to which she rose is undisputed. But does anyone remember The Tina Charles of years one and two, before she became TINA CHARLES? She was a total sweetheart! A sweetheart off the court she might have remained, but on the court she was transformed into a BEAST! Some players are so gifted that they follow a kind of natural progression, better in year two than in year one, then even better in year three, etc. A Diana Taurasi would have done that anywhere. With Tina it was something different. Geno, recognizing the latent greatness that was there, rode her relentlessly, almost brutally. She is but one of a host of examples of players who developed in this program in ways that defy any explanation other than coaching genius. Just look to many other so-called elite programs (Duke springs to mind as the best example) as bases of comparison. I'd wager that Megan Walker will emerge as the kind of decorated player for whom the UConn program under Geno has become famous. It's going to be interesting and fun to watch, but it's going to require patience. At UConn, patience is a commodity that can be readily afforded because of all that went before! Just watch.

 

[Bascomfan]

I am glad Bascom made the list. Shows appreciation for one of those who laid the foundation for the program's greatness.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

Personally, if it's only based on college, I can't see how Stewie isn't #1 - 4 NC's, 3 time POY - Dee didn't achieve as much either as a team, or personally. But hey, it's really splitting hairs. I'd have put Stewie first, but it's pretty clear the holy trinity is Dee, Stewie and Maya as far as UCONN greats goes...

Taurasi won one NCAA title with TASK. TASK graduates, and she leads a group of really talented freshmen and solid roleplayers to two NCAA titles. But the individual talent level at UConn was much less in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 that at any other time this century. And if you look at all of Geno's national titles, these years had the least individual talent.

What Taurasi did was make the players so much greater than the sums of their individual parts.

Stewart played all four years with another top ten player on this list - Moriah Jefferson.

For me, it is simple. No other player in UConn history could do what Diana did in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 and lead the team to those NCAA titles. Had Maya won the title in 2010-2011 (after Tina Charles graduated), it would have been a closer call.

 

[diggerfoot]

Taurasi won one NCAA title with TASK. TASK graduates, and she leads a group of really talented freshmen and solid roleplayers to two NCAA titles. But the individual talent level at UConn was much less in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 that at any other time this century. And if you look at all of Geno's national titles, these years had the least individual talent.

What Taurasi did was make the players so much greater than the sums of their individual parts.

Stewart played all four years with another top ten player on this list - Moriah Jefferson.

For me, it is simple. No other player in UConn history could do what Diana did in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 and lead the team to those NCAA titles. Had Maya won the title in 2010-2011 (after Tina Charles graduated), it would have been a closer call.

I agree that Taurasi's feat of leading the 03-04 squad was the most impressive championship feat out of the big three. We don't know that Stewart could not have done something similar, she wasn't in such a situation. However, Stewart succeeded where Taurasi could not, putting a team on her back as a freshman, a team no more talented than the multiple Olympians that were Taurasis's teammates (even after Abrosimova went down, plus Jefferson was not yet a star), a team that already lost to Notre Dame three times that year and most likely would have again if not for Stewart. I only bring that up because things are never "simple." There are caveats upon caveats. Change teammates, change opponents, change eras and you cannot be certain of the outcome.

 

[Carnac]

Hard to argue with the list.

1. Dee
2. Stewie
3. Moore
   
4. Bird
   
5. Lobo
   
6. Charles
7. Rizzotti
8. Sales
9. Bascomb
10. Jefferson

Personally, if it's only based on college, I can't see how Stewie isn't #1 - 4 NC's, 3 time POY - Dee didn't achieve as much either as a team, or personally. But hey, it's really splitting hairs. I'd have put Stewie first, but it's pretty clear the holy trinity is Dee, Stewie and Maya as far as UCONN greats goes...

OK.......Who would you put in UConn's top 20? (second top 10) 11-20 based only on their exploits and accomplishments at UConn? I'll bet there won't be a consensus in the BY on that list.

 

[jimazee]

OK..Who would you put in UConn's top 20? (second top 10) 11-20 based only on their exploits and accomplishments at UConn? I'll bet there won't be a consensus in the BY on that list.

Then we can do the top 30?

 

[Carnac]

Then we can do the top 30?

Sure. There are more than enough players to fill 30 spots, but I think a top 20 list is enough.

 

[EricLA]

OK..Who would you put in UConn's top 20? (second top 10) 11-20 based only on their exploits and accomplishments at UConn? I'll bet there won't be a consensus in the BY on that list.

You are totally right. And so was @meyers7 . I forgot that Sveta was a 3x AA. I'd have to take off Moriah, and then my top 10 would look something like this:

1. Dee
2. Stewie
3. Maya
4. Bird
5. Charles
6. Lobo
7. Abrosimova
8. Rizzotti
9. Sales
10. Bascomb

In the 2nd 10, in no particular order, Jefferson, Wolters, Ralph, Cash, Montgomery, Dolson, Hartley, KML and Tuck. Those are the next 9 because they are all on the Huskies Wall of Honor. After that, I'd put Strother or Tiff Hayes. Tiff is #13 and Annie is #15 on the all time scoring list, and once you account for the greats, and the others on the Wall of Honor, those are the next 2 logical IMHO.

Having said that, IMHO when Lou and Pheesa finish thier senior seasons, I'd be hard pressed not to put Lou in my first top 10 and Pheesa probably at #12 or 13 all time and Annie/Tiff and probably Tuck would drop off...

How remarkable is it that as of right now, there are 22 players in UCONN's history (I believe) who are/were AA's? Add in hopefully Kia this year and boom - 23!