Best UConn player to never make the NBA

[CTBasketball]

It’s Sheffer.

 

[CTBasketball]

Never understood why Rashad didn't make it. Maybe he wasn't super athletic, but he was still a 6'5" lights out shooter. And clutch.

Couldn’t play defense, was slow, and was one-dimensional.

 

[B1GEast]

Denham Brown once scored 100 points in a single GAME!

 

[intlzncster]

Never understood why Rashad didn't make it. Maybe he wasn't super athletic, but he was still a 6'5" lights out shooter. And clutch.

Probably because that's literally the only skill he had. Below avg handle, not much of a passer, average defender on his best day, not much of a first step, and as you say, not that athletic.

I loved Rashad, as did we all I assume, and he had some of the biggest moments in UCONN history, but he was never on track to be an NBA guy. Too limited.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Probably because that's literally the only skill he had. Below avg handle, not much of a passer, average defender on his best day, not much of a first step, and as you say, not that athletic.

I loved Rashad, as did we all I assume, and he had some of the biggest moments in UCONN history, but he was never on track to be an NBA guy. Too limited.

Yet somehow Jared Dudley is still in the league, starting no less.

 

[HooperScooper]

Yet somehow Jared Dudley is still in the league, starting no less.

Seriously? Wow. I went to a Celtics game last year and Dudley played against them and he was the slowest, fattest NBA player I've ever seen. And on top of that he couldn't shoot any more either. I asked the guy next to me how the heck he was still in the league.

 

[joober jones]

Never understood why Rashad didn't make it. Maybe he wasn't super athletic, but he was still a 6'5" lights out shooter. And clutch.

Had the infection never happened, I think he'd have had a shot. Sort of like the Jones fracture for DD.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Earl Kelly

Good call. Forgot about him. He was talented.

 

[Jaker]

Foxen

 

[RichZ]

Doron and Nadav for sure. I love Ricky, but I don't think there was ever a chance of him being in the league. For me, it's Sticks, followed by Daniels.

 

[FlakeyFoont]

Only the people who never saw Tony Hanson play would leave him off their lists.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Doron was also 6'5 and strong as hell.

Another kudo to Ricky Moore's defense is that not only would he check the other team's best offensive guard, but it felt like he was defending both guards at times, especially in transition, since KEA would take a play or two off on occasion.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Denham Brown and Tony Robertson were two players where the whole package was less than the sum of the parts. They had all the individual tools to be college stars, but they didn't have "game".

Khalid was the opposite. Undersized, overweight, short T-Rex arms, not a great shooter, and poor man to man defender, but he sure had game.

 

[Blaneylover]

Earl Kelly or Doron Sheffer

 

[Son of Robert]

Yeah, my pick is Sheffer. From 2014:

Where are They Now: Former UConn basketball star Doron Sheffer
Back in the motherland, there was great hope that Sheffer would become the first Israeli in the NBA. He recalls hearing the broadcaster Al McGuire once say in an interview, This young man will be an NBA ballplayer, if he decides to. “ ‘Decides to’ was the key,” says Sheffer. “I didn’t make all the effort.” He showed up at Clippers camp; bristled when he was yelled at by the team’s cantankerous coach, Bill Fitch; and hightailed it home, signing with Maccabi. (Israelis would have to wait until Omri Casspi in 2009 to have a homegrown NBA player.) “[Doron] was a player I thought would play 10 years in the NBA,” says Allen. “He was that talented.”

Instead Sheffer was the best player in the Israeli league, leading Maccabi to four straight championships. And then he was gone. At age 28 -- at the peak of his powers, in the middle of a seven-figure contract, against the advice of everyone, including his father -- he quit. “I felt my soul was wanting to spread wings and fly,” he says. “I couldn’t do it with basketball.”

I read about this, wonderful story. Much respect for Doron.

If my memory serves me he had an illness a few years after this, cancer or something.

 

[TerryBoyz]

Probably being revisionist or romanticizing the era but I always wondered how Toraino Walker would have done if it ended differently.

 

[EBonz30]

Ricky Moore or Ryan Boatright....

Stanley Robinson & Kevin Freeman & Doron Sheffer are behind them....

PG Doron Sheffer
SG Ryan Boatright
SF Ricky Moore
PF Stanley Robinson
C Kevin Freeman

That my starting 5 all Uconn non-NBA player squad...

 

[jayteeman]

Lot's of good posts and the best about the ones who didn't go NBA, allowed us to enjoy their talents for 4 years.
But if one, my vote is for:
Earl Kelly

 

[Kitaman]

Nate Miles . . . . . . . . . . just because I woke up cranky and wanted to say cuss words on this board.

 

[superjohn]

Sheffer could have played in the league but I think his lack of foot speed and athleticism would have held him back from being an impact player. I have him just a bit behind Marcus Williams as our best passer ever, he was our best full court passer ever.