Best UConn player to never make the NBA | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Best UConn player to never make the NBA

intlzncster said:
Was actually pretty good too. Injuries really derailed that kid's career. Biggest what could have been player in UCONN history for me.
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Somehow I totally missed that that happened. Maybe it was when I was in CA and was less connected to things.
 
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another guy up for discussion is omar calhoun, had a pretty successful freshman season and I remember reading something saying scouts had taken notice on him but then the hip injuries and surgery altered the rest of his husky career and he never really got back to form
 
Strongly agree with Sheffer, he was my thought before I started reading any of the responses. He was the only one who essentially chose not to play in the NBA since he went back to Israel...all the others tried to make it and couldn't. No doubt he could have had an NBA career if he wanted to stay here.
 
strivefor5 said:
another guy up for discussion is omar calhoun, had a pretty successful freshman season and I remember reading something saying scouts had taken notice on him but then the hip injuries and surgery altered the rest of his husky career and he never really got back to form
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Yes, up for discussion if we are talking top 50 to never play in the NBA.
 
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.”
 
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Sticks. I thought he had the athleticism to play in the NBA.

He had some of the nastiest dunks ever here at uconn
 
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.
 
huskyniner said:
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.
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Couldn’t play defense, was slow, and was one-dimensional.
 
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huskyniner said:
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.
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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.
 
intlzncster said:
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.
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Yet somehow Jared Dudley is still in the league, starting no less.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
Yet somehow Jared Dudley is still in the league, starting no less.
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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.
 
huskyniner said:
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.
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Had the infection never happened, I think he'd have had a shot. Sort of like the Jones fracture for DD.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
tcf15 said:
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.”
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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.
 
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