Big East's All Time Best Front Courts

[Scottzer]

I'm going to miss a few in here. I don't know who Ewing had with him. But, what's coming to mind are Mourning and Mutumbo, Derrick and Billy, Emeka's wrecking crew, and the next tier having Hasheem and Adrien. Who am I missing, and what's an appropriate ranking for them?

 

[Waquoit]

UConn beat two of those combos in the same weekend with two freshman forwards and a center playing on one leg.

 

[Scottzer]

UConn beat two of those combos in the same weekend with two freshman forwards and a center playing on one leg.

No doubt, but M and M were a pretty darn ferocious tandem. And they held up in the NBA, too.
Derrick and Billy weren't too shabby either.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Bill Wennington, Walter Berry and Willie Glass was pretty solid. They also had Hall of Famer Chris Mullin at G/F.

 

[Palatine]

I attended a Georgetown/ St Johns game where Mourning blocked 8 shots and Mutumbo blocked 11. It was pretty insane.

 

[Scottzer]

Holy

I attended a Georgetown/ St Johns game where Mourning blocked 8 shots and Mutumbo blocked 11. It was pretty insane.

holy s#iite! That's just nuts - sounds like they were probably really close to having two bigs with triple doubles!

 

[Scottzer]

Bill Wennington, Walter Berry and Willie Glass was pretty solid. They also had Hall of Famer Chris Mullin at G/F.

That's one I'd definitely miss - before my time. But that club made a FF, and I've heard those names (obviously Mullin), but never got a chance to see them play for the Redmen.

 

[selles]

I'm going to miss a few in here. I don't know who Ewing had with him. But, what's coming to mind are Mourning and Mutumbo, Derrick and Billy, Emeka's wrecking crew, and the next tier having Hasheem and Adrien. Who am I missing, and what's an appropriate ranking for them?

Not including Huskies to avoid bias, you have to mention:

Georgetown Ewing era - Ewing, Michael Graham, Bill Martin, Ralph Dalton.

Seton Hall 1989 - sleeper here, but best interior defense I've ever seen in the tourney - Ramon Ramos, Daryll Walker, Frantz Voltcy, Anthony Avent.

 

[mauconnfan]

Louie and Bouie

Pinkney and Pinone

 

[Chin Diesel]

Bill Wennington, Walter Berry and Willie Glass was pretty solid. They also had Hall of Famer Chris Mullin at G/F.

I must have had a post hang up on me. I had this same thought.

 

[bobbygt]

Good call on that 1989 Seton Hall team- very underrated.

I'll throw some more out there:

Seikaly and Coleman Syracuse 1987
Dieng, Behanan, and Harrell Louisville 2013

I'd probably break the whole thing down into tiers because ranking them is really, really hard.

I mean, you can't come up with two better defensive centers who were starting on the same team as Mutombo and Mourning. I'd probably say the same thing offensively about Owens and Coleman (who were sorta PF/C hybrids). It's strange that neither of these duos made it to the FF (Mutombo and Mourning ran into UNLV their last year, but they were a very mediocre team that year).

You'd have to put Ewing's frontcourt as #1 though-Ewing was such a beast and Martin and Graham did the dirty work, Not sure if you'd put Reggie Williams as a front court player.... They were feared and made it to the finals 3x.

 

[Stainmaster]

Wow, Ramon Ramos. What a sad story.

 

[Gurleyman]

Not quite at the level of the M+M frontcourt, but Smith-Lane-Gore was darn good in college. Just done in by Barry Goheen.

 

[mauconnfan]

Santifer-Schayes-Rautins

 

[CTBasketball]

They weren't phenomenal but Nova's Lawson, Eberz, and Kornegay were OK.

Pitt had a long stretch where they had some pretty solid bigs: Chev Troutman, Chris Taft, Ontario Lett, Donatos Zavackis, Aaron Gray, Sam Young, and into DeJuan Blair. Gave us fits for a while, especially Troutman once Emeka left.

 

[superjohn]

Great call on the Seton Hall frontcourt, the refs screwed them out of a title. Providence had a frontcourt of Michael Smith, Eric Williams, Austin Croshere and Dickey "Hot like fire" Simpkins. Also the frontcourt of Constantin Popa was devastatingly handsome.

 

[BoatShow]

Oriakhi okwandu Smith
Nolan Brimah Daniels

 

[tentoes4rings]

Great call on the Seton Hall frontcourt, the refs screwed them out of a title. Providence had a frontcourt of Michael Smith, Eric Williams, Austin Croshere and Dickey "Hot like fire" Simpkins. Also the frontcourt of Constantin Popa was devastatingly handsome.

That Seton Hall team was so good, and just owned us that year. I agree about that touch foul sending Rice to the line. Surprising that call didn't get more attention and was just accepted basically. The story was that Andrew Gaze never returned to campus after that, just flew home to Australia. From Gaze's Wikipedia page:

In 1988–89, Gaze played a season of U.S. college basketball at Seton Hall, arriving at the university in mid-October for the start of the NCAA basketball season and returning home immediately after his team's overtime loss to Michigan in the 1989 NCAA finals

 

[mauconnfan]

That Seton Hall team was so good, and just owned us that year. I agree about that touch foul sending Rice to the line. Surprising that call didn't get more attention and was just accepted basically. The story was that Andrew Gaze never returned to campus after that, just flew home to Australia.

Hey stop that. Are you insinuating he wasn't there for academic reasons and only basketball?

 

[tentoes4rings]

Hey stop that. Are you insinuating he wasn't there for academic reasons and only basketball?

Ha, I know, how preposterous right? Look at the update I just added. He got there in mid October, haha.