Chuck Alexinas question

[hthusky74]

Agree on Baily, a heck of a player. Left school though, grades I think? He had a very good pro career playing in Europe. One of my favorite players from Calhouns early years was Lyman Depriest, that guy had talent and he played with heart.

Lyman DePriest was the Jamelle Elliott of the mens basketball team. He was a real tough sob that worked his butt off. He usually got the toughest defensive assignments and also was sort of an enforcer on the court. He was from Detroit, and my friends and I would always refer to him as the Motown Hit Man. Someone whose stats showed you little, but his game was often the most valuable on the court just like Jamelle. To this day when we see opponents go to the hoop against us unmolested we often go "Where's Lyman? Where's the Motown Hit Man? They wouldn't do that shat against him!!!" One of my all time favorite players.

 

[hthusky74]

Here is an article on the show http://ecreditdaily.com/2014/04/fas...1967-firebirds-connecticut-garage-big-profit/

Of course, the guy they are shaking hands with in the UK cap over one of the Firebirds is Chuck Aleksinas (aka the Morris Montain). I wonder if he's wearing a UConn cap after we trashed UK?

 

[UDann]

Of course, the guy they are shaking hands with in the UK cap over one of the Firebirds is Chuck Aleksinas (aka the Morris Montain). I wonder if he's wearing a UConn cap after we trashed UK?

Ironically I was out in Litchfield yesterday before I came home to read the Boneyard and saw the post. No sightings of Chuck though. Having graduated in '81 and grad school in '82 Chuck took a beating in the school newspaper and overall. For a big guy his presence was not as much on the court as one would have hoped. It was probably so easy for him in Class S basketball that the new Big East was a challenge. The point being he took a lot of criticism and I am not sure his time at UConn was the happiest for him. That said seemed like a nice guy.

 

[Waquoit]

It was probably so easy for him in Class S basketball that the new Big East was a challenge.

C'mon with that nonsense. He played all the time for an NC winner the year before he came to UConn.

 

[huskyrob1]

Lyman DePriest was the Jamelle Elliott of the mens basketball team. He was a real tough sob that worked his butt off. He usually got the toughest defensive assignments and also was sort of an enforcer on the court. He was from Detroit, and my friends and I would always refer to him as the Motown Hit Man. Someone whose stats showed you little, but his game was often the most valuable on the court just like Jamelle. To this day when we see opponents go to the hoop against us unmolested we often go "Where's Lyman? Where's the Motown Hit Man? They wouldn't do that shat against him!!!" One of my all time favorite players.

Here's some video of him scoring over Shack, UCONN vs LSU…..

 

[CL82]

I graduated in 82 and was big fan then. Corny had great year freshman year and maintained that level against improving big east. As a team we did not improve and everyone focused on stopping corney so he got better. Rest of team did not and Perno could not get them to play hard. Biggest problem was our guards - Hobbs, Dulin and Vern hiscomb could not shoot and other teams just sagged on our bigs. Mckay and corney were studs , alexinas was a 7 ft jump shooter who played zero defense and did not have heart

Giscombe was a decent shooter. Hobbsy was a better floor general, better defensively and had a better BBIQ.

 

[Waquoit]

Giscombe was a decent shooter.

Probably the highlight of my sports career was when he hacked me in an adult league and didn't argue the call. Made one of the FT's.

 

[mauconnfan]

Where is Vern these days? Met him through my buddies way back when he was working the HCC and went to the "disco's" down the street where JC's restaurant was……….thought he was going to have a pretty good gig at the HCC

 

[whaler11]

Lesson learned...never hire a coach with a last name starting with "P" at UConn (as in Perno, Pasqualoni).

Funny but the baseball fans will be upset.

 

[Hoophound]

Lyman had more skill than I remember. He made some nice moves to the basket in those highlights. He just didn't look for his offense much at all.

 

[4UConn]

Funny but the baseball fans will be upset.

That clearly falls under the P-E-N exception to the rule!

 

[hthusky74]

C'mon with that nonsense. He played all the time for an NC winner the year before he came to UConn.

Actually he didn't play all the time for KY which is why he left.

 

[Danzz]

Hobbsy and Vern were freshman correct? Vern could certainly shoot it but Perno never used him correctly……

Vern hated playing for Perno. Perno used to say don't worry about missing a shot then would yank Vern after his first miss. The UConn guards (Hobbs especially) would bring the ball down then turn and play with their backs to the basket; pretty hard to be an effective passer playing that way. Vern (who was from NYC) told me McKay was one of the best shooters he has ever seen. Those Perno UConn teams should have won a lot more games than they did.

 

[Danzz]

Where is Vern these days? Met him through my buddies way back when he was working the HCC and went to the "disco's" down the street where JC's restaurant was……….thought he was going to have a pretty good gig at the HCC

I also knew him when he was with the HCC. Last I heard he was out west somewhere working for a civic center like complex. Vern was a sharp kid who got his degree at UConn and told me he would have loved playing for Calhoun.

 

[Mark S]

I joined here for the simple reason of stating a few facts that you wont see printed on a Uconn forum regarding Chuck . I was a friend of his for most of his career and into the 90s,and played with him at Pearl St summer league for many years , I lived in litchfield county , then i relocated and lost touch with him. I took the time to look up all the stats to ensure I wasnt speculating like most here

1] Chuck averaged more points,rebounds,and minutes his sophmore year at UK than the starting center he backed up on the NCAA champ team[Mike Phillips]did in his senior season

2]Chuck did not leave KY for playing time ,he was the STARTER and second leading scorer on the team.

3]Had Chuck not lost 3/4 of his sophmore season he would have been a 1000 point scorer career wise in college ,and also despite very limited playing time as a freshman

4]he shot over 63 % from the floor his junior year shooting jumpshots ....that stat alone is incredible,and i say this being a former player. name one player anywhere.anytime,any size at any level that equaled that feat of 63% that wasnt a garbage man,and/or a dunker Okafor broke that record almost 30 years later as a dunker,put back guy Despite this shooting percentage he only shot 8 per game,no wonder he always complained about shots . And I suspect[ok ,I know firsthand] he looked past uconn while he was still there I will admit that one poster on one forum had it pegged that Chuck needed to get the ball to assert himself on defense etc . Lets face it, he was a big time scorer unlike many uconn centers ever were, without getting the ball he was just an average player.

5]Chucks rookie season he played 16.1 minutes,and started 6 games. How many of uconns best centers all time averaged 16.1 minutes per game in the NBA for an entire season.?? The list is much smaller than you think.

6]Chuck left the NBA for huge money in europe ,and guaranteed money, not again because he didnt play or wasnt good enough.

7]not many people [none that I know of left KY as a starter] and not many people left the NBA for europe unless they coudnt make it. In these 2 instances Chuck was an anomoly. You all assume he left KY for time,and the nba for ability. Youre wrong on both counts. Hee admits both were mistakes,despite a huge career in europe,he could have been a decent backup for 10 years in the nba.

8]Chuck was either the leading scorer and rebounder or in the top 3 in both categories , every year he played in Europe, and the opposing players were gusy like Darryl Dawkins.[hes always gloated in the summer league games on how he scored 40 on Dawkins] James bailey,Marcus Johnson, Artis Gilmore etc etc . He was a career 27/11 guy in italy from what I could gather on doing internet searches

9]Chuck never wanted to go to uconn, as he never visited the school while in high school, NOR did he visit after he left UK. He choose Uconn beacause he took too much time deciding and feared being ineligible 2 years . Hes said this on many occasions in print.

10]I was in Italy watching Corny dominate for his team in the late 80s,while on business Corny was one of my favorite players in the area, he always had a smile on his face and was a nice unselfish guy to play with at the Pearl St summer league When people knew I was from CT,they told me that the team wanted to sign Chuck the next year ,who was in Spain as they thought the 2 would know each other well being teammates at uconn. They said if he signed, those 2 would be the best pair of americans EVER to play in Europe. Pretty strong statement since alot of aging hall of famers called Europe thier home for the ends of thier careers .

11] To me I believe Chuck had a great career prior to and after uconn. He made it in the NBA as a true backup center and not a bench warmer , not because of Uconn but despite uconn. I really believe he would have been a different player at uconn specifically had they used him to his strengths, the teams after uconn got to see what he was capable of . Sorry for the long rant.