quote="OkaForPrez, post: 336749, member: 997"]Amen. Price is criminally (no pun intended) underrated. He was a great player. That final four team had the chops. Between Price, beet and Adrien. They just didn't have the right chemistry.
I'm really glad to see some support on this (only two likes, but Ill take it!) Anyway AJ is one of my favorite Huskies of all time. He sure had his fair share of issues, but he never gets the respect or love that he deserves for the great player that he really was. AJ wasn't a pure PG, but he was great at controlling the tempo; he knew exactly when to push it and when to slow it down, and he was a great passer. Plus he needs to get 20/20 hindsight props for keeping the dysfunctional Dyson, Stanley, Thabeet team in line and guiding them to the Final Four. Talented yes, but completely fell apart when he left. As far as the SG end goes, he could really score, and he was a consistent shooter. Not to mention that he could get into the lane and finish (except against MSU when he got into the lane at will, but couldn't finish. Not his fault tho, he had no help that game outside Thabeet). AJ was almost like a poor man's Ben Gordon; not quite as athletic, or with as good of an offensive game, but mixed with Taliek Brown's PG skills. A very underrated Husky. Love me some AJ Price.
I'll say two things about this. First, I really agree that he is underrated. Remember, of the five years he was at UConn, and the three he actually played, we only saw the "real" AJ Price one year: his Junior year. Before that he had the AVM and the laptops keeping him out (and then him needing to play himself back into shape in 06-07), and after, in the NCAAs, he tore his ACL (and never got back to form at UConn)
His career is the greatest "What could have been." He should have played on:
2004-05 team that looked like a beast near the end of the year but lost to NC State in the second round--largely due to lack of depth behind Marcus Williams. That would not have been a problem with Price. That team would have been Price-Williams-Anderson-D.Brown-Villanueva-Boone-Gay. That team could have made a Final Four and maybe repeated.
2005-06 team that lost to George Mason--again in large part because of a lack of depth in the guard slot (and MW's issues with conditioning). They struggled to contain penetration, and had Anderson and Brown (players that I love) playing the 2 despite not being great ball-handlers (Brown better than Anderson). With Price, that team wins the title. They were clearly better than Florida, and while they often played down to their opponents, they always showed up for games where they respected the opponent (unfortunately they didn't respect GMU).
But lets say AVM and laptops
do happen. Regardless, if he played four years that 2006-07 team would have been subpar (although as defending champs maybe they get Durant? Lawson? But I digress). But that 2007-08 team would not have gotten beat in the first round if he didn't tear his ACL. They would have played UCLA in the Sweet 16, and maybe had a shot.
AJ was a lot of fun, and under appreciated, but there were just so many things outside of his control (and some inside it) that easily cloud our judgement of him. To be clear--I'd take him every day ahead of Marcus Williams. He's there with KEA and Sheffer as guards off the bench behind Kemba (especially as all of them, like Kemba, were quite good in a 2 PG system). To be fair, I have but faint memories of Chris Smith, so I didn't include him. Ricky would be there somewhere as well.
