Huskies on SI.com 10 Greatest Huskies of All-Time Ranking

[Waquoit]

Except Bialosuknia and Tony Hanson and Walt Dropo, etc weren’t the Thomas Edisons of their eras.

Dropo was a promising baseball player. Was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1950 and led the league in RBI. Broke his wrist the next year and was never quite the same, though he stayed in the bigs for another decade.

 

[Litch3rd]

Not possible to agree on the top 10, too many players over several generations. And for as much as I love and appreciate Bazz, no way he's "my" number 2. Players to consider, and that list will probably omit someone

Wes Bialosuknia
Toby Kimball
Tony Hanson
Corny Thompson
Chris Smith
Scott Burrell
Donyell Marshal
Ray Ray
Special K
RIP
Caron Butler
Meka
MSG
Rudy
Marcus Williams
AJ Price
Thabeet
Kemba
Bazz
Giffey
Newton
Karaban
Clingan
Chaz

One hit wonders
Castle
Cam

Some combination of success, stats, longevity, game changers.... just impossible to measure really

The Dove

 

[Coach J]

The Dove

Earl Kelly, he shot from deep. If he played with a 3 pt. line his numbers would be outstanding.

 

[storrsroars]

OK, the ancients have convinced me that the players in their era were supremely supreme and it's only due to recency bias that we even recall the names of those lessers on the original SI list. So the new and corrected list is as follows:

1. Wes Bialosuknia
2. Corny Thompson
3a. Art Quimby
3b. Toby Kimball
5. Cliff Robinson
6. Tony Hanson
7. Walt Dropo
8. Earl Kelley
9. Chris Smith
10. Mike McKay

Honorable mention: Chuck Aleksinas, Bill Corley, Gary Cusick, Ray Broxton, Vincent Yokabaskas, Bob Boyd, Bobby Dulin, Norman Bailey, Burr Carlson, John Thomas.

Only after those men, who played when men were real men, are fully given their due, can we talk about the babied players of the past 30 years.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

OK, the ancients have convinced me that the players in their era were supremely supreme and it's only due to recency bias that we even recall the names of those lessers on the original SI list. So the new and corrected list is as follows:

1. Wes Bialosuknia
2. Corny Thompson
3a. Art Quimby
3b. Toby Kimball
5. Cliff Robinson
6. Tony Hanson
7. Walt Dropo
8. Earl Kelley
9. Chris Smith
10. Mike McKay

Honorable mention: Chuck Aleksinas, Bill Corley, Gary Cusick, Ray Broxton, Vincent Yokabaskas, Bob Boyd, Bobby Dulin, Norman Bailey, Burr Carlson, John Thomas.

Only after those men, who played when men were real men, are fully given their due, can we talk about the babied players of the past 30 years.

John “Microwave” Gwynn, Nadav Henefeld?

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Dropo was a promising baseball player. Was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1950 and led the league in RBI. Broke his wrist the next year and was never quite the same, though he stayed in the bigs for another decade.

An argument can be made that Dropo was the best all-around athlete that UConn ever produced. At UConn he left as UConn’s all time leading scorer in basketball, he turned down football offers from the Chicago Bears, basketball offers from a pre NBA Providence pro team, but he found his calling in Major League Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox, bursting on the scene as the leagues rookie MVP in 1950, batting 322, led the American League with 144 RBI’s, and hitting 34 homers. He narrowly beat out Yankee rookie Whitey Ford in the voting.

 

[huskyjawz]

Wow, that's a helluva year in any era.

An argument can be made that Dropo was the best all-around athlete that UConn ever produced. At UConn he left as UConn’s all time leading scorer in basketball, he turned down football offers from the Chicago Bears, basketball offers from a pre NBA Providence pro team, but he found his calling in Major League Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox, bursting on the scene as the leagues rookie MVP in 1950, batting 322, led the American League with 144 RBI’s, and hitting 34 homers. He narrowly beat out Yankee rookie Whitey Ford in the voting.

 

[superjohn]

OK, the ancients have convinced me that the players in their era were supremely supreme and it's only due to recency bias that we even recall the names of those lessers on the original SI list. So the new and corrected list is as follows:

1. Wes Bialosuknia
2. Corny Thompson
3a. Art Quimby
3b. Toby Kimball
5. Cliff Robinson
6. Tony Hanson
7. Walt Dropo
8. Earl Kelley
9. Chris Smith
10. Mike McKay

Honorable mention: Chuck Aleksinas, Bill Corley, Gary Cusick, Ray Broxton, Vincent Yokabaskas, Bob Boyd, Bobby Dulin, Norman Bailey, Burr Carlson, John Thomas.

Only after those men, who played when men were real men, are fully given their due, can we talk about the babied players of the past 30 years.

The top college players were better back then, they just didn't play at UConn. When Wes B was a senior the 1st team all-Americans were Kareem, Clem Haskins, Jimmy Walker, Wes Unseld, and Elvin Hayes.

When Corny was a senior Sleepy Floyd, Terry Cummings, and Ralph Sampson were 1st team all-Americans. Dale Ellis and James Worthy were 2nd team. Dominique Wilkins, Ricky Pierce, and Paul Pressey were 3rd team

When Toby Kimball was a senior Rick Barry, Bill Bradley, Cazzie Russell, and Gail Goodrich were 1st team all-Americans.

 

[Coach J]

John “Microwave” Gwynn, Nadav Henefeld?

They both were game changers for the direction of the program.

 

[storrsroars]

The top college players were better back then, they just didn't play at UConn. When Wes B was a senior the 1st team all-Americans were Kareem, Clem Haskins, Jimmy Walker, Wes Unseld, and Elvin Hayes.

When Corny was a senior Sleepy Floyd, Terry Cummings, and Ralph Sampson were 1st team all-Americans. Dale Ellis and James Worthy were 2nd team. Dominique Wilkins, Ricky Pierce, and Paul Pressey were 3rd team

When Toby Kimball was a senior Rick Barry, Bill Bradley, Cazzie Russell, and Gail Goodrich were 1st team all-Americans.

Were they though? I don't think there's an argument about Kareem, but if you're saying the top college players in the 60s with no shot clock and 4 corners offenses with far less roster diversity than later decades are actually better than guys from the 70s and 80s... I surprised that's coming from you.

As far as Corny, you mentioned the 1982 All-Americans. The 1983 All-Americans included Sampson, Ewing, Jordan, Ellis, Sam Perkins, with Drexler on the 2nd team. That was first year NCAA experimented with the shot clock and 3 point line because Dean Smith embarrassed the NCAA with his stalling tactics in the tourney, but neither was fully implemented until two years later.

I would counter your argument by saying that overall rosters, athleticism and defensive schemes are much better today among the top teams, making it more difficult to compile the kinds of stats one could compile back in the 60s. There are plenty of 6'7" guards with handles and pretty much everyone has a 7 footer today.

 

[TheChamps990411]

If he’s guarding someone in the backcourt he is.

Just ask the Harrison twins lol!

 

[DRBackup]

If you ask me, Bialosuknia’s in pretty good company in this list. The 1967 AA team honorable mention.

View attachment 105756

That puts him in league with Clingan and Marcus Williams for meeting none of the other criteria (yet) but getting an AA HM.

 

[DRBackup]

Cam Spencer should be on this list over Ray.

Uh, no. Absolutely not.

 

[DRBackup]

Kemba was a 1st team AA in 2011

Duly noted. If I could edit the list, I would. Alas... He's already firmly top ten IMO, probably top 5

 

[DRBackup]

I don't have Smith in my top 10, but at least I get the argument here. If it's a list of the "most important" UConn players, he's on it, along with Corny for exactly the reason mentioned in your first sentence.

And yes, he is the all-time scorer (although Hanson had 62 more buckets - no 3pt line - and a 7% higher make rate). But I have a hard time knocking off anyone mentioned on SI's list to include him. He reliably put up numbers, yet I don't recall a "Chris Smith moment" in a huge game. Maybe if he took the shot vs Clemson instead of Tate.

It's a good reminder to take another look at Basketball-Reference's UConn records page. Especially for the folks who don't think Bazz deserves a spot on the top 10. Hell, spend enough time on that page and you might convince yourself that Vital belongs.

Vital likely is in the top 30 or 40 or so. The one thing I haven't done is go through the UConn record books to see who is missing from my list of 33. Granted, you have to keep in mind that a lot of the top players don't make the career record lists because they left early. He's #2 all time in 3 point FGs made, where he benefits from playing 4 years. But he's also #5 in 3P FG%. That's a much bigger deal. On the flip side, however, he was one of the better players on some of the school's worst teams in two decades. His best season, he averaged 16 ppg on a 19-12 team that missed the tournament (even though it was eventually cancelled). In 2023 Hawkins averaged 16 ppg. The relative context of those two seasons is significant.

 

[Waquoit]

Vital likely is in the top 30 or 40 or so.

Players of the 2010's? Strong agree.

 

[Excalibur]

Agree with the Tristan 2 rings point, but to extend rings argument to the 4th best player over Ray Allen is recency bias.

Newton was not one of the top two players on either championship team. How can he be the top all time player?

 

[Excalibur]

Weren't we losing the game when KEA got injured?

He was hurt in the first round game.

 

[DRBackup]

Players of the 2010's? Strong agree.

LOL!! I have to come up with a more objective scoring metric that accounts for everything and then weight "record book" entries appropriately to see where he stacks up. Same kind of thing with the old timers.

 

[DRBackup]

Newton was not one of the top two players on either championship team. How can he be the top all time player?

First team all american in 2024 says otherwise.

 

[Blueballer]

Hard to have a list they say is totally based on the College years and leave out the all time top scorer Chris Smith. Looks to me like there's an awful lot of NBA success bias in that SI list of 10.

 

[huskyjawz]

Hard to have a list they say is totally based on the College years and leave out the all time top scorer Chris Smith. Looks to me like there's an awful lot of NBA success bias in that SI list of 10.

Lot of NBA bias in a lot of this discussion too.

 

[Coach J]

Vital likely is in the top 30 or 40 or so. The one thing I haven't done is go through the UConn record books to see who is missing from my list of 33. Granted, you have to keep in mind that a lot of the top players don't make the career record lists because they left early. He's #2 all time in 3 point FGs made, where he benefits from playing 4 years. But he's also #5 in 3P FG%. That's a much bigger deal. On the flip side, however, he was one of the better players on some of the school's worst teams in two decades. His best season, he averaged 16 ppg on a 19-12 team that missed the tournament (even though it was eventually cancelled). In 2023 Hawkins averaged 16 ppg. The relative context of those two seasons is significant.

Also he actually led the team in rebounding for 2 of his 4 years here, which is significant for a 6'2" guard.

 

[DRBackup]

Hard to have a list they say is totally based on the College years and leave out the all time top scorer Chris Smith. Looks to me like there's an awful lot of NBA success bias in that SI list of 10.

There isn't. Take a look at my list on page 3. Champions, first team all Americans, and conference player of the year gets you 10 and Chris Smith isn't one of them. Maybe he sneaks in at #10 over someone that went to the final four and was 2x DPOY, but otherwise, put him #11.

And my list is 33 so far and it does not consider NBA success at all. I do think NBA draft position should have some input, but so far, my list hasn't taken that into account, either.