Name your all-time UConn Defensive Team

[Skiblets]

Toraino Walker honorable mention for that first BE tourney ‘ship if nothing else

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Modern era 1985+

1st Team:
Ricky Moore
Nadav Henefeld
Emeka Okafor
Donovan Clingan
Hasheem Thabeet

2nd Team:
Steph Castle
Scott Burrell
Andre Jackson
Jake Voskuhl
Amida Brimah

Honorable Mentions: Travis Knight, Donyell Marshall, Jeff Adrien, Josh Boone, Christian Vital, Isaiah Whaley, Hilton Armstrong, Ryan Boatright, Jeff Adrien

Lyman de priest is not in your list. You lost me.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Clingan, DePriest, Ricky Moore, Andre Jackson, Castle.

This!

 

[sdglast]

Ricky Moore
Lyman DePriest
Emeka Okafor
Stephon Castle
Nadav Henefeld

 

[mauconnfan]

Henefeld
DePriest
Moore
Clingan
Thabeet

 

[cohenzone]

Lot of great choices. One real old timer, a year a head of Wes B., Dan “Spider” Hesford. Gangly 6-2 called “Spider” because it seemed like he could move on D in 3 directions at the same time.

 

[UCLJ0211]

Modern era 1985+

1st Team:
Ricky Moore
Nadav Henefeld
Emeka Okafor
Donovan Clingan
Hasheem Thabeet

2nd Team:
Steph Castle
Scott Burrell
Andre Jackson
Jake Voskuhl
Amida Brimah

Honorable Mentions: Travis Knight, Donyell Marshall, Jeff Adrien, Josh Boone, Christian Vital, Isaiah Whaley, Hilton Armstrong, Ryan Boatright, Jeff Adrien

Solid list but you gotta have Depriest on here if you’re talking about after 1985.

 

[Shamon30]

Isaiah Whaley has to be there

 

[auror]

Depriest didn't play enough to make the top 10 All-time list, for me. He could be on HM.

 

[ShabooAllStar]

Rudy Johnson?

 

[CTtoSanDiego]

Ricky Moore was the best ever. I don't even care to name 4 more.

 

[bfs3]

I’m a sucker for recency bias myself but you have to include Thabeet, Boatright, Okafor, Ricky Moore and Nadav. Donovan is the only player I’d put in my all time 1st or 2nd team from the last two years. Steph would be my all time defensive freshman.

 

[Mr. French]

Well you can have 2 bigs on either team. Regardless, Thabeet as 2x dpoy, over 4 blocks a game and similarly shut down everything at the rim is as good as Clingan if not slightly better. Both are behind Emeka for me. Thabeet also did it averaging like 32-33 MPG.

I’m not sure when, but it suddenly became fact that Clingan was more dominant than Thabeet…I remember a 2 year span where they won a lot of games and he was the best shot blocker in the country for every minute of that.

He went #2 overall with ZERO offensive game. Just the fact he did it 2 years should put him in any conversation.

They didn’t finish, but his teams were a 4 seed and injured PG then 1 seed and injured 2G.

Someone mentioned team accomplishments as though Thabeet was padding stats on a loser!

 

[Scottzer]

No balance with respect to position in my list - just defensive impact

Castle (shut down every key scorer on the biggest stage)
Depreist (shut down pg [Scoonie Penn?} & defended Shaq) (who can deal man/man w/ a top center or top PG)
Clingan
Oakafor
Thabeet

Henefeld (passing lane steals virtually a career of steals in 1 year)(has to still hold record)
Brimah (a Defensive Player of the year)
Diarra (clear defensive disruption)
Whaley (impact protecting the rim, mid court steals trapping, and high hedge the best)
Moore or Jackson toss up reputation picks that are less firm with me
(Ricky by reputation but I can't think of specific top scorer shut downs, and Jackson was abused by both Gillespie and Richmond unable
to deal with getting isolated and backed down)

Maybe Sanogo who stood like a brick wall when post players tried to back him down, then collected the rebound.

Per Allen Iverson, Ricky Moore was the only college player in the country capable of guarding him.

 

[Excalibur]

I’m not sure when, but it suddenly became fact that Clingan was more dominant than Thabeet…I remember a 2 year span where they won a lot of games and he was the best shot blocker in the country for every minute of that.

He went #2 overall with ZERO offensive game. Just the fact he did it 2 years should put him in any conversation.

They didn’t finish, but his teams were a 4 seed and injured PG then 1 seed and injured 2G.

Someone mentioned team accomplishments as though Thabeet was padding stats on a loser!

Saying that Thabeet is behind Okafor and Clingan is hardly an insult to Thabeet.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Saying that Thabeet is behind Okafor and Clingan is hardly an insult to Thabeet.

I have Okafor comfortably 1st, then Thabeet JUST ahead of DC. But that is literally splitting hairs.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I have Okafor comfortably 1st, then Thabeet JUST ahead of DC. But that is literally splitting hairs.

30-0 in a sweet 16 game against a high power offense is the evidence I submit for Clingan. It is splitting hairs though.

 

[uconngb]

Modern era 1985+

1st Team:
Ricky Moore
Nadav Henefeld
Emeka Okafor
Donovan Clingan
Hasheem Thabeet

2nd Team:
Steph Castle
Scott Burrell
Andre Jackson
Jake Voskuhl
Amida Brimah

Honorable Mentions: Travis Knight, Donyell Marshall, Jeff Adrien, Josh Boone, Christian Vital, Isaiah Whaley, Hilton Armstrong, Ryan Boatright, Jeff Adrien

Criminal no mention of Depriest. He's first team all time just for what he did to Dana Barros in the NIT semis 2nd half

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Lyman de priest is not in your list. You lost me.

Lyman is HM
The guy started only a few games although a great 1v1 defender .he only played 10-12 minutes a game his entire career
comparisons to 30+ min guys is unfair.
Thabeet vs Clingan was tough
because Clingan was a better player snd defensively hid some team weaknesses
However I think HT was a better natural shot blocker .
Emeka wasnt as big but was among the strongest players we ever had , with the reach of a 7 footer , cat like reflexes and an IQ through the roof .
Except for a bad back he is probably a HOF player
The 1990 team was special because they lacked a 5 stopper a the 5 . but getting the ball over the half court line and making an entry pass was almost impossible. . For a defensive first guy like me that was very special .
They still have the record for steals
and Burrell is the all time leader
The 2014 Run was based on the ability of Bazz and Boat destroying the opponents ability to even run offense very remarkable with a shout out to DD, Giff, and especially Brimah who best out some good guys for HM
Jackson was remarkable and the effect on the defensive intensity was visible when he was on the floor.

 

[Mr. French]

Saying that Thabeet is behind Okafor and Clingan is hardly an insult to Thabeet.

Definitely not. But people acting like he is clearly 3rd when he was at least as dominant and for longer than Clingan is a bit of recency bias and probably marred by his (and ‘09 team) history compared to the others.

I’d think you’d agree that there’s a good bit of that going around the last few years, no?

Clingan is a monster, probably more impactful overall because of the end results. But look at individual and team success, hard to say he’s not at least 2.

 

[Mr. French]

Definitely not. But people acting like he is clearly 3rd when he was at least as dominant and for longer than Clingan is a bit of recency bias and probably marred by his (and ‘09 team) history compared to the others.

I’d think you’d agree that there’s a good bit of that going around the last few years, no?

Clingan is a monster, probably more impactful overall because of the end results. But look at individual and team success, hard to say Thabeet is not at least 2.

Edited above.

 

[cwh20]

Per Allen Iverson, Ricky Moore was the only college player in the country capable of guarding him.

I forgot about that. I don’t think AI qualified it as just about college players. Perhaps he didn’t want to acknowledge a current NBA opponent but still, maybe he did include everyone he had faced.

 

[Spaceman213J]

I'd have to go with:

R. Moore
S. Castle
L. Depriest
E. Okafor
D.Clingan

C. Smith
R. Jones
N. Henefeld
I. Whaley
H. Thabeet


I would not have Brimah on my list at all. I liked him, but he would go for everything and if you just got the ball over him it was an easy offensive rebound and put back. I'd go with Boone before Brimah. Jones became a pretty good defender by the time he was done. Catch me tomorrow, and Scotty B. might be there ahead of him for me. It's close between him and Jones.

 

[HuskyHawk]

With proper positions but some switchability. 2nd five is challenging.
1st
PG Ricky Moore
SG Nadav
SF Depriest
PF Doneyll
C Emeka

2nd
PG Castle
SG Andre J
SF Burell
PF Corny Thompson
C Clingan

 

[Excalibur]

The two most overrated defenders appearing on people's lists are Donyell and Andre. Andre was a decent defender -- not great on the ball but used elite athleticism to recover and disrupt passing lanes. Donyell was a great weak side help defender and shot blocker, but subpar one on one defender and got pushed around in the post a bit.