Name your all-time UConn Defensive Team | The Boneyard

Name your all-time UConn Defensive Team

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
 
Emeka Okafor
Donovan Clingan
Ricky Moore

Those are my 3 locks

Nadav Henefeld - Only played 1 year but he was the stripper
Andre Jackson - a physical freak
Lyman DePriest
Scott Burrell
Stephon Castle - yes, but too short of a career
Tim Coles - always battled bigger men. Warrior
Jerome Dyson
 
auror said:
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
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It ended with some bad blood with Oriakhi but he might be one of the most underrated UConn defensive players ever. Go re-watch the San Diego State and Arizona games, he took away whatever they wanted to do offensively, unfortunately he was in foul trouble for a decent part of the Arizona game.
 
johnhuskies95 said:
It ended with some bad blood with Oriakhi but he might be one of the most underrated UConn defensive players ever. Go re-watch the San Diego State and Arizona games, he took away whatever they wanted to do offensively, unfortunately he was in foul trouble for a decent part of the Arizona game.
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He was a great defender for the tournament in '11, no doubt. Probably deserves HM just for that. He didn't always bring it consistently, though.
 
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Ricky
Boatright
Castle
Mek
Don

Castle
Dyson
Jackson
Burrell
Thabeet

Gotta show Boatright love for the way he’s straight up take the ball from people and pickup full court. Also Florida of course.

Also crazy that Dyson guarded Derrick Rose AND John Wall during his college career.
 
Kolumbo said:
Emeka Okafor
Donovan Clingan
Ricky Moore

Those are my 3 locks

Nadav Henefeld - Only played 1 year but he was the stripper
Andre Jackson - a physical freak
Lyman DePriest
Scott Burrell
Stephon Castle - yes, but too short of a career
Tim Coles - always battled bigger men. Warrior
Jerome Dyson
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I have to put Stephon Castle on the list especially if you are going to put Nadav on that list. Castle while just here one year was a lock down defender from day 1 and something we haven't seen really since Ricky Moore. Though hassan diara also needs to be an honorable mention with his tenacious defense too.
 
NewBlood said:
Ricky
Stephon
Jackson
Meka
Donovan
Expand ...
I like the list except for Jackson. I would rather out nadav, hassan, depriest, boatright and Thabeet before him. Jackson got killed off the dribble alot as he was more concerned with the occasional highlights reel steal or block.
 
auror said:
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
Expand ...
It is crazy people don't even have Hassan Diara on their honorable mention lists. He has been a tremendous on the ball defender.
 
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I think Steph, Andre, Donovan, Thabeet and Nadav are locks. Ironic that in a Hurley era focused on offense, we get at least three of our all-time best defenders. I don't think recency bias is even a factor with those three.

Steph is already being viewed as a "lockdown cornerback" in the NBA, and Andre was simply a game changer who had to be on the floor simply because he was a defensive savant.

As for Donovan, he became a tremendous shot blocker who made penetration nearly impossible. How many times did we laugh at teams that kept trying to take the ball to rim?

Thabeet was an incredible shot blocker, and Nadav was like Andre in that he had a unique defensive skill set. No pass was safe when he was on the floor. Although we had other good defenders, Nadav was really our first defensive star.
 
Last edited:
Boatright happy he made 'right decision ...
. . . . . . . . enters the chat:
 
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Ricky Moore
Lyman Depriest
Emeka Okafor
Scott Burrell
Andre Jackson

Chris Smith
Rashamel Jones
Donovan Clingan
Nadav Henefeld
Kevin Freeman
 
T-Squared said:
Ricky Moore
Lyman Depriest
Emeka Okafor
Scott Burrell
Andre Jackson

Chris Smith
Rashamel Jones
Donovan Clingan
Nadav Henefeld
Kevin Freeman
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That first team looks great but man, oh man, how do you leave the Dove off the first team? Really pick any three out of these four and the opponents are locked down- DePreist, Burrell, Jackson, Henefeld.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
Some interesting disrespect to Thabeet in here
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He is solidly #3 behind Okafor and Clingan. Yes, Thabeet had more individual honors, but end of the day, the other two had more effect on overall team accomplishments.

All three completely shut down the lane and forced teams to alter any game plan of getting to the rim.

Clingan is more in the Ricky Moore category of you don't see the numbers- blocks for Clingan or steals for Moore. They're numbers are good, but there are others at UConn with better numbers at their position. But you look at opponent FG%, and you see the effect.
 
Chin Diesel said:
He is solidly #3 behind Okafor and Clingan. Yes, Thabeet had more individual honors, but end of the day, the other two had more effect on overall team accomplishments.

All three completely shut down the lane and forced teams to alter any game plan of getting to the rim.

Clingan is more in the Ricky Moore category of you don't see the numbers- blocks for Clingan or steals for Moore. They're numbers are good, but there are others at UConn with better numbers at their position. But you look at opponent FG%, and you see the effect.
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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.
 
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3rdbass said:
I have to put Stephon Castle on the list especially if you are going to put Nadav on that list. Castle while just here one year was a lock down defender from day 1 and something we haven't seen really since Ricky Moore. Though hassan diara also needs to be an honorable mention with his tenacious defense too.
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Stephon would most likely be a lock if he played one more year. He started injured and got better and better every game. No question he was the goods. If we want to go by stats, he wasn't as good as others. Dove was stealing the ball 3.7 times per game. He was insane.

Re what others say about Thabeet, I was not a fan at first, and in fact he was infuriating to watch on offense. I suppose with his size and his shot blocking he belongs somewhere but I wouldn't start a team with him. That's just me.
 
3rdbass said:
It is crazy people don't even have Hassan Diara on their honorable mention lists. He has been a tremendous on the ball defender.
Expand ...
Not as crazy as the complete absence of Boat and Bazz. Opposing teams literally could not run their offense. I think the Harrison twins are still in therapy over the national championship game.
 
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.
 
People are way underrating Boatright in this discussion. He personally cost Wilbekin and the Harrison twins millions of NBA dollars after shoving them in the garbage in the final four.

And an under-the-radar addition: Kemba!

In his first two years, before he had to take on that massive offensive load in 2010-11, his game had a lot more emphasis on defense. His footwork was amazing; no guard could get past him. He was nearly as good as Ryan then.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
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.
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It is a nice conversation to know that over the past 20 years, a player of Thabeet's accomplishments is in the conversation for being the best defensive big man in UConn history, but might also be the third best.
 
Chin Diesel said:
It is a nice conversation to know that over the past 20 years, a player of Thabeet's accomplishments is in the conversation for being the best defensive big man in UConn history, but might also be the third best.
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100%. We didn’t lead the country in blocks for like 10 straight seasons for no reason!
 
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