Name your all-time UConn Defensive Team
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Castle
Ricky Moore
Nadov
Depriest
Clingan (Fr year, changed so many shots, discouraged many others).
Chris Smith
Emeka
Kevin Freeman
Scott Burrell
Thabeet
Ricky Moore
Nadov
Depriest
Clingan (Fr year, changed so many shots, discouraged many others).
Chris Smith
Emeka
Kevin Freeman
Scott Burrell
Thabeet
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
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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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
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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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.
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.
D
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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It is crazy people don't even have Hassan Diara on their honorable mention lists. He has been a tremendous on the ball defender.
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.
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.
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Okafor and Thabeet were both Two Time Defensive Players of the Year. I'd start any list with those two.
StllH8L8ner
You’ll get nothing and like it!
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Yep…I’d add Donyell to that group. The guy did it all. Except make free throws vs Florida when we needed it.
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Couldnt fall asleep for a second or he was going the other way for a dunk. . . . . . . . enters the chat:
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The Hurley era was not focused on offense until Luke arrived. We did a huge 180 in who we recruited.
Chin Diesel
The timing could not possibly be worse
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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.
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Some interesting disrespect to Thabeet in here
Chin Diesel
The timing could not possibly be worse
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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.
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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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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.