This may have been posted before, but... | The Boneyard

This may have been posted before, but...

1. Emeka
2. Rip
3. Kemba
4. Ray
5. Shabazz
6. Caron
7. Sanogo
8. Ben Gordon
9. Donyell
10A. Andre
10B. Hawkins
10C. Khalid
10D. AJ Price
 
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upstater said:
1. Emeka
2. Rip
3. Kemba
4. Ray
5. Shabazz
6. Caron
7. Sanogo
8. Ben Gordon
9. Donyell
10A. Andre
10B. Hawkins
10C. Khalid
10D. AJ Price
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One Ollie recruit (as head coach)
 
Kudos to Alex on his answer. Loyal .
 
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Marcus Williams belongs on your list. …OK, he was suspended every other year for something. Maybe he was nit that Good at doing schoolwork or knowing which laptop was his. But, the dude was better than Price. I am not sure if he was better than Napier.
 
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upstater said:
I've been watching since late 70s. Would not take Corny or Cliff ahead of the guys in that list.
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Yep, which doesn't mean they weren't great players. We've just had a lot of great players.
 
I think that I'd swap Ricky of AJ, and might shuffle a couple places here or there, but overall, it's a damned good list.
 
Emeka and Rip are no question on the Mt. Rushmore of Husky greats, which in and of itself is an amazing feat. Mek gets #2 for his sheer domination of the Blue Devils in the 2nd half of the 2004 National Semifinal.

But sorry... there is only one #1... and it has to be Kemba. The 2011 Huskies do not win the National Title if you were to switch Emeka for Kemba. Only Danny Manning's "Danny and the Miracles" run to their title in 1988 is on par with what Kemba Walker did for us in 2011. And although the 11 game "March to the Sea" through the Big East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament would put him neck and neck with anyone, some people tend to forget that Kemba was arguably the best player in the country for the entirety of 2010-2011 (I still will argue with anyone that Jimmer Fredette did not deserve player of the year as he was awful on defense, while Kemba usually played D on the other team's best guard. NO COMPARISON!).

The run in the NCAA tournament never happens without Kemba embracing the leadership role right from pre-season workouts and becoming the man from day one. He lead us right out of the gate to that totally unexpected and totally satisfying win in Maui (I will never forget the absolute spanking we put on Calipari and his heavily favored Kentucky Wildcats in the championship... absolutely top 5 non-NCAA championship games we won during the Calhoun-era).

Kemba is the greatest leader to ever don a UConn uniform... Khalid and Shabazz are right there behind him, for sure, but Kemba has to get the clear nod there as well. His 2010-2011 body of work from beginning to end is still the greatest singular season-long performance that any Husky has ever had. That makes him #1 in my book. Oh, and he also was in a second Final 4... and an important role player as a freshman on that 2008-2009 team.

As a side note - my favorite part of these discussions is going through the exercise of remembering how many great players and special young men we have had play at the University of Connecticut. We are absolutely one of the luckiest if not the luckiest fan base in all of college basketball.
 
LStudfellow said:
Emeka and Rip are no question on the Mt. Rushmore of Husky greats, which in and of itself is an amazing feat. Mek gets #2 for his sheer domination of the Blue Devils in the 2nd half of the 2004 National Semifinal.

But sorry... there is only one #1... and it has to be Kemba. The 2011 Huskies do not win the National Title if you were to switch Emeka for Kemba. Only Danny Manning's "Danny and the Miracles" run to their title in 1988 is on par with what Kemba Walker did for us in 2011. And although the 11 game "March to the Sea" through the Big East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament would put him neck and neck with anyone, some people tend to forget that Kemba was arguably the best player in the country for the entirety of 2010-2011 (I still will argue with anyone that Jimmer Fredette did not deserve player of the year as he was awful on defense, while Kemba usually played D on the other team's best guard. NO COMPARISON!).

The run in the NCAA tournament never happens without Kemba embracing the leadership role right from pre-season workouts and becoming the man from day one. He lead us right out of the gate to that totally unexpected and totally satisfying win in Maui (I will never forget the absolute spanking we put on Calipari and his heavily favored Kentucky Wildcats in the championship... absolutely top 5 non-NCAA championship games we won during the Calhoun-era).

Kemba is the greatest leader to ever don a UConn uniform... Khalid and Shabazz are right there behind him, for sure, but Kemba has to get the clear nod there as well. His 2010-2011 body of work from beginning to end is still the greatest singular season-long performance that any Husky has ever had. That makes him #1 in my book. Oh, and he also was in a second Final 4... and an important role player as a freshman on that 2008-2009 team.

As a side note - my favorite part of these discussions is going through the exercise of remembering how many great players and special young men we have had play at the University of Connecticut. We are absolutely one of the luckiest if not the luckiest fan base in all of college basketball.
Expand ...
I agree with all of this but everyone has different criteria. Mine was simply dominance and performance. Who was the biggest factor?

I thought Emeka in college was the most unstoppable force UConn ever had. It's a good discussion though.
 
upstater said:
I agree with all of this but everyone has different criteria. Mine was simply dominance and performance. Who was the biggest factor?

I thought Emeka in college was the most unstoppable force UConn ever had. It's a good discussion though.
Expand ...
Overall a good list, Emeka and Rip are my top 2 as well, probably Rip edging out Emeka but you got Donyell too low and Smitty should be on there.
 
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superjohn said:
Overall a good list, Emeka and Rip are my top 2 as well, probably Rip edging out Emeka but you got Donyell too low and Smitty should be on there.
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I agree about Smitty. You would have to be a fan for over 30 years to realize how important Chris Smith was to UConn besides just his shooting. Similar to Dan Orlovsky in football, his decision to attend UConn was a great get for Coach Calhoun and opened the door for other recruits.
 
RichZ said:
I think that I'd swap Ricky of AJ, and might shuffle a couple places here or there, but overall, it's a damned good list.
Expand ...
Agree. There's room for debate about who should be in the "10" grouping.
 
upstater said:
I agree with all of this but everyone has different criteria. Mine was simply dominance and performance. Who was the biggest factor?

I thought Emeka in college was the most unstoppable force UConn ever had. It's a good discussion though.
Expand ...
Donyell imo despite the rough end but you’re right we’re spoiled there are real strong cases for several guys.
 
upstater said:
I agree with all of this but everyone has different criteria. Mine was simply dominance and performance. Who was the biggest factor?

I thought Emeka in college was the most unstoppable force UConn ever had. It's a good discussion though.
Expand ...
Eye test says Kemba but Emeka and Rip won National Player of the Year Awards. In Emeka’s case he was the DPOY too.

Add all that in and yeah Emeka is probably #1 on this list. Kemba for sure deserved to be player of the year but he just got beat up during the Big East regular season compared to Jimmer cruising through the Mountain West.

Kemba played as close to perfect as I’ve ever seen in cbb.
 
Unless I missed it, nobody picked Johnnie Selvie. What the heck is up with that?
 
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upstater said:
I've been watching since late 70s. Would not take Corny or Cliff ahead of the guys in that list.
Expand ...
One can argue that Chris Smith might have been the most important recruit in UConn history. There’s no dream season without him and maybe no Scott Burrell. Without them there’s probably no Donyell. Without Donyell there’s probably no Ray Allen. So forth and so forth.
 
TheHorde said:
One can argue that Chris Smith might have been the most important recruit in UConn history. There’s no dream season without him and maybe no Scott Burrell. Without them there’s probably no Donyell. Without Donyell there’s probably no Ray Allen. So forth and so forth.
Expand ...
Totally agree about the recruiting that he helped influence. And here is some more information about his scoring that I had to obtain from Google:

2,145 points in his four years, an all-time record (this included another record, 1,140 points in Big East Conference history), and also led the team in career three-point field goals with 242, being one of only two UConn players to score at least 500 points in three different seasons. RIP is the other.
 
I think Mek had the best single season, start to finish. But Kemba's run at the end of 2011 was beyond belief.

Cliff Robinson and Smitty was the catalyst for everything that came after.
 
TheHorde said:
One can argue that Chris Smith might have been the most important recruit in UConn history. There’s no dream season without him and maybe no Scott Burrell. Without them there’s probably no Donyell. Without Donyell there’s probably no Ray Allen. So forth and so forth.
Expand ...
I loved Cliff, but Chris Smith is who made me love UConn even more. I remember going down to the park everyday.....3,2,1,...... Chris Smith at the buzzer.
 
LStudfellow said:
Emeka and Rip are no question on the Mt. Rushmore of Husky greats, which in and of itself is an amazing feat. Mek gets #2 for his sheer domination of the Blue Devils in the 2nd half of the 2004 National Semifinal.

But sorry... there is only one #1... and it has to be Kemba. The 2011 Huskies do not win the National Title if you were to switch Emeka for Kemba. Only Danny Manning's "Danny and the Miracles" run to their title in 1988 is on par with what Kemba Walker did for us in 2011. And although the 11 game "March to the Sea" through the Big East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament would put him neck and neck with anyone, some people tend to forget that Kemba was arguably the best player in the country for the entirety of 2010-2011 (I still will argue with anyone that Jimmer Fredette did not deserve player of the year as he was awful on defense, while Kemba usually played D on the other team's best guard. NO COMPARISON!).

The run in the NCAA tournament never happens without Kemba embracing the leadership role right from pre-season workouts and becoming the man from day one. He lead us right out of the gate to that totally unexpected and totally satisfying win in Maui (I will never forget the absolute spanking we put on Calipari and his heavily favored Kentucky Wildcats in the championship... absolutely top 5 non-NCAA championship games we won during the Calhoun-era).

Kemba is the greatest leader to ever don a UConn uniform... Khalid and Shabazz are right there behind him, for sure, but Kemba has to get the clear nod there as well. His 2010-2011 body of work from beginning to end is still the greatest singular season-long performance that any Husky has ever had. That makes him #1 in my book. Oh, and he also was in a second Final 4... and an important role player as a freshman on that 2008-2009 team.

As a side note - my favorite part of these discussions is going through the exercise of remembering how many great players and special young men we have had play at the University of Connecticut. We are absolutely one of the luckiest if not the luckiest fan base in all of college basketball.
Expand ...
I always thought Ray was the best to ever put on a Husky uni but Kemba had the best season any Husky has ever had, based on all the unreal plays he made, how clutch he was and how he lead that team.
 
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