Top 50 Uconn players - The dumbest thing you'll read all day via theuconnblog | The Boneyard

Top 50 Uconn players - The dumbest thing you'll read all day via theuconnblog

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not sure if this was posted yet as I couldn't find it.

It takes something spectacular to get me to link to Bleacher Report, but they've really outdone themselves today, so here you go: A list of UConn's 50 best basketball players that is as hilarious as it is wrong. It is impossibly stupid, don't read it unless you want to get angry.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/908054-uconn-the-top-50-players-in-school-history
 
What would you have said had I shown you this page 365 days ago.

Diovqn.png
 
Kemba is easily the number 1 spot. But Stanley or Dyson over Jeremy? Really?
 
defaultroute said:
they've really outdone themselves today
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You know Bleacher Report is just a site where anyone can create their own personal sports blog, right? It's like blaming Youtube for Youtube videos.
 
defaultroute said:
Kemba is easily the number 1 spot. But Stanley or Dyson over Jeremy? Really?
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Yeah wasn't Lamb at 49? And Drummond at 50 before even playing in a regular season game? He at least needs to prove himself first, nothing wrong with leaving him off the list for now then revising it later.
 
.-.
I thought it was a very interesting and well researched read. We could argue at the rankings all day long, but that's missing the point.
 
In time I know, but how many games has Drummond played as a Husky? ;)

Not a bad list I'm interested to study it and see who is not listed.

Sorry Kemba and no offense Ray but Okafor would be my choice to anchor any team (i.e. my #1 pick). He was a great one!
 
Near Nyack said:
Ray Allen is number 1. Sorry.
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Ordinarily NN, I'd agree with you...all day, every day. I have a life sized Ray Allen poster above my desk & most of my posts sing Ray's praises to the rafters, but I have to agree with Bleacher Report. Ray had a supporting cast around him...some pretty AWESOME players in their own right. Kemba's team had Kemba & a bunch of untested kids. It was Kemba's heart, Kemba's talent & Kemba's leadership (& maybe a little of Kemba's cooking) that brought the Championship trophy back to Connecticut. "Kemba & the kids"...one of the greatest teams in UCONN history~!
 
Ray Allen never spent a single day out of first place in the Big East in three years. Not one.

Sheffer ahead of Nadav? Nuts! Without Nadav there is no dream season in 1990. He is easily top ten for his impact on the program.
 
Palatine said:
Ray Allen never spent a single day out of first place in the Big East in three years. Not one.

Sheffer ahead of Nadav? Nuts! Without Nadav there is no dream season in 1990. He is easily top ten for his impact on the program.
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Not taking anything away from Ray here, Palatine. He was/is the ambassador for UCONN basketball, but he was NEVER the whole team. I think Kemba deserves the #1 spot & for me to take ANYONE ahead of Ray is a great leap (for me personally).
 
Kemba got his banner raised to the rafters at the welcome back rally after the national championship, what one day later? That pretty much says it all. He glued that team together, put it on his back and willed a national championship. It may be the greatest team leadership in college BB history.
 
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Kemba Walker is the only Uconn Men's player in history to play in 2 final fours.
There are arguments either way. I think he unquestionably had the best Husky season ever.

They got the right 4 players in the top 4. I'm not sure I agree with much more. (Other than Taliek over Marcus. Thank you)

I also think it's too early to rank Drummond and Lamb. And I don't know that Stanley or Dyson should be included in the top 50.
 
I actually don't have a problem with the top 4..wouldn't have initially thought Ray as outside of the top 3, but I can't argue against the best player on each national championship team.

The problem I have with this article is that it includes current players. It's a moot point to not only put Drummond on the list, but also Lamb and Oriakhi when their careers are so incomplete. It's one thing to rank professional athletes midway through their careers when they have proven themselves, but including college guys whose end result is still up in the air seems pretty pointless.
 
Love Kemba but the no help argument doesn't really hold up. Lamb, Oriakhi, and Roscoe were young but extremely talented players, all of who may eventually land on that list.

Kemba had the better single season.

Ray had the better career even without a ring.

Heck, Ray should have won the Wooden award, is there any question he was better than Camby?
 
Silk City said:
I actually don't have a problem with the top 4..wouldn't have initially thought Ray as outside of the top 3, but I can't argue against the best player on each national championship team.

The problem I have with this article is that it includes current players. It's a moot point to not only put Drummond on the list, but also Lamb and Oriakhi when their careers are so incomplete. It's one thing to rank professional athletes midway through their careers when they have proven themselves, but including college guys whose end result is still up in the air seems pretty pointless.
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Which players not on the list would you put ahead of Lamb or Oriakhi? They did help win a national championship.
 
Enjoyable read.
My main changes would be:
Dyson and Stan come off the list. Too much left on the table to make the greatest list. The list is "greatest Huskies," not "greatest athletes."
Ricky Moore must be higher.
Andre Drummond cannot be on the list until he plays at least 1 minute of 1 game. Then give him 50.

How about a list of top 10 during Calhoun's era?
Define greatest as "what he did for the program" among other things.

Kemba would be first. Okafor and RIP take two more spots. Donyell Marshall, I'd say. KEA. That's 5 right there.
 
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huskyniner said:
Which players not on the list would you put ahead of Lamb or Oriakhi? They did help win a national championship.
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You could also potentially end up putting Lamb and AO ahead of several players on this list..maybe dozens, who knows. Or (far less likely) they could suck for the remainder of their time here and not deserve a spot on the list at all. My point is that while they have accomplished a great thing, everyone else on the list has finished their career and can be fairly judged.

It's like declaring whether a president is an all-time great after one year.
 
One of the things that bothers me about this list is Ben Gordon at #11... I think he's got to be 6 or 7 (I think everybody's consensus top 5 includes Marshall, Okafor, Rip, Ray, and Kemba in some order)
 
Silk City said:
You could also potentially end up putting Lamb and AO ahead of several players on this list..maybe dozens, who knows. Or (far less likely) they could suck for the remainder of their time here and not deserve a spot on the list at all. My point is that while they have accomplished a great thing, everyone else on the list has finished their career and can be fairly judged.

It's like declaring whether a president is an all-time great after one year.
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You could argue that they've done more in one year than some of the guys higher on the list did in a "full" career at UConn.

If Lamb jumped to the NBA after last year, you wouldn't put him on a top-50 list? I certainly would.
 
I definitely cannot agree with Kemba at #1. He was only the starting PG for a single season. If you want to say, best season every by a UConn player, I'll give him that. But best play? Ray, Rip, Donyell, Emeka and probably KEH were better over their careers.

Meanwhile a guy like Tim Coles is way too low. Sheffer ahead of Taliek, Ollie, Ricky and Marcus Williams? All of those guys were better than him, at the same position.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
I definitely cannot agree with Kemba at #1. He was only the starting PG for a single season. If you want to say, best season every by a UConn player, I'll give him that. But best play? Ray, Rip, Donyell, Emeka and probably KEH were better over their careers.

Meanwhile a guy like Tim Coles is way too low. Sheffer ahead of Taliek, Ollie, Ricky and Marcus Williams? All of those guys were better than him, at the same position.
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Kemba started for 2 years
 
Jerome Dyson should be #1. oh sorry i thought it was the 50 worst most destructive worthless players in Uconn history.
 
huskyniner said:
You could argue that they've done more in one year than some of the guys higher on the list did in a "full" career at UConn.

If Lamb jumped to the NBA after last year, you wouldn't put him on a top-50 list? I certainly would.
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Of course I would. He didn't jump though, which is my point.. Let's see how the rest of his career plays out before seeing where he ultimately stands
 
A lot of people seem to think Okafor should be first. What do you guys think? I think mek was obv great, but there were a number of stretches where Ben Gordon was the best player on those teams (or go to guy is maybe a better way of putting it). Emekas intangibles and rebounding and d were incredible, but his offense was just a notch below so that kinda knocks him down a tiny bit im my mind. I'd put Kemba, Rip, and Ray ahead of him without question. Agree with a previous post that Gordon should be 6 or 7. I still think that had Butler stayed his Junior year, we woulda had a great chance to win it all. He woulda been All-American and potentially POY and he would be a Top 5, possibly Top 3 Husky of All-Time. Of all the guys leaving early, I wish Caron stayed one more year the most.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I definitely cannot agree with Kemba at #1. He was only the starting PG for a single season. If you want to say, best season every by a UConn player, I'll give him that. But best play? Ray, Rip, Donyell, Emeka and probably KEH were better over their careers.

Meanwhile a guy like Tim Coles is way too low. Sheffer ahead of Taliek, Ollie, Ricky and Marcus Williams? All of those guys were better than him, at the same position.
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Kemba deserves to be #1 based solely on the face that he saved out program. We were literally inches from falling off a cliff and into college bball mediocrity (ala Maryland). And now we have more talent or depth than we ever have. It boggles my mind that we are down to 10 scholarships and we have probably our deepest team ever. Kemba took us inches from death and put us in a better spot than weve ever been (potential bs APR violations withstanding).
 
HuskyFan32 said:
Kemba deserves to be #1 based solely on the face that he saved out program. We were literally inches from falling off a cliff and into college bball mediocrity (ala Maryland). And now we have more talent or depth than we ever have. It boggles my mind that we are down to 10 scholarships and we have probably our deepest team ever. Kemba took us inches from death and put us in a better spot than weve ever been (potential bs APR violations withstanding).
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Could you be anymore dramatic?

"Inches from death".... or as it's known in the state of Connecticut, 1 season removed from the Final 4.
 
.-.
He's not being that over-dramatic.

We just came off the most disappointing season of the JC era, we lost a ton of production, Kemba was thought of as a work-in-progress still, our previous three recruiting classes had been largely disappointing and we were loaded with underclassmen. We were picked to finish 10th in the Big East in the preseason poll. Not to mention the questions about JC's future, his contract saga and the Miles mess.

There's no question IMO that one year ago today was a very unnerving time to be a UConn fan. I had a discussion with a few friends and we basically reminisced about the JC era, assumed it was all but over and hoped for a best case scenario of Kemba developing into a nice player and making one last run with him as a senior and Drummond as a freshman. I remember turning off my TV after the season opener and thinking to myself, "this going to be the first time in 20 some odd years we'll be going to back-to-back NITs".
 
I look at it this way - and reasonable people can disagree.

Take Ray off the team. Take Mek off the team. Take KEA off the team.

How do they do?

If you take Kemba off the 11 team . . . and I'm trying not to exaggerate here, they don't make the NIT and they may not win a Big East game.

Put him on and they win the NC.

No other player comes remotely close to being that important.

That's greatness.

Ergo - he gets the 1 spot from me, and the 2nd guy is a distant second guy.
 
Prezidint said:
I look at it this way - and reasonable people can disagree.

Take Ray off the team. Take Mek off the team. Take KEA off the team.

How do they do?

If you take Kemba off the 11 team . . . and I'm trying not to exaggerate here, they don't make the NIT and they may not win a Big East game.

Put him on and they win the NC.

No other player comes remotely close to being that important.

That's greatness.

Ergo - he gets the 1 spot from me, and the 2nd guy is a distant second guy.
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When you say off the team, do you mean their respective teams? Best is different than most valuable. Allen, Hamilton, Okafor, etc (feels nice to have this many awesome players) would all have been the guy on last year's team and would have carried them farther than any average replacement. Last year's team was the perfect storm of young players buying into the system and playing tough defense combined with a lack of great or even really good teams. Does anyone really think last year's team beats either Duke team from 99 or 04 more than twice out of 10 times? If last year's team had North Carolina on their jersey would Walker be better than Jordan?

The best player to ever play at Uconn is the only sure fire Hall of Famer the school has produced, Ray "Jesus" Allen.
 
.-.
lavuuk153 said:
When you say off the team, do you mean their respective teams? Best is different than most valuable. Allen, Hamilton, Okafor, etc (feels nice to have this many awesome players) would all have been the guy on last year's team and would have carried them farther than any average replacement. Last year's team was the perfect storm of young players buying into the system and playing tough defense combined with a lack of great or even really good teams. Does anyone really think last year's team beats either Duke team from 99 or 04 more than twice out of 10 times? If last year's team had North Carolina on their jersey would Walker be better than Jordan?

The best player to ever play at Uconn is the only sure fire Hall of Famer the school has produced, Ray "Jesus" Allen.
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Even just looking at the UConn careers, Kemba isn't best. MVP of a single season sure. But AJ was ahead of him his sophomore year and he only played a little as a freshman.

The program was certainly not in trouble. And if the prior year was poor, and they missed the tournament, why isn't that on Kemba in part? You look at the whole body of work. He's not close to #1 by that criteria.
 
defaultroute said:
not sure if this was posted yet as I couldn't find it.

It takes something spectacular to get me to link to Bleacher Report, but they've really outdone themselves today, so here you go: A list of UConn's 50 best basketball players that is as hilarious as it is wrong. It is impossibly stupid, don't read it unless you want to get angry.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/908054-uconn-the-top-50-players-in-school-history
Expand ...
And the best part ? You only have to start at #50 to find something ridiculously stupid - Andre Drummond.

It is beyond debate that when all is said and done, Drummond is very likely to be much farther up the list, but as of today, having never even played an official game, he doesn't belong on the list AT ALL. Yikes

And then you only have to click once more to find something NEARLY as stupid - Jeremy Lamb #49. Really ? The clutch #2 scorer on an all-time underrated run to a national championship ? I'm going to go with a handful of other players on championship / final four teams - Rip, Emeka, Gordon, Price, and add in a few all time greats - Caron, Ray, Donyell, Cliff - to fill up the list of guys that clearly belong above Lamb. He's not done and already I'm going to slot him into #10-#20.

Travis Knight above Voskhul ? What ?
Marcus Williams above Rashad "The Dagger" Anderson ?
Doron Sheffer and Phil Gamble above Ricky Moore ?
Tony Hansen #10, Toby Kimball #7, Art Quimby #6 ?
Emeka at #2, but Gordon down at #11 ?

Ironically, Kemba gets #1 for the championship he delivered in 2011. And yet that kind of TEAM success is apparently ignored on much of the rest of the list. If that kind of success counts, there is nobody pre-Calhoun making the top 10, at least.

Also, it seems to me that the author of the list went out of their way to include pre-Calhoun players just for the sake of it. There are at least 4 or 5 guys on the list I've never even heard of. Balasuknia, Kimball, Quimby, Coles, etc. Sure. They belong. Not sure who got left of the list in their favor, but I'd have to think about it...

Horrendous list
 
HuskyHawk said:
Even just looking at the UConn careers, Kemba isn't best. MVP of a single season sure. But AJ was ahead of him his sophomore year and he only played a little as a freshman.
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You see, this disqualifies you from even HAVING an opinion. When Kemba was a Sophomore, AJ Price was in the NBA. Please, buy a clue before chiming in again
 
defaultroute said:
not sure if this was posted yet as I couldn't find it.

It takes something spectacular to get me to link to Bleacher Report, but they've really outdone themselves today, so here you go: A list of UConn's 50 best basketball players that is as hilarious as it is wrong. It is impossibly stupid, don't read it unless you want to get angry.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/908054-uconn-the-top-50-players-in-school-history
Expand ...
Nice list. Happy to see they recognized some older guys. Won't even start about the order. We could all argue that all day.
 
ConnHuskBask said:
Could you be anymore dramatic?

"Inches from death".... or as it's known in the state of Connecticut, 1 season removed from the Final 4.
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That was the point. I was going for over the top dramatic.
 
.-.
ConnHuskBask said:
Could you be anymore dramatic?

"Inches from death".... or as it's known in the state of Connecticut, 1 season removed from the Final 4.
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And thanks Lefty. It was meant to be dramatic, but looking back its really not. We may have been one year removed from the Final Four, but we brought in an unhearalded recruiting class. We lost scholarships and were still facing potential APR violations. Without Kemba, no Daniels for sure, and probably no Drummond. Lamb and Bazz dont develop like they did. The team most likely wouldnt get along and have the intagibles that it now does. The program had no energy at all. If Kemba just had a good season, we miss the tourney, hed go pro and wed be left with a less developed lineup of bazz, lamb, roscoe, olander, and Oriakhi with giffey and bradley as our subs and maybe boatright. That teams not making the tourney (only bec Lamb and Bazz wouldnt be nearly as good without kemba). We were pretty close to falling off the map and becoming Maryland and going 19-11 every year. Im not arguing that we would become Depaul. But to me, turning into what Maryland did the past 7 yrs is pretty much falling off cliff in my eyes
 
HuskyFan32 said:
(only bec Lamb and Bazz wouldnt be nearly as good without kemba)
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That point can be argued. Kemba was the best possible leader a coach could ask for, but look who his coach was. I wouldn't count out Calhoun finding a way to bring out the talent in those two somehow.
 
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