UConn GOAT Bracket | Page 2 | The Boneyard

UConn GOAT Bracket

Whoever is responsible for not making Mek a #1 must be a closet 'cuse fan.
 
JimHurley said:
I think people seriously overlook Shabazz. Kemba, Rip, Ray, Emeka, and Ben were all better basketball players but Shabazz has as storied a college career as any.
- 2 National Championships
- Led us through the postseason ban (this is underrated)
- 1st team All-American
- NCAA Tournament most outstanding player
- More clutch shots than you can count

His career at UConn is comparable to Kemba’s in every way. How some people leave Shabazz out of the UConn Mount Rushmore is beyond me.
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2 coaches as well.
 
RichZ said:
Whoever is responsible for not making Mek a #1 must be a closet 'cuse fan.
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I would flip Ray and Mek it’s splitting hairs either way. Someone has to be underseeded.
 
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Thoughts:
- Ray with a cakewalk to the Final Four
- Bazz/Okafor in the Elite 8 is championship-game worthy
- Marcus Williams criminally under-seeded as a 10. He was the best player, arguably, on a #2 seed and #1 seed in the Tournament
- A couple of great 8/9 matchups in Knight/Villanueva and Adrien/Donny Marshall
 
What would be really interesting is if these players could play 1 on 1 for their matchups! Would definitely be some upsets then, with a lot of mismatches.
 
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Guapo said:
1’s should be Ray, Kemba, Okafor, Rip

love Shabazz, but it is what it is.

Okafor as a 2 seed is flat out insanity. Blasphemy, even.
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Curious to hear from someone who has Okafor over Shabazz...how do you justify it? Not looking for an argument here just genuinely curious as to what your reasoning is. I think Okafor is a better overall basketball player than Shabazz and also had a better pro career but strictly as far as their time at UConn, I gotta go with Shabazz. Their final seasons were comparable as far as accolades but Shabazz won a ring his freshman year and also carried the program through the postseason ban. If Bazz + Boat leave in 2012, UConn basketball is a long forgotten laughing stock by now.
 
JimHurley said:
Curious to hear from someone who has Okafor over Shabazz...how do you justify it? Not looking for an argument here just genuinely curious as to what your reasoning is. I think Okafor is a better overall basketball player than Shabazz and also had a better pro career but strictly as far as their time at UConn, I gotta go with Shabazz. Their final seasons were comparable as far as accolades but Shabazz won a ring his freshman year and also carried the program through the postseason ban. If Bazz + Boat leave in 2012, UConn basketball is a long forgotten laughing stock by now.
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Emeka was was NACB national player of the year his junior year and two-time national defensive player of the year. He was Big East Player of the Year, Big East Freshman of the Year, two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, and three-time All Big East. He won a ton more awards too. Bottom line - he was a stud. Big time. Sorry Shabazz, but that’s the truth.
 
It should be Mek over Ray.. not shabazz. Ray Allen has been the best NBA player out of uconn but if you’re looking at college career mek was the NPOY on a championship winning team. This isn’t to discount what Ray did for uconn but shabazz has a better uconn career than ray does. The fact that we have this many players that deserve a 1 seed is so telling. I know if Ray was left off most of us would argue that Ray deserves a 1 but it’s a good problem to have.

Side note- met Big Mek at the uconn/Syracuse game back at the big tire pros classic In 2016 and he was nothing but nice. Saw him walking through the concourse and stopped and asked for an autograph (not a pic cause I was rockin a solid old school iPhone 4 at the time) and he obliged and even spoke to me for a couple minutes. 2004 was the year I became a die hard fan. I was only 14 and emeka was a god to me. Meant the world that the took some time out of his day to speak to a fan. Regardless of seeding he’s always gone be #1 to me.
 
You can make an argument that Emeka should be the number one overall seed..

Should be a 1 seed over Ray but it’s awesome we get to even have that debate.
 
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T-Squared said:
Emeka was was NACB national player of the year his junior year and two-time national defensive player of the year. He was Big East Player of the Year, Big East Freshman of the Year, two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, and three-time All Big East. He won a ton more awards too. Bottom line - he was a stud. Big time. Sorry Shabazz, but that’s the truth.
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I’m not arguing Shabazz was the better basketball player. I’m arguing that he has a better legacy at UConn.
 
ClifSpliffy said:
this is way too hard. not a chance of looking at it for more than a few minutes without going loopy. prolly easier to cure cancer.
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I agree I'm sitting this one out, and being a spectator.
 
This seeding is pretty rough on the 1999 squad. Free a 10, Ricky a 13 and Jake a 14???
 
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Shabazz has 2 championships, 1st Team All-Big East (2013), 1st Team All-AAC (2014), Bob Cousy Award Winner (2014), Final Four MVP (2014), Consensus 1st Team All-America (2014), AAC POY (2014), and Big East All-Rookie Team (2011).

He’s a one seed. The championships set him a step above Ray, even though he was a better player.
 
CL82 said:
You can make the argument that he is way overrated as a 6 seed.
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No way in hell he should be seeded above Henefeld. Seriously, that's just egregious.
 
I think if you're going to weigh college and pro careers equally, Kemba is the GOAT.

Then Ray second. I hate to say it because he is a great, great player, and one of my favorites but other than maybe in Seattle, he was never really a focal point on any team.

Guys may have had better college or pro careers but I think Kemba has the best credentials in both.
 
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Scoe said:
4 one seeds should be Kemba, Rip, Emeka and Shabazz.
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Definitely this. Have to give Bazz the edge over Ray. Ray was great but didn’t deliver a championship.

Also, Kemba and Rip seem to be the unanimous top two players since no one is arguing to bump them off as 1 seeds.
 
This is going to have a large recency bias plus a college career vs pro slant and to top it off a championship vs legacy flavor.

All the makings of a good argument. If past versions of this debate are any indication there isn't really a wrong answer.

My predictions vs who I think should win will be different.

Should win:
Kemba
Ray
Emeka
Rip

Will win:
Ray
Kemba
Emeka
Bazz
 
Stlh8L8ner said:
I think if you're going to weigh college and pro careers equally, Kemba is the GOAT.

Then Ray second. I hate to say it because he is a great, great player, and one of my favorites but other than maybe in Seattle, he was never really a focal point on any team.

Guys may have had better college or pro careers but I think Kemba has the best credentials in both.
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What about Ray's championship with Boston and becoming the greatest 3 point shooter in NBA history...?
 
If the goal is to determine the Greatest Husky of All Time, I think brackets are not the right way to get there. As @Mano would say, make it a poll, dummy. Take all the #1 and #2 seeds and have people vote among them. Add the #3 seeds if necessary; that's still only 12 options. Anything beyond that is great for seeding discussions/arguments, but really irrelevant to determining the greatest.

Any set of criteria is going to include some intangibles, and certain players are going to suffer from recency bias. Khalid will always be my personal favorite because he was the X-factor, the roux that we needed to make our own special brand of mojo. But no matter how you characterize "Greatest Husky of All Time," if we are talking about embracing everything you would want that to embrace, e.g., winning, grit, representing, etc., I think Kemba wins by a wide margin--all things considered.
 
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