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UConn's Best Freshman Season

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No one has mentioned Caron.

Also, Emeka, and Ben were great, just like Ray and Doron.
 
David 76 said:
I believe Corny also had a great freshman year, Kelly was great but I'm staying with Nadav.
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Corny was without question the second best freshman in the country that year. Prior to the tournament it could hve been argued that he was the best freshman bur a kid named Aguirre took DePaul to the final four that year.
 
I don't know about freshman "season", in terms of stats, team W/L, etc., but in terms of freshman presence or impact, I would vote for Khalid. He came in and provided a badly-needed swagger to this team and this program after a decade of near-misses and should-haves.

Henefeld also has to be up there, but he was just barely before my time as a fan, so I can't comment on him, and also his status as a "freshman" is a bit iffy since he was what, 21, when he played?
 
boog204 said:
Watch the California game from the tourney that year. He WAS Bird in that game. He was three plays ahead of everyone else on the court. Amazing.
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Yes I have watched that game and will watch it again, I laughed so hard when Nadav whipped the ball over Lou Campanella's head inbounding the ball on Cal's sideline.
 
Amida Brimah for that clutch and-1 in the biggest game of his life

but all joking a salad I agree with your well thought out points on this, good discussion point too
 
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Scoe said:
A minature Larry Bird as Raftery would say.
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I think it was either the second Villanova game or the Pitt game on the road where Raftery first made that Bird comparison with Henefeld (I know it was early in the season), tentatively... "He's a little Bird-like, with the way he passes the ball and breaks down the defense." Little did he know what lay ahead...
 
Tenspro2002 said:
I don't know about freshman "season", in terms of stats, team W/L, etc., but in terms of freshman presence or impact, I would vote for Khalid. He came in and provided a badly-needed swagger to this team and this program after a decade of near-misses and should-haves.

Henefeld also has to be up there, but he was just barely before my time as a fan, so I can't comment on him, and also his status as a "freshman" is a bit iffy since he was what, 21, when he played?
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Yeah, he was older than Kemba was as a junior. A little different than guys like Ray and Lamb who were 18 their entire seasons as freshmen.

Caron was 20 for most of his freshman year and then turned 21 towards the end.
 
Kembacity said:
Amida Brimah for that clutch and-1 in the biggest game of his life

but all joking a salad I agree with your well thought out points on this, good discussion point too
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John said:
Earl Kelly
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http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/connecticut/1983.html

Earl came off the bench for the first six games but he was leading the team in minutes played, scoring, and was second to Karl Hobbs in assists. “After the sixth game I became a starter. By the end of my freshman year I was voted Big East Player of the week six times, Big East rookie of the year, I made the District 10 All Star team along with Michael Jordan (former NBA player) and Patrick Ewing (former NBA player). I was the only freshman to make the team.
 
DOVE! What doesn't show up in the stat sheet is Dove's nasty defense and awesome passing ability.
 
Caron Butler, geez

15.3 PPG
7.6 RPG
3.3 APG
2.2 SPG

he was the workhorse on a nationally prominent program which nobody looked past
 
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David 76 said:
Hard to explain to the youngins how much Dove elevated that team, elevated our program, elevated our expectations. That team had talent and some great role players. But as Dove grew into that team and his minutes increased, we took off coming out of nowhere.
Lamb, Sheffer Allen and others were great contributors some with even more potential, but they did not do what Dove did.
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I turned 13 during the Dream Season. If I had a shekel for every Bar Mitzvah Nadav got invited to that year...

I was crushed when he announced he was returning to Israel.
 
CallMeBruce said:
Both of those things showed up in the stat sheet in the form of his 3.7 steals and 2.9 assists per game.
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They don't tell the whole story.

I wonder how many assists he'd have had with the kind of scoring talent around him Marcus Williams had...or if basketball had the "hockey assist."
 
Josh Boone had a significant impact as a freshman also. Not Henefeld-like per se but more than anticipated for sure.
 
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mauconnfan said:
Josh Boone had a significant impact as a freshman also. Not Henefeld-like per se but more than anticipated for sure.
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I forgot about Edmond Saunders. He was more than serviceable his freshman year, though he did not start. Honestly though, you just don't come in and beat out a Kevin Freeman for a spot in the starting 5.

Don't forget about Jeff Adrien either.
 
Mr. Wonderful said:
I feel sorry for the younger Husky fans who didn't get to see Henefeld play as it happened. He was a revelation. At 6'7" with a unique set of skills, Henefeld could handle like a guard, rebound like a power forward, and he was arguably the slickest passer ever to wear a UConn uniform.

And then there were his abilities as a defender...he could legitimately guard all 5 positions, and frequently did.

Mookie Blalock held the NCAA freshman steals record at 131 before Nadav shattered it with 142. I wonder if it still stands.
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He also had a mental toughess/maturity that was hard to describe. In the game that, more than any, welcomed UConn to the big time, Mourning ticked off Nadav with his incessant talking. Nadav demanded the ball in the low blocks with Mourning on him and hit a fadeaway "and one" with a leap backwards to give himself space to get the shot over 'Zo that had to have been seen to be believed.

The answer to the question is Nadav, with KEA a close second. In each case, they stepped on the floor and became the leader of a top ten team that hadn't been to the tournament the year before.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
Corny was without question the second best freshman in the country that year. Prior to the tournament it could hve been argued that he was the best freshman bur a kid named Aguirre took DePaul to the final four that year.
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When Corny was a freshman, our schedule wasn't tough enough to know if he really was one of the best players in the country or not, or to compare him to those who came along once we were in the Big East.
 
I think 1990 was our best defensive year ever. We wrought havoc on other teams and came up with these game changing streaks. They didn't turn UConn from a top 30, or even 50 team to a top 10 team. They turned a top 100 program into a top 5 program. The key to all that was Nadav
 
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Husky25 said:
You don't remember 2014 ;)?
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I do. Boat is eligible for the best individual defense ever in the the tourney. Our backcourt was great. But it still wasn't 1999 level team defense.
 
willie99 said:
Caron Butler, geez 15.3 PPG 7.6 RPG 3.3 APG 2.2 SPG he was the workhorse on a nationally prominent program which nobody looked past
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And which absolutely crapped the bed down the stretch to miss the tourney. Not Caron's fault but yeah, not a great year.
 
August_West said:
And which absolutely crapped the bed down the stretch to miss the tourney. Not Caron's fault but yeah, not a great year.
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Darius Lane! Blech!
 
Tampahusky said:
Nadav,Ray,Doron ...pick your order
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As already posted, Caron, has to be at or near the top of this list. He was a beast, though struggled at the end of his Freshman year and beginning of his sophomore season, mainly due to his shot flattening out during that time. I remember screaming at my TV for weeks on end, not to mention posts on the BY, that all he needed to do was add a little arc to his J, which was pretty much a line drive during that span. Well he started to put some air under the ball and he had a monster 2nd half of his Sophomore year and practically dragged the entire team to -4.

Anyhow, My tops Frosh list is as follows: Caron, Nadav, Ray, Khalid, Emeka and Doron. All played like upperclassmen pretty early on.

Honorable mention would be Donyell, Rip, Ben, Boone, Kemba, Bazz, KFree, and even Boatshow. Who knows how big of a freshman campaign he might have had if he had not been jerked around by the NCAAs, having to miss about a 3rd to a quarter of the season.

What makes this type of list difficult is that not all the players had the same opportunities and quality of team when the arrived. Most in the 2nd list either came in during down years or had more players ahead of them that impacted their PT. No one could argue that Ray had that situation, coming off the bench most of his Freshman year, but by the end of that year, he showed amazing abilities. Reminded me of how Coach K didn't play Corey Maggette nearly as much as he deserved, especially in the tourney.

What would be another very interesting list would be best sophs. Guys like Ray, Caron, Donyell and a few others had monster sophomore seasons.

As far as freshman, it's a toss-up between Caron and Nadav. Caron carried a very young team that fizzled in the 2nd half of his freshman season. He was remarkable the first half of that season. As for Nadav, he came out of nowhere and was arguably the piece that made a good team great, that was a bobbled steal that went out of bounds and a bad decision to not cover the inbounder away from our first F-4 all the way back in 1990. Now granted he was not your average freshman considering his age, but regardless if you hadn't known he was a freshman, you would have sworn he was a junior or senior. It broke my heart when he returned it Israel and never returned for his sophomore season.

My UConn time line started in the late 80s. I don't recall what Smitty or even Cliffy were like as freshman. That was just before my time.

I sincerely hope that we can add Adams and Gilbert to this impressive list of UConn favorites.

How about another list, most improved upperclassmen that went from marginal to great. Hilton and Donny would be at the top of my list. Jake might be another good one for this list, though he steadily improved and earned an NBA paycheck in similar fashion as did Boone. You could add Hilton to this group as well.
 
Without reviewing stats, I would give the best sophomore season to Car on. Never felt one guy carried our team that much. KLM would be second.
 
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