Villanueva back in Storrs | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Villanueva back in Storrs

Fun Story: My freshman year, probably a week or so into the year, a bunch of the guys from my team went down the road to Applebee’s for dinner after practice. It was literally the 4-5 of us in the restaurant and Villanueva and his crew. That was the first time I was really star struck about being at UConn
 
Pgh2Storrs said:
1. Ray
2. Emeka
3. Kemba
4. Rip
5. Bazz
6. Caron
7. Ben
8. Rudy
9. Drummond
10. Charlie


I’ve sat here at the bar talking to myself to try and figure out 11-20 but I honestly can’t do it.
Expand ...

Man, No 'Yell? That's ice cold for a consensus first team AA.
 
Just my opinion, of the players that I've seen live:

1. Ray Allen
2. Kemba Walker
3. Chris Smith
4. Emeka Okafor
5. Richard Hamilton
6. Ben Gordon
7. Cliff Robinson
8. Shabazz Nappier
9. Caron Butler
10. Donyell Marshall
11. Cornelius Thompson

Wes and Art probably deserve mention but I never saw them. Rudy Gay never seemed to deliver on the promise of being great - was a very good player, but never great. Charlie was a good player, but was really more of a complimentary piece (never took over a game, but he didn't have to with Mek and Ben). Andre Drummond didn't do enough in his one year (i.e. wasn't great) to be considered.
 
Last edited:
T-Squared said:
Just my opinion, of the players that I've seen live:

1. Ray Allen
2. Kemba Walker
3. Chris Smith
4. Emeka Okafor
5. Richard Hamilton
6. Ben Gordon
7. Cliff Robinson
8. Shabazz Nappier
9. Caron Butler
10. Donyell Marshall
11. Cornelius Thompson

Wes and Art probably deserve mention but I never saw them. Rudy Gay never seemed to deliver on the promise of being great - was a very good player, but never great. Charlie was a good player, but was really more of a complimentary piece (never took over a game, but he didn't have to with Mek and Ben). Andre Drummond didn't do enough in his one year (i.e. wasn't great) to be considered.
Expand ...


Have to give you a like just for the addition of Corny Thompson thank you. We'd love to have a Corny now I promise as you know, well underrated in the history of UConn and didn't play with a great team or coach.

As for 1 through 20 I mean it's up to you as a person and honestly I wouldn't know where to even begin and as I've said in the past that's makes us lucky fans. Who was the best player while here, the best scorer, the most clutch, won the most, played the best D all in how you interpret the players we've had. Interesting to see others opinions but everyone is right in a way.

As far as the like Nadav and Andre, one year guys fall down in the rankings for me. If I had to rate them though Nadavs impact on UConn basketball was greater than Andre.
 
Last edited:
mauconnfan said:
As far as the like Nadav and Andre, one year guys fall down in the rankings for me. If I had to rate them through Nadavs impact on UConn basketball was greater than Andre.
Expand ...

That's why I had him on there. The time period and overall impact are important. Nadav was a not insignificant part of UCONN's rise. And he lead to Doron so...
 
.-.
superjohn said:
It doesn't make any sense Drummond would be on your list and not have Villanueva on your list. And you're just being difficult when you bring up Roscoe and Oriakhi, obviously you know Villanueva is a much better basketball player.
Expand ...
Not sure what the argument is? What is the criteria of how you are ranking or debating these players? Don’t think that has been established, has it?
 
The greatest what-if in UConn history is that our 2006 squad could have had Villanueva and Andrew Bynum. Funny how things work out; there's no way Hilton becomes a lottery pick if those two moves don't happen. We also likely have a 5th banner if Charlie and Bynum were on board in '06.

Charlie was a very good college player but he wasn't great. He left too early to be great, as Drummond did.
 
Lefty2one said:
The greatest what-if in UConn history is that our 2006 squad could have had Villanueva and Andrew Bynum. Funny how things work out; there's no way Hilton becomes a lottery pick if those two moves don't happen. We also likely have a 5th banner if Charlie and Bynum were on board in '06.

Charlie was a very good college player but he wasn't great. He left too early to be great, as Drummond did.
Expand ...

Funny, in 2006 we had a surplus of Bigs but Marcus was the only guard who could handle PG. Today, plenty of guards but need quality Bigs.
 
Chief00 said:
Funny, in 2006 we had a surplus of Bigs but Marcus was the only guard who could handle PG. Today, plenty of guards but need quality Bigs.
Expand ...

AJ Price's injuries and screw up were the greatest whatif in UCONN history as far as players go imho. That kid would have been an absolute stud if he could have played straight through no worries.
 
Chief00 said:
Funny, in 2006 we had a surplus of Bigs but Marcus was the only guard who could handle PG. Today, plenty of guards but need quality Bigs.
Expand ...
In '06 we had 1 ballhandler on the whole team and in '09 we basically had 1 ballhandler or 1.5 (Kemba was a huge spark against Mizzou but wasn't ready to be that consistent second ballhandler.) Both teams were one guard/ballhandler away from cutting down the nets.
 
Charlie was arguably the best finishing big man we’ve had here. That’s pretty high company. Arguing about one great player being better than another great player is to ignore what great really means.

I’m so UConn proud of the depth of greatness listed here.
 
.-.
Chief00 said:
To me Rip and Kemba come before Ray on in college accomplishments in big games. Ray had great records but Rip and Kemba stepped up more in big game’s.
Expand ...
Agreed. From reading the board I feel like most people have Kemba and Bazz right there at the top of Mount Rushmore with Ray right alongside. There is probably some recency bias but Kemba and Bazz should be right there. Ray is arguably (damn good argument) the best player who ever played here but if we're doing this off of what they did here he's in the top 5 or 6 but can't be at the top. I've thought about this too long and hard, too many times but for me Rip is #1.
 
Pgh2Storrs said:
1. Ray
2. Emeka
3. Kemba
4. Rip
5. Bazz
6. Caron
7. Ben
8. Rudy
9. Drummond
10. Charlie


I’ve sat here at the bar talking to myself to try and figure out 11-20 but I honestly can’t do it.
Expand ...
I’d start with mr Smith for the 11 spot.
 
tcf15 said:
Need to get his sophomore highlights done.
Expand ...


Compare this UConn freshman year highlight film with the highlight videos of all the kids we're recruiting and you'd say forget them and bring Charlie back. I forgot just how good he was until I watched this video.

Speed, athleticism, positioning for rebounds, passing, shot blocking, shot making ability from all over the court, and a fabulous understanding of how to play the game. And he did it against similarly sized, strong, college players, not 6'4", 15 to 17 year old high school kids.

That team was so loaded, so fast. I was there for all the season and tournament games, including the Final Four and forgot how we ran the break and blew teams away. It must have been a dream.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,363
Messages
4,567,866
Members
10,471
Latest member
EO2004


Top Bottom