Where does Boatright rank amongst all-time Uconn Point Guards

[Point6]

Please extend the list to whatever number necessary to include this guy:

 

[caw]

The better question is which former point guards could have gotten this team in the Tourney?

Probably only Kemba.

 

[James]

number 1 is kemba and it isn't close. He is the man the myth the legend. At the collegiate level he literally had no weaknesses and was one of the best leaders i've witnessed in sports period. The best clutch performer we've had. He gave birth to the likes of Lamb and Napier ( and scoe...not you OP).

 

[sammydabiz]

For me,
Shabazz is number 1 and narrowly edges out Kemba mainly due to 8 little words:
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS, WHEN YOU BAN US!!!

Brilliant! I couldn't of envisioned a better ending last year, thank you. Bazz!

 

[JimHurley]

Shabazz, Kemba, Khalid, Boat, AJ in that order.

 

[carlos]

If someone thinks Marcus williams was a disappointment they are insane.

 

[James]

If someone thinks Marcus williams was a disappointment they are insane.

if 06 mwill was on this team instead of boat we are in the tourney. #hatehard . A ghost on defense, but he would shred all the bs match zones that destroyed us. I remember him operating vs cuse 2-3 zone like it was yesterday, surgical

 

[aceboon]

Yea I agree with this, and Mwill defended decently enough his soph year when he was in shape. Mwill wouldn't get swallowed up by defenses the way Boat did, especially <5 minutes in a game when defenses really nut up. He also would've been setting Brimah up with lobs the same way DHam was able to.

if 06 mwill was on this team instead of boat we are in the tourney. #hatehard . A ghost on defense, but he would shred all the bs match zones that destroyed us. I remember him operating vs cuse 2-3 zone like it was yesterday, surgical

 

[UConnNick]

Nothing but youngsters here.

What about Tommy Penders, Joey Whelton and Karl Hobbs? Admittedly Penders and Whelton didn't play against the same level of competition that the modern era players did, but these guys were all very good PGs that deserve some mention.

Penders made sure that Bialosuknia got his shots, a whole lot of them. Wes would be the leading scorer in school history to this day if he'd had the three-point line and four years of eligibility. He was one of the best pure shooters ever to wear a UCONN uniform. I believe he still has at least one school record all to himself...averaged 28 ppg during his senior season, which I believe is the highest single season scoring average in UCONN history. I think Donyell Marshall may have come the closest in his junior season, at around 25 ppg.

 

[James]

Yea I agree with this, and Mwill defended decently enough his soph year when he was in shape. Mwill wouldn't get swallowed up by defenses the way Boat did, especially <5 minutes in a game when defenses really nut up. He also would've been setting Brimah up with lobs the same way DHam was able to.

just waiting for the boneyard mafia to come for our heads. To any rational hoop head, its pretty obvious boatright was a great second banana. Not really the guy you want leading an outfit of raw offensive talent. Boatright is a guy who would destroy on secondary pick n rolls ( a la 2014) when the defense is scrambled, and also excel is semi transition opportunities when he isnt burdened with controlling pace. none of those thing happened this year, and he played as well as he could(gaudy three point numbers) and really reached his ceiling.

I'm hard on boat, honestly he could have done something this year with a stretch four. he literally had no front court option on offense. Brimah is so poor at gaining good positioning, KO late in the year brought nolan in for no offense; just screening, rebounding, and swinging the ball. You would think facey flourishes under mwill, however facey is a terrible team defender. Begging for a transfer forward. The gap between markus kennedy and facey is jaw dropping

 

[UConnWingman]

just waiting for the boneyard mafia to come for our heads. To any rational hoop head, its pretty obvious boatright was a great second banana. Not really the guy you want leading an outfit of raw offensive talent. Boatright is a guy who would destroy on secondary pick n rolls ( a la 2014) when the defense is scrambled, and also excel is semi transition opportunities when he isnt burdened with controlling pace. none of those thing happened this year, and he played as well as he could(gaudy three point numbers) and really reached his ceiling.

I'm hard on boat, honestly he could have done something this year with a stretch four. he literally had no front court option on offense. Brimah is so poor at gaining good positioning, KO late in the year brought nolan in for no offense; just screening, rebounding, and swinging the ball. You would think facey flourishes under mwill, however facey is a terrible team defender. Begging for a transfer forward. The gap between markus kennedy and facey is jaw dropping

Boatright was not a top 10 point guard in UConn history, and the reason is what you round-about described here: he didn't make a single player better.

 

[mauconnfan]

Kemba
Shabazz
KEA
Doron
Kelley
Smitty
AJ
Marcus
Boat
Foster
KO

Honorable Mention: Joey Whelton, Taliek Brown, Ricky Moore, Tate George

 

[8893]

No love for Cup?

Gotta admit I honestly thought he was going to be great.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Kemba, Bazz, Boat, Khalid, Smith, Kelly, Doron, Marcus, Taliek, AJ, Ollie.

No one listed after Boat could have carried this team that way Boat did. Kelly went head to head with GTown.
And Boat or Kelly playing with the talent of other teams would have been incredible.

These always come down to best year/career and what criteria for point guard is stressed. Boat was a great player, but did not have the point guard skills that others had. Real PG skills could have helped this year's team more. I would put Bazz/Kemba, Kemba/Bazz 1-2 career = Bazz, year = Kemba), then AJ, KEA, MW, Boat, Sheffer, Taliek, Ollie, George. Smith, Dyson, and Gordon were not really point guards, especially Dyson and Gordon and should not be on these lists IMHO. MW gets downgraded buy many for non-basketball issues, but he was the best passer and one of the best floor generals we had. MW had more moments of pure point guard brilliance than anyone.

Best passer: MW, Bazz/AJ, Sheffer

Best Scorer: Kemba, Bazz, AJ, Boat

Best Leader: KEA, Kemba, Ollie, Bazz (final 2 years)

Best Defender: Moore, Boat (last year and 1/3), Brown, Ollie

Who could break down zone defenses? AJ and MW were really good at it, Bazz got close to them if not as good. My memory on this is not as good going back further in time since I did not focus on it as much and I'm not as young as I used to be. This area was always a weakness for Boat and remained so his final year.

Best at breaking down defenses with the dribble: Kemba, Bazz, Brown, Boat, KEA

Best handle: Kemba, KEA, Brown, Ollie

Best shooter: Bazz, Sheffer, Kemba (last year), AJ.

Other categories?

 

[Dogbreath2U]

He is one of the most disappointing players in UConn history.

He was a part of two teams that were ranked No. 1 in the preseason and be sabotaged both of them with selfishness. Thank goodness we won his freshman year without him and zero backcourt depth.

He's nowhere near any list of mine. Give me Boat any day of the week.

This the one issue that you go overboard on, IMHO. Not totally, of course, but he was our best player down the stretch in 2006 and seemed to me to give it his all. (I am watching that season and am up to the OT against Syracuse in the BET, so the painful ending is approaching. I reserve the right to alter my comments some after watching the last bits).

 

[CTBasketball]

For me, boat is not in the top 8.

Kemba
Shabazz
Khalid
Marcus Williams
Smitty
AJ Price
Doron Sheffer
Tate George
Ricky Moore
Taliek
Boat

 

[mauconnfan]

These always come down to best year/career and what criteria for point guard is stressed. Boat was a great player, but did not have the point guard skills that others had. Real PG skills could have helped this year's team more. I would put Bazz/Kemba, Kemba/Bazz 1-2 career = Bazz, year = Kemba), then AJ, KEA, MW, Boat, Sheffer, Taliek, Ollie, George. Smith, Dyson, and Gordon were not really point guards, especially Dyson and Gordon and should not be on these lists IMHO. MW gets downgraded buy many for non-basketball issues, but he was the best passer and one of the best floor generals we had. MW had more moments of pure point guard brilliance than anyone.

Best passer: MW, Bazz/AJ, Sheffer

Best Scorer: Kemba, Bazz, AJ, Boat

Best Leader: KEA, Kemba, Ollie, Bazz (final 2 years)

Best Defender: Moore, Boat (last year and 1/3), Brown, Ollie

Who could break down zone defenses? AJ and MW were really good at it, Bazz got close to them if not as good. My memory on this is not as good going back further in time since I did not focus on it as much and I'm not as young as I used to be. This area was always a weakness for Boat and remained so his final year.

Best at breaking down defenses with the dribble: Kemba, Bazz, Brown, Boat, KEA

Best handle: Kemba, KEA, Brown, Ollie

Best shooter: Bazz, Sheffer, Kemba (last year), AJ.

Other categories?

You have to add Cup Cormier to "Best Handle" - the kid had it on a string, just cut the mustard way too much! And handle has a lot to do with TO's so Sheffer has to be on it.

 

[mauconnfan]

He is one of the most disappointing players in UConn history.

He was a part of two teams that were ranked No. 1 in the preseason and be sabotaged both of them with selfishness. Thank goodness we won his freshman year without him and zero backcourt depth.

He's nowhere near any list of mine. Give me Boat any day of the week.

That's so wrong. He was easily the best passer we've seen and turned out to be a better scorer than anyone thought he would be. While he wasn't a defensive specialist by any sense he was very smart and made plays on that end too. If he didn't screw up in class Taliek would've played less his senior year than he did. Just my opinion.

 

[tzznandrew]

That's so wrong. He was easily the best passer we've seen and turned out to be a better scorer than anyone thought he would be. While he wasn't a defensive specialist by any sense he was very smart and made plays on that end too. If he didn't screw up with the lap top gate Taliek would've played less his senior year than he did. Just my opinion.

Laptops were going into the 2006 season. He just straight flunked off the team mid-year in 2004.

If AJP were healthy in 2006 (and I know he didn't get the go ahead after the brain aneurism--but he was off the team for the full year anyway and the doctors may not have felt much pressure...someone more knowledgeable can tell me how dumb I am) he would have been either playing significant minutes off the bench, or playing alongside Williams. That team lost 2 regular season games all year, even without Marcus for half a year, and AJP for the whole year. Imagine what Price could have brought to that team as the first guard off the bench.

 

[mauconnfan]

Laptops were going into the 2006 season. He just straight flunked off the team mid-year in 2004.

If AJP were healthy in 2006 (and I know he didn't get the go ahead after the brain aneurism--but he was off the team for the full year anyway and the doctors may not have felt much pressure...someone more knowledgeable can tell me how dumb I am) he would have been either playing significant minutes off the bench, or playing alongside Williams. That team lost 2 regular season games all year, even without Marcus for half a year, and AJP for the whole year. Imagine what Price could have brought to that team as the first guard off the bench.

Yeah had the wrong screw ups in mind lol.. I think these are part of the reason many of the UConn faithful don't give Marcus his due and not actually what he did on the court.

He at the point and AJ to the 2 would've been pure torture for many teams.

 

[tzznandrew]

Yeah had the wrong screw ups in mind lol.. I think these are part of the reason many of the UConn faithful don't give Marcus his due and not actually what he did on the court.

He at the point and AJ to the 2 would've been pure torture for many teams.

Especially since they both could shoot and drive. And with Anderson on court as the 3 sometimes? Wow.

And a sophomore AJP who actually had played the year before wouldn't have spent the whole year clearing off rust, and so that team probably at least makes the NIT with a sophomore Price-Adrien-Austrie-Johnson to go with the crew of freshmen.

 

[CL82]

1) Kemba - Most magical run of all time - period.
2) Shabazz - I would have said Bazz's run was an unbelievable once in a lifetime accomplishment, but for Kemba's run.
3) El-Amin - You always remember your first. The kid is definition of swagger and one my all time favorites.
4) Taliek - Success matters. One the BY's favorite whipping boys, but he got it done, didn't he?
5) Smitty - Started it all. You have to wonder if all happens without him deciding to stay home.
6) KO - Solid player for us whose NBA career helped define UConn as program that gets you to the NBA, but NC #4 and continuity for the program after the departure of a legend probably should move him higher on the list.
7) Boat - Rough senior year but we don't #4 without him last year. The kid can do it all. Take it hole, hit the three drive and dish, whatever you need he can provide. His lock down D made every other teams PG look bad last year. On pure athleticism, I'd move him up to #3.
8) Doron Sheffer - perfect complement to Ray he added maturity to the team. Finished with more than 1,300 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds. Once had a fan offer her daughter in marriage to him. When he blushed and said nothing, the woman said "how about me?" That ought to count for something.
9)Tate - Earned his place because of the shot, one of the many legendary moments for the program.
10) Tough call. Call it pick 'em between Marcus and AJ. Williams has better career assists, AJ better career points. Always link them because of the incident. Despite Williams jaw dropping passes and court vision, I'd give a slight nod to AJ.

 

[mauconnfan]

1) Kemba - Most magical run of all time - period.
2) Shabazz - I would have said Bazz's run was an unbelievable once in a lifetime accomplishment, but for Kemba's run.
3) El-Amin - You always remember your first. The kid is definition of swagger and one my all time favorites.
4) Taliek - Success matters. One the BY's favorite whipping boys, but he got it done, didn't he?
5) Smitty - Started it all. You have to wonder if all happens without him deciding to stay home.
6) KO - Solid player for us whose NBA career helped define UConn as program that gets you to the NBA, but NC #4 and continuity for the program after the departure of a legend probably should move him higher on the list.
7) Boat - Rough senior year but we don't #4 without him last year. The kid can do it all. Take it hole, hit the three drive and dish, whatever you need he can provide. His lock down D made every other teams PG look bad last year. On pure athleticism, I'd move him up to #3.
8) Doron Sheffer - perfect complement to Ray he added maturity to the team. Finished with more than 1,300 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds. Once had a fan offer her daughter in marriage to him. When he blushed and said nothing, the woman said "how about me?" That ought to count for something.
9)Tate - Earned his place because of the shot, one of the many legendary moments for the program.
10) Tough call. Call it pick 'em between Marcus and AJ. Williams has better career assists, AJ better career points. Always link them because of the incident. Despite Williams jaw dropping passes and court vision, I'd give a slight nod to AJ.

You can pick on me all you want but to put him 4th is beyond ridiculous. Top 10 is a maybe, 4th is not being real with your list.

 

[CL82]

1) Kemba - Most magical run of all time - period.
2) Shabazz - I would have said Bazz's run was an unbelievable once in a lifetime accomplishment, but for Kemba's run.
3) El-Amin - You always remember your first. The kid is definition of swagger and one my all time favorites.
4) Ricky Moore! Crimeny! How did I miss him on the first go round. One of the best performances in a NC Game. Kept us in it with his offense in the first half and his defense in the second half. Take him Trajan? I...think...not.
5) Taliek - Success matters. One the BY's favorite whipping boys, but he got it done, didn't he?
6) Smitty - Started it all. You have to wonder if all happens without him deciding to stay home.
7) KO - Solid player for us whose NBA career helped define UConn as program that gets you to the NBA, but NC #4 and continuity for the program after the departure of a legend probably should move him higher on the list.
8) Boat - Rough senior year but we don't #4 without him last year. The kid can do it all. Take it hole, hit the three drive and dish, whatever you need he can provide. His lock down D made every other teams PG look bad last year. On pure athleticism, I'd move him up to #3.
9) Doron Sheffer - perfect complement to Ray he added maturity to the team. Finished with more than 1,300 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds. Once had a fan offer her daughter in marriage to him. When he blushed and said nothing, the woman said "how about me?" That ought to count for something.
10) Tate - Earned his place because of the shot, one of the many legendary moments for the program.

Edited to include Moore.

 

[DogMania]

Yeah, it's hard. I'd probably have Price a little higher. Probably ahead of George, Boat, and Brown.

As for Sheffer: he averaged 4.8 apg his freshmen year, 5.5 his sophomore, and 6 his junior year. Those first two years, too, he shared the space with KO, who racked up a ton of assists. Sheffer was definitely a PG.

If AJ had not been stricken with AVM, he would be much higher on that list. I remember watching him go 1 on 1 against...maybe MW...before the season began and his handle, abilities score from all over the floor was unbelievable as a freshman.

When I first saw him play, I said he was the best point guard UConn had ever had at the time. It's too bad we never got a chance to see how good a college player he could have been. He clearly never developed into what he could have been due to the AVM, off-court issue and ACL that sidelined him for over 2 critical early development years.

He was one of the most all around PG-Combos we ever recruited. He had the ability to pass, lead a team, shoot the 3, midrange and drive it to the hole. He played above the rim before the AVM, and never seemed to regain his explosiveness.