Where does Boatright rank amongst all-time Uconn Point Guards

[Nychusky1]

Great thread:

1) Kemba - #1 Husky, period.
2) Shabazz
3) Smith
4) El-Amin
5) George
6) Brown - one of the most underrated UConn players of all-time
7) Boatright
8) Ollie
9) Price
10) Williams - one of the most disappointing UConn players of all-time

I'd love to put Boatright higher, I love him, but he never really shined as a PG and was better as an off-guard. Was Sheffer a true PG? How about Gordon, I believe he played more SG with Brown at PG.

Tate George had three frustrating years and really only one good college season as a senior. He followed that up doing nothing in the NBA which didnt surprise me a bit.

 

[DogMania]

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.

You make some great points there. People forget that during most of his time at UConn, he really never had a true 2-guard playing next to him. It made his defensive liabilities look even worse. It also made it much harder for him to score, not having a player beside him who could also create off the dribble. Imagine how much better he may have looked if he had a Shabazz or Boatright playing next to him...or maybe more appropriately put, AJ Price. I would have liked to see that backcourt tandem, but it wasn't meant to be.

 

[Gurleyman]

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.

No it's right. He f-ed up two Championship caliber teams that were preseason No. 1 with his own laziness and stupidity. That's just an indisputable fact. He's the only guy who has ever gotten himself academically ineligible after one semester as a freshman. That takes a special kind of lazy. Then he tried to sell stolen laptops from his fellow athletes - his peers. That takes a special kind of stupid.

This stuff Is more my opinion. He was a brilliant passer - fun to watch on offense sometimes. Definitely a talented guy that was capable of being a championship level player. But he was also lazy. He was more French poodle than bulldog and his teams only won anything without him. That's a small sample size and Dogbreath2U certainly has a fair point that I'm not entirely objective when it comes to him. He's not at fault for 2006 - he needed Price at the 2 (or someone like that). But I don't think his laziness and attitude was particularly great to have in a leadership role, and I think that permeated that team - they never buckled down since they always figured they'd pull it out late. And it bit them. The same guys did buckle down in Maui when they knew they had a smaller margin for error. But then again - Denham's shot went in at Maui and if those two shots are reversed, we lose Maui and go to the FF.

Or, you know what - give him Ricky at the 2 and you have yourself a winning backcourt. His flaws would be masked and you'd have the guy to supply the energy and leadership that MW didn't have.

 

[mauconnfan]

The " ups" with his stupidity makes sense now. Got it - agree.

 

[Horatio]

AJ Price (final four) and mentored Kemba
Kemba Walker ( final four and championship ) and mentored Shabazz
Shabazz Napier ( 2x champion) and mentored Boatright
Ryan Boatright ( championship ) is the end of the AJ Price bloodline. That explains everything. We just didn't have that second guy / continueation that
Has become our formula since AJ. The restrictions disrupted our system. It's that simple.

 

[UConnDad]

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?

2 other categories
Unguardable even when double or triple teamed: Kemba
Who after 5 minutes the other team realized was the best player on the court: Kemba

 

[ConnHuskBask]

No it's right. He f-ed up two Championship caliber teams that were preseason No. 1 with his own laziness and stupidity. That's just an indisputable fact. He's the only guy who has ever gotten himself academically ineligible after one semester as a freshman. That takes a special kind of lazy. Then he tried to sell stolen laptops from his fellow athletes - his peers. That takes a special kind of stupid.

This stuff Is more my opinion. He was a brilliant passer - fun to watch on offense sometimes. Definitely a talented guy that was capable of being a championship level player. But he was also lazy. He was more French poodle than bulldog and his teams only won anything without him. That's a small sample size and Dogbreath2U certainly has a fair point that I'm not entirely objective when it comes to him. He's not at fault for 2006 - he needed Price at the 2 (or someone like that). But I don't think his laziness and attitude was particularly great to have in a leadership role, and I think that permeated that team - they never buckled down since they always figured they'd pull it out late. And it bit them. The same guys did buckle down in Maui when they knew they had a smaller margin for error. But then again - Denham's shot went in at Maui and if those two shots are reversed, we lose Maui and go to the FF.

Or, you know what - give him Ricky at the 2 and you have yourself a winning backcourt. His flaws would be masked and you'd have the guy to supply the energy and leadership that MW didn't have.

You need to separate Marcus the person from Marcus the player.

He stepped up in a big spot more than anyone else in 2005 and 2006.

Sure they lost to Mason with a great team and Marcus at the point but he was the last person to blame for that.

 

[mauconnfan]

You need to separate Marcus the person from Marcus the player.

He stepped up in a big spot more than anyone else in 2005 and 2006.

Sure they lost to Mason with a great team and Marcus at the point but he was the last person to blame for that.

Agree here too. He was the sole reason we still had hope vs George Mason he was really good.

 

[Gurleyman]

Agree here too. He was the sole reason we still had hope vs George Mason he was really good.

With a minute to go against George Mason, he had five points on 2-8 shooting. He made a couple shots in hero time.

 

[ctchamps]

You need to separate Marcus the person from Marcus the player.

He stepped up in a big spot more than anyone else in 2005 and 2006.

Sure they lost to Mason with a great team and Marcus at the point but he was the last person to blame for that.

This!!

Can't disagree with @Gurleyman about the potential being wasted because of off the court issues and lack of prep. But factoring in what he had to work with and how he ran the team @Dogbreath2U and @mauconnfan have valid points also.

MW is to Gurleyman the same way Taliek Brown was to mau and Jerome Dyson is to chief. Well the last analogy (with chief) is not correct because at least Gurley has rationality for his point of view. And mau has long since mellowed out over TB. But MW is Gurleyman's kryptonite. There were a few years I thought nyhuskyfan was never going to post again following all the crud surrounding MW and Nate and that really bothered me because I alway felt he was one of the most insightful posters.

I'm glad he's back.

 

[Gurleyman]

You need to separate Marcus the person from Marcus the player. He stepped up in a big spot more than anyone else in 2005 and 2006. Sure they lost to Mason with a great team and Marcus at the point but he was the last person to blame for that.

The two often go hand in hand. If I was a player on the 2006 team working hard in the offseason to try to win a national title, and a teammate I was counting on was off selling laptops - of fellow athletes who may very well be good friends of mine - and basically trying to get himself thrown out of school, I'd be pissed at him. If he gets on my case for not running a play properly, I'd consider punching him in the throat. You can't lead when you repeatedly let your teammates down. They don't trust you or respect you. Many of those guys had seen him let them down twice. I imagine he was plenty smart enough to do the schoolwork everyone else managed to do their freshman fall - he was just lazy.

This is where I admit my bias makes my opinion somewhat grain of salt material, but he was pretty bad against both Washington and George Mason until very late, when he did step up in hero time, but the 40 minutes of effort and attention to detail wasn't there from him at all. His seven turnovers against UW included things like lazy one-handed passes that led to leak outs.

To show some fairness, I've always given him the Kentucky game as his signature effort, winning the battle with Rondo and making all the plays late that we needed to hang on. We lose that one without him. But at the same time, I've always considered Albany the signature game of a MW-led team. Talented enough to win a game late, despite grading about a D for effort.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The two often go hand in hand. If I was a player on the 2006 team working hard in the offseason to try to win a national title, and a teammate I was counting on was off selling laptops - of fellow athletes who may very well be good friends of mine - and basically trying to get himself thrown out of school, I'd be pissed at him. If he gets on my case for not running a play properly, I'd consider punching him in the throat. You can't lead when you repeatedly let your teammates down. They don't trust you or respect you. Many of those guys had seen him let them down twice. I imagine he was plenty smart enough to do the schoolwork everyone else managed to do their freshman fall - he was just lazy.

This is where I admit my bias makes my opinion somewhat grain of salt material, but he was pretty bad against both Washington and George Mason until very late, when he did step up in hero time, but the 40 minutes of effort and attention to detail wasn't there from him at all. His seven turnovers against UW included things like lazy one-handed passes that led to leak outs.

To show some fairness, I've always given him the Kentucky game as his signature effort, winning the battle with Rondo and making all the plays late that we needed to hang on. We lose that one without him. But at the same time, I've always considered Albany the signature game of a MW-led team. Talented enough to win a game late, despite grading about a D for effort.

No disrespect, but you go on to more or less bash the guy as a leader and big time player for UConn, then go on to list him winning the Kentucky game, stepping up in crunch time against Washington and making plays to force OT against Mason. Not to mention the Albany game they were looking like the first 1 to lose to a 16 until Marcus pulled it out.

So to recap, he was the best overall player on a #1 ranked team, was the best player overall in the NCAAT for that team and stepped up the most in crunch time for that team.

If Boone and Armstrong didn't get eaten alive by Mason we very well could've won the whole thing.

Wasted some potential due to bad decisions off the court with grades and laptops, sure. But he was hands down the best player on that 2006 team and the furthest reason from why they lost.

 

[Tenspro2002]

With MW, I think you do have to consider both the on-court and off-court elements.

When he was on the court, his play was outstanding. That's not a point of debate. That's a fact.

That said, his off-court leadership -- as evidenced by his being suspended for 2 semesters in 3 years for pure idiocy -- was abysmal.

I don't think it's a stretch to argue that his poor leadership-by-example is part of what led to his teams' indifferent play in big moments. MW could bring it himself when he needed to, but he couldn't get anyone else to buy in.

(Edit: That said, I think it would have been hard for even someone like Kemba to get pouty Josh Boone and tentative Rudy Gay to play to their full, aggressive potential.)

 

[sammydabiz]

Wow.... the Marcus Williams hate is high in the yard huh?
Whether you reasonably liked him or not, it does not negate the fact that he might be the best pure point guard to ever put on a UConn jersey. Facts are facts, and they can't be erased by laptops. His dishes and his command of the offense was legendary. On the court, few had the vision of MW

 

[HistoryMajor]

Not much love for Tate George. I still maintain he is one of the top ten. paraphrasing, JC said Tate's shot against West Virginia in 1988 when we won the NIT was more important (or maybe JC said as important) as Tate's shot against Clemson.

On a separate note,I used to have a love affair with point guards and would watch games just to see the point guards play. Some of my fav PG's in no particular order were Pearl Washington, Kahlid, Billy Donovan, Jay Burson and Marcus Wms.

 

[msgordon]

marcus still got it i could watch him pass all day whether its at uconn or in a mens league



at :13...that pass doesnt even make sense, hes running pick and roll with the other guy and somehow makes a perfect read to a guy he doesnt even appear to look at. his vision was just on a completely different level

 

[Giddyup5]

Wow great vid. I agree I can watch him play all day. Put him on this team and he would make our bigs into serviceable players.

 

[Gurleyman]

Wow.... the Marcus Williams hate is high in the yard huh? Whether you reasonably liked him or not, it does not negate the fact that he might be the best pure point guard to ever put on a UConn jersey. Facts are facts, and they can't be erased by laptops. His dishes and his command of the offense was legendary. On the court, few had the vision of MW

In fairness, I think the hate is mostly from me.

Facts are facts. Another fact is that is team's only won things without him. Do you think he got a Big East ring, a NC ring, or a Maui T-shirt?

 

[sammydabiz]

In fairness, I think the hate is mostly from me.

Facts are facts. Another fact is that is team's only won things without him. Do you think he got a Big East ring, a NC ring, or a Maui T-shirt?

You're right about that Gurley.....but the team is more than one player, others on that team, especially in 06 poo poo'd the bed late in the season as well. So ya, he wasn't the "best" leader, but we all knew that. Still doesn't negate his pure point guard ability which was absolutely exceptional.
Thinking about it, he kinda reminds me of Rondo, ultimate vision with questionable leadership.

 

[Gurleyman]

No disrespect, but you go on to more or less bash the guy as a leader and big time player for UConn, then go on to list him winning the Kentucky game, stepping up in crunch time against Washington and making plays to force OT against Mason. Not to mention the Albany game they were looking like the first 1 to lose to a 16 until Marcus pulled it out. So to recap, he was the best overall player on a #1 ranked team, was the best player overall in the NCAAT for that team and stepped up the most in crunch time for that team. If Boone and Armstrong didn't get eaten alive by Mason we very well could've won the whole thing. Wasted some potential due to bad decisions off the court with grades and laptops, sure. But he was hands down the best player on that 2006 team and the furthest reason from why they lost.

You're mixing two issues. I don't consider clutch buckets to be an example of leadership. I consider bringing the intensity and focus from the opening tip to be leadership. Setting a tone that your teammates respond to.

These aren't things that you can look in the box score at necessarily. Kemba had a terrible game stat wise against Butler, but his leadership was awesome. He went after it hard from the tip, playing D, going after rebounds, chasing loose balls into the stands. And I actually consider the Cincy game in the second round as the greatest leadership one of our players has ever shown, and it started very early in the game. We were flat, tired, getting out worked and it looked like we might have an empty tank and Kemba just started playing right then as if it was crunch time possessions. Team fell in line behind him, gutted one out, and there were never desperation clutch baskets to be needed.

I admit MW probably just needed that guy next to him at the two (a Ricky type). Taliek was a great leader, but has Ben and Rashad to spread the floor and mask his shortcomings as an offensive threat. A Ricky at the 2 would have masked Marcus' and allowed him to just do his thing and let someone else be the leader who could turn out intensity up a notch.

 

[Gurleyman]

You're right about that Gurley.....but the team is more than one player, others on that team, especially in 06 poo poo'd the bed late in the season as well. So ya, he wasn't the "best" leader, but we all knew that. Still doesn't negate his pure point guard ability which was absolutely exceptional. Thinking about it, he kinda reminds me of Rondo, ultimate vision with questionable leadership.

We probably agree more than we disagree. Hook me up to a lie detector and ask me who the most talented point guard we ever had was, and it would probably stop beeping when I said MW. I loved watching him pass or run an offense (hated watching him not bother going after loose balls, but every player has flaws).

But ultimately, my bias stems from the fact I preferred him gone after I found out all the details of his summer vacation (laptops of your fellow athletes are very important personal possessions that may have personal photos, academic work, etc. that can't be replaced). I was disappointed we brought him back, made me feel that we didn't stand for much, and that made that team difficult for me to root for, even though I liked the rest of them. If he had smoked pot or had more academic problems or even stole shoes from Timberland, I'd probably be less of an ass on the subject.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

MW looks to be in better shape than his NBA days .
RB is a great player but not a true PG . One of the most gifted Athletes ever to play here.a true warrior. If MW had his passion he would still be in the NBA.
RB Lacked the Passing skills of some of our Greats.
First tier
KEA,KW,and SN
All had abilility to make their teammates better players,all have Rings ,
Legendary
second tier
MW,AJP, DS
Great players , we could have used one of these guys this year , we would still be playing.
Third Tier
TG,KO,TB,RM
Clutch players ,not flashy ,great FT shooters , strong handles and good decision makers. Cool under pressure.
Incredible list and I'm sure I've missed a few . Have we been Lucky ?
That just in The JC/KO era
lKH,Perno,Penders ,were no slouches either.
All three coached at the D1 level what some success.
If JA makes my list I will be a happy man

 

[huskiemaniac]

We take it Kemba and Shabazz are 1-2 in no particular order give or take. Here is my list.

1. Kemba (2011 season says it all 2 FF)
1b. Shabazz (2 National Championships, of course we know coaching change, BS Tourney ban etc etc, but I can't put him above Kemba that 2011 run was ridiculous so I will put him beside him which is why I have him at 1B.
3. Khalid (CLUTCH, brought the swagger to the program)
4. Smith (Alltime leading scorer was as close as you can get to a FF )
5. AJ (2 time all american over came a brain hemmorage and ACL injury)
6. Boat (Top 6 all-time in scoring, shut down defender in last years title run, we don't win 1 game without him this year)
7.Taliek ( All time assists leader, was a gamer knew his role well)
8. Doron (Great Shooter was an great Uconn teams that had bad luck in the tourney)
9. Ollie (A coach on the floor no pun intended lol)
10. Marcus (Would have him higher if he saw the floor more, talent wise I would have him at 3)

That's some list!! Go huskies!

 

[Ripper32]

I never really thought of Kemba as your traditional PG. Shabazz was more of a PG than Walker.

 

[Scoe]

I don't think of Tate, Dyson, Moore, and Ben Gordon as pg. I was thinking amongst the line of pure point guards, its hard enough putting up a top 10 list of Uconn point guards. I think me having Marcus 10th was fair out of all time Uconn pg 10th isn't bad could he have been higher on the list yes. I reward career achievements, and winning. This is my list after all I can't please everyone, make your own list.