Where does Boatright rank amongst all-time Uconn Point Guards

[StingLykOllie]

Absolutely agree with you, and it's largely why Bazz is my favorite player ever.

He (deservedly) gets most of the attention from the championship season, but the year he had when UConn was banned was almost as remarkable. That team played 45 overtime minutes that season ... and Shabazz scored somewhere around 50 points in those 45 minutes. I've been watching bball for a long time, and that's one of the craziest stats I've ever seen.

He's one of the more unusual great players I've ever seen at UConn, but that made him one of the most fun to watch.

I totally forgot about that in 12-13. We went 5-2 in overtime games that season, and in just about every one of them Bazz took control.

Some quotes:

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands --Shabazz Napier scored 23 of his career-high 29 points in the final 3:24 of regulation and two overtime periods, and the 23rd-ranked Huskies survived a major upset bid by Quinnipiac in an 89-83 win at the Paradise Jam.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Ryan Boatright scored 19 points and Shabazz Napier had 18, including eight in overtime, to lead Connecticut to an 82-79 victory over Providence on Thursday night.

STORRS, Conn. -- Shabazz Napier scored 24 points and hit three 3-pointers in overtime, leading Connecticut to a 69-64 win Sunday over South Florida.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Shabazz Napier scored 11 of his 27 points in overtime as Connecticut beat Cincinnati 73-66 on Thursday night.

 

[Kitaman]

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

 

[Hey Adrien!]

this is completely ridiculous. ya we lost to george mason, get over it. marcus was the best passer bar none ive ever seen in college. he led the entire ncaa in assists his two full years here and im pretty sure when he left uconn he was the alltime NCAA leader in assists per minute. he led some great offenses and as much as everyone hates on the 2006 team, they had a great season with him at the helm...30-4 and 14-2 in a stacked bigeast. im pretty sure he averaged like 20 and 8 in the tournament that year and was super clutch at the ft line, if we 'choked' or 'underachieved' that year it certainly wasnt because of him

looked it up, marcus in the ncaas in 2006... 24/46(.522 fg) 10/18(.555 3fg) 22/23(.957ft) 20ppg 8.8apg...those are amazing #s

I disagree. What do almost all of these PGs have in common: the unquestionable will and drive to battle on both ends of the floor. Marcus Williams is the antithesis of this. Yes, there were games where he was a wizard on offense, but Marcus Williams wilted in too many big games. Williams lacked the true grit that an elite PG needs.

 

[Blue Blood]

I don't think the top 3 is too debatable

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)

I think your top four is spot on and in a separate tier although I would have kemba alone at the top. From there i go taliek boat aj and then drop down another tier for the rest of the guys. Im going on what they did here not pure talent for which williams is right there with kemba at the top

 

[HistoryMajor]

Tate George was a great PG. Not saying he's number 1 but Tate has to be the top ten conversation.

 

[pnow15]

Tate George was a great PG. Not saying he's number 1 but Tate has to be the top ten conversation.

He's no. 1 on his prison team.

 

[Kitaman]

Of all the point guards being discussed none would have done crap against a point guard of ours named Ricky Moore.

 

[pnow15]

Did Earl Kelly ever actually play the point? I recall him as always being the 2 (and he played like a 2).

Well, when you are the only guy who can dribble and shoot, that tends to happen like with Boat.

 

[pnow15]

C

Sad that Earl Kelly isn't on any of these lists. He also had a dissappointing end.

Check above you.

 

[pnow15]

I'm just hoping Jalen turns out to be as good as any of them. A lot of schools would want a list like this.

I will be disappointed if he is not No 1 when he is through. We have never had a point with his athleticism.

 

[tzznandrew]

I will be disappointed if he is not No 1 when he is through. We have never had a point with his athleticism.

If you are disappointed if Jalen doesn't pass Kemba or Shabazz--let alone KEA--you will almost certainly be disappointed. Those expectations are far too high.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

There is some revisionist history going on here. Taliek Brown was losing minutes to Williams when MW was a freshman until Williams had to sit for academics, so Calhoun appeared to disagree with a lot of your assessments. In addition, I would be Top 10 all time in assists at UConn if I was passing to Caron, Emeda, Gordon, Rashad, Villanueva, Boone and Denham.

My list:

1) Khalid - took us to a Final 8 from the NIT as a frosh and then to the NC as a sophomore. Streaky shooter, occasional defender, literally would take plays off on the court, and a pure winner. An neither team was just a case of getting hot at the right time. They dominated the whole year.

2) Walker - Won a NC with a young team, and was ranked the whole year.

3) Bazz - 2 NC's

4) Price - the value of Price was proven when he got hurt against San Diego. The team sucked without him.

5) Marcus Williams - I can't believe someone in this thread claimed Marcus couldn't see the court.

6) Ollie - couldn't shoot but was a bullet and had a tremendous handle

7) Doron - I can't believe he didn't make a Final Four with the 3 teams he played for.

8) Taliek - people forget how much he struggled at times his first 3 seasons.

 

[johnhuskies95]

There is some revisionist history going on here. Taliek Brown was losing minutes to Williams when MW was a freshman until Williams had to sit for academics, so Calhoun appeared to disagree with a lot of your assessments. In addition, I would be Top 10 all time in assists at UConn if I was passing to Caron, Emeda, Gordon, Rashad, Villanueva, Boone and Denham.

My list:

1) Khalid - took us to a Final 8 from the NIT as a frosh and then to the NC as a sophomore. Streaky shooter, occasional defender, literally would take plays off on the court, and a pure winner. An neither team was just a case of getting hot at the right time. They dominated the whole year.

2) Walker - Won a NC with a young team, and was ranked the whole year.

3) Bazz - 2 NC's

4) Price - the value of Price was proven when he got hurt against San Diego. The team sucked without him.

5) Marcus Williams - I can't believe someone in this thread claimed Marcus couldn't see the court.

6) Ollie - couldn't shoot but was a bullet and had a tremendous handle

7) Doron - I can't believe he didn't make a Final Four with the 3 teams he played for.

8) Taliek - people forget how much he struggled at times his first 3 seasons.

Here you go being contradictory for the hell of it. Ollie himself would laugh at the idea that he's a better PG than Boatright.

 

[puppygenius]

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)

Wow great list, I agree with the order

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Here you go being contradictory for the hell of it. Ollie himself would laugh at the idea that he's a better PG than Boatright.

I forgot to mention that I didn't include Smith and Boatright because they aren't point guards. Great players, especially Smith. But not point guards.

 

[John]

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)

More than the other guys, I always wanted to like Marcus so much more than I actually did like him. There was always just something "off" about him...always felt like we were gettting a little short-changed for some reason.

 

[puppygenius]

Sad that Earl Kelly isn't on any of these lists. He also had a dissappointing end.

He was my first UConn hero, man was he good. REALLY GOOD

 

[UConnWingman]

The one reason you cannot put Napier ahead of Kemba is that if Kemba didn't win it all in '11, Napier wouldn't have put it together in his head to figure out how to carry the team last year. '11 led to '14, period.

 

[John]

He was my first UConn hero, man was he good. REALLY GOOD

Loved Earl Kelly. Yeah, he needs to be on that list for sure.

 

[msgordon]

I disagree. What do almost all of these PGs have in common: the unquestionable will and drive to battle on both ends of the floor. Marcus Williams is the antithesis of this. Yes, there were games where he was a wizard on offense, but Marcus Williams wilted in too many big games. Williams lacked the true grit that an elite PG needs.

find me a big game that marcus wilted in. just because he has the lamb 'lazy eyes cool demeanor' thing going on doesnt mean he didnt battle every night. he was 53-12 as a starter. led the entire country in assists twice. was the only ballhandler on our highest scoring teams of the last 15-20 years. you wanna talk off the court issues or nba career, fine...on the court at uconn he was awesome, and i never once questioned his effort

 

[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