Originally Posted by
Olympic Fan
Allow me to weigh in on the Alarie-Ferry debate.
I don't see how anybody could argue that Alarie was Ferry's equal, but it's not lopsided in terms of career value. Alarie WAS very good -- first-team All-ACC as a sophomore (Ferry was only second team as a sophomore), second team as a junior and first team again as a senior. Ferry was first team his last two years, so both were twice first-team and once second-team All-ACC. The difference is that Ferry was twice ACC player of the year. Alarie was third-team All-American in 1986 ... Ferry was concensus second team in 1988 and consensus first-team in 1989. That year he split the major National Player of the year Awards with Arizona's Sean Elliot -- both won three of the six recognized awards (Ferry won UPI, Basketball Writers and Naismith).
Statistically, Alarie averaged 16.1 points and 6.3 rebounds a game for his career. Ferry averaged 15.1 and 7.0. Alarie, who didn't have the 3-point shot (he attempted 2 in 1983, the year of the short experimental), ended up shooting over 55 percent from the field and 79.7 from the foul line. Ferry hit 48.4 and 77.5 fropm the foul line.
You might say advantage Alarie, except for two factors -- Ferry WAS a good (not great) 3-point shooter. hitting 108 of 279 (38.6 percent). In addition -- and I think this is the important difference between the two -- Ferry was perhaps the best-passing big man in the histoy of the ACC. He was a "point forward" who passed out 506 assists in 143 games (3.5 a game). The only frontcourt player close to him is Grant Hill, who had slightly more assists a game (3.6) but less overall (461). Only six players in Duke history have more assists than Ferry.
Now, Alarie was a good passing big man with 152 assists in 133 a game, but obviously not in Ferry's class.
Both were exceptionally good defenders -- statistically, Ferry had a few more steals, Alarie had a few more blocked shots. I can't point to individual honors, but both were key playrs on exceptional defensive etams (the 1988 Duke teammight have been the best ever, although Billy King and Robert Brickey had a lot to do with that).
I guess my overall point is that just as Ferry has been somewhat overshadowed by Laettner (who overlapped with him one year), Alarie has been somewhat overshadowed by Ferry (who overlapped with him one year). In the end, Alarie was not quite the player Ferry was, but it was no so lopsided as some would suggest. I think Ferry gets credit for his national honors -- his junior and senior years were better than anything Alarie had, even though Alarie was probably better as a freshman and sophomore (hard to compare freshman years -- VERY different circumstances, Alarie was the second best player on a struggling young team; Ferry was the sixth man on the best team in the nation).
I believe that except for Ferry's passing skills (which I don't mean to diminish), they were very similar as players. I know the stats show Ferry with more range and while he might have had a bit more shooting range, it wasn't much. Just consider that the one year Alarie had the 3-point shot, he was a freshman and was still developing. Several of Duke's best big-man shooters did little from long range as freshmen -- Laettner attempted one 3-pointer as a freshman; Battier made 4 of 24 3-pointers as a freshman. Ferry didn't show an outside shot as a freshman either (no 3-point shot that year, so tough to prove, but Alarie was much more of an outside threat that year; Ferry was basically locked into the low post). I'm sure if Alarie had had the 3-point shot for his last three years, he'd have made his share -- maybe not as many as Ferry, but close ... as it was, he focused on the mid-range jumper -- why take a 20-footer when a 15-footer counts just as much?
I do think of Alarie as Coach K's first inside/outside big man. Ferry -- and then Laettner -- took it to another level, but Alarie was the first.
Both great players.