Greatest College Basketball Player

[BlueintheFace]

There's more to the game than offense.

5.1 assists/game
6.4 rebounds/game
Steals- They didn't keep statistics

...but I agree that defense is important. It's a fair point.

The only concern there is, how many smaller basketball players that might appear on this list are known for defense? Big men really have the leg up on defense because of their position on the court and opportunity to guard the rim. Perhaps a good question would be- Since size is such an advantage on both ends of the floor, are big men deserving of a majority of the spots on this list?

[blueprofessor]

Named so far:

David Robinson
Austin Carr
Ralph Sampson
Tom Gola
Tim Duncan
Elgin Baylor

Which of these was born at Duke Hospital?

Dunno.Rodney Rogers? John Lucas?Who,O F?

As for the greatest college player:
1. Bill Walton
2. Lew Alcindor
3. The Big O
4. Larry Bird
5. Ralph Sampson
6. David Thompson
7. Bill Russell
8. Wilt
9. Jerry Lucas
10. Jerry West
11. Pistol Pete
12. Magic
13. Tom Gola
14. David Robinson
15. Christian Laettner
16. Bill Bradley
17. Patrick Ewing
18. Elvin Hayes
19. George Mikan ( for the old-timers)


Best regards

[barjwr]

Dunno.Rodney Rogers? John Lucas?Who,O F?

As for the greatest college player:
1. Bill Walton
2. Lew Alcindor
3. The Big O
4. Larry Bird
5. Ralph Sampson
6. David Thompson
7. Bill Russell
8. Wilt
9. Jerry Lucas
10. Jerry West
11. Pistol Pete
12. Magic
13. Tom Gola
14. David Robinson
15. Christian Laettner
16. Bill Bradley
17. Patrick Ewing
18. Elvin Hayes
19. George Mikan ( for the old-timers)


Best regards

Just my $0.02, but I'd have to put Danny Manning in there somewhere--maybe instead of David Robinson.

[blueprofessor]

barjwr---Good point.I guess I was trying hard to forget Kemper Arena ,Kansas City,the Kansas Jayhawks, and the talented Mr. Manning.What a nice trip ruined by one game!
Best regards.

[DBFAN]

Didn't Fox Sports Do something like this also, and if I recall they put Christian as the number one player of all time in CBB, mainly for his 10 for 10 (I think) performance against Kentucky, and for his game winning shot against UCONN. I for one have to agree, all of the others you mentioned are all great players, but I do not think you can mention CBB and not think of Laettner. I bet he makes the top 10. Although Pistol Pete may have had the most incredible numbers of any player, Laettner's perfection was very unique.

[Tom B.]

Good point. I guess I was trying hard to forget Kemper Arena ,Kansas City,the Kansas Jayhawks, and the talented Mr. Manning.What a nice trip ruined by one game!

Ugh -- I'd almost erased that one from my memory. I was a sophomore in high school at the time, and a bona fide Duke fanatic in the making. Duke was coming off an ACC Tournament that ended with a triple-crowning of UNC and an upset of #1 Temple in the regional final (hey Mark Macon, Billy King says hi), and looked to be on a roll. Duke had beaten Kansas in Allen Field House about six weeks earlier, so they had every reason to be confident.

Then Duke went out against Kansas in the Final Four and simply couldn't score, falling behind 18-2. By halftime, they'd cut the Kansas lead to 11, and kept chipping away in the second half. Duke cut the lead to three at one point late in the game, and Kevin Strickland (I think) took a potential game-tying three-pointer that did a full lap around the rim and was halfway down before rolling out. That was the closest Duke ever got. Danny Manning then scored on a tip-in off of a teammate's missed shot (he ended up dropping 25 on Duke, along with 10 rebounds and 6 blocks), and that was pretty much all she wrote.

[dkbaseball]

Thanks dk. I went with my memory rather than do a little research.

gw67

So did I, but then I had a fixation on those UCLA teams (the soul of a frontrunner, I guess). You didn't happen to see Wooden's last team play at Cole in Dec., '74 did you? I went around and watched their practice before the tournament started -- maybe the biggest thrill I've had in spectator sports, watching Wooden with his 3 by 5 notecards putting them through their paces.

[mapei]

Dunno.Rodney Rogers? John Lucas?Who,O F?

As for the greatest college player:
1. Bill Walton
2. Lew Alcindor
3. The Big O
4. Larry Bird
5. Ralph Sampson
6. David Thompson
7. Bill Russell
8. Wilt
9. Jerry Lucas
10. Jerry West
11. Pistol Pete
12. Magic
13. Tom Gola
14. David Robinson
15. Christian Laettner
16. Bill Bradley
17. Patrick Ewing
18. Elvin Hayes
19. George Mikan ( for the old-timers)


Best regards

Wow. Only one player from the last 20 years, and very few from even the last 30. That's a pretty severe indictment of modern college basketball!

Laettner gets my vote for #1.

[mgtr]

Looking only at performance at the college level, I would accept blueprofessor's list without much change. I definitely agree on the 1-2 order of Walton and then Alcindor. I was on the west coast at the time, and the running joke when Alcindor was a senior went: Who's the number 1 team in the country? UCLA Who's the number 2 team in the country? UCLA freshman team (Walton was on that frosh team, and, for the youngsters, freshmen couldn't play on the varsity team at that time).

[dkbaseball]

Looking only at performance at the college level, I would accept blueprofessor's list without much change. I definitely agree on the 1-2 order of Walton and then Alcindor. I was on the west coast at the time, and the running joke when Alcindor was a senior went: Who's the number 1 team in the country? UCLA Who's the number 2 team in the country? UCLA freshman team (Walton was on that frosh team, and, for the youngsters, freshmen couldn't play on the varsity team at that time).

The joke was about the Wicks team. Alcindor graduated in '69, Walton entered UCLA in '70.

And let me just add here: Anybody who watched the '86 regional final, Duke v. Navy, would have to be awfully surprised to see David Robinson ranked ahead of Johnny Dawkins as a college player.

[killerleft]

Maravich not in someone's Top Ten? Christian Laettner not in someone's Top Five? Maravich was his era's college basketball Tiger Woods. He did what he had to do to keep LSU competitive. We'll never know what he could have done in college (or the pros, for that matter) if he had been on a team with more talent. But a guy capable of putting up 44 points any night might have possibly fit in on any team you can think up. Heck, if he'd played for Dean Smith, Dean couldn't hold him under 30 ppg without breaking his leg!

[blueprofessor]

75--60 in 1965.The varsity team was the defending national champion.
Alcindor's line:31 points ,21 rebounds,and many blocked shots.Lucius Allen,Lynn Shackelford, and Kenny Heitz were on the frosh team with Alcindor.
Best regards.
P.S. That game was the debut of Pauley Pavilion.

[dkbaseball]

I still must give the nod to the greatest offensive player the NCAA has ever seen- Pistol Pete!

Solid enough arguments on paper, but did you see him play? It seemed like one was watching the Harlem Globtrotters, rather than competitive team basketball. And his LSU teams never rose to the level of "very good." Just on his numbers, I guess I have to put him in the top 25, but right alongside another of the "three M's" from the class of 1970 with almost comparable numbers -- Calvin Murphy.

Maravich was voted one of the top 50 NBA players, but that doesn't necessarily mean he ever played any defense, which was pretty much a lost concept in the NBA during those years.

[Olympic Fan]

A few points:

-- The four future all-pros who played with Walton were Keith Wilkes and Dave Meyers, who started up front with Walton and sophomores Marques Johnson and Richard Washington. Nater, a second-team All-ABA pick, graduated in 1973. The 1974 backup center Ralph Drollinger was drafted, but decided not to play. Sophomore guard Andre McCarter, a backup in 1974, played in the league. The starting guards -- Greg Lee and Tommy Curtis -- weren't pros, but they were (like Towe) superb college players.

BTW, to win the title, Thompson's team had to consecutively beat teams that included future pros John Lucas-Tom McMillen- Len Elmore; Marvin "Bad News" Barnes; Billy Knight; the UCLA five; and Maurice Lucas.

-- Blueprofessor -- don't mean to be insulting, but if you really think Ralph Sampson ranks ahead of David Thompson, I don't have much respect for your opinion. A lot of facts are debatable -- which is what makes threads like this fun. But c'mon man -- how can you rationally think that? Did only did Thompson win championships and Ralph didn't ... Thompson put up significantly better numbers ... Thompson's teams won more often.

-- Oscar Robertson and Pete Maravich were great players. But when you start talking about the greatEST players, shouldn't there be some dimension of the ability to do more than post stats? It's a fact that Cincinnati got better immediately after Oscar left. Don't you think if you lost one of the three greatest players of all time, his leftovers wouldn't go on to win the next two national titles when he couldn't win one? Pete's LSU teams finished 14-12 (8-10), 13-13 (7-11) before they finished 20-8 in his senior year. And that was when the SEC was Kentucky and a bunch of dwarfs.

Maravich averaged 44 points a game (shooting a career 43.8 percent from the field). Does it put that scoring average into context that the year after he graduated, Mississippi's Johnny Neuman averaged 41 points a game for an Ole Miss team that was as mediocre as Maravich's LSU teams? If you're going to rank Maravich in the top five, don't you have to -- by the same logic -- put Neuman in the top 10? And how about Frank Selvy, who averaged 41.7 at Furman in 1954 (when the Southern with West Virginia and George Washington was as deep a league that the mid-60s SEC).

Again, I think both Oscar and Pete were fine players ... but the very best? I don't have a problem with the big men who won -- Alcindor, Russell, Walton ... but when you talk about college players who were HUGE in their era, I'd suggest you not forget Bill Bradley (now THERE was an all-around player), Cazzie Russell, Ernie D'Gregorio and Jerry Lucas. And, although I never saw him play, Chet Forte must have been pretty darn good in 1957 when he beat out Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Lenny Rosenbluth for the concensus player of the year award.

PS -- The answer to the trivia quiz is Austin Carr. Although often mistakenly listed as born in Washington, D.C., he was born in Duke Hospital. His parents were moving from Columbia, SC, to Washington DC when his mother went into labor and Carr was born in Durham.

[blueprofessor]

Olympic,thanks for the hospital answer.Re: the best players, it is a matter of opinion, unless one wishes to convert his "opinion" to a "fact." I rank Sampson 5th and Thompson 6th. I thought Sampson was a tiny bit more dominant.I did not post the stats to which you refer.There was a tad more talent on Thompson's team and Sampson was a three-time ACC and consensus national player of the year. I accept that you take offense to my opinion and wish to push Thompson in front of Sampson.I bet others would rank Thompson higher as well.
Best regards.

[g-devil]

Watching the way they did the top 25 college football players of all-time, they're bound to produce some head-scratchers. Archie Griffin for Ohio State is the only player in the history of college football to win the Heisman twice and he was ranked #22 all-time. Wow.

That's correct, but a lot of folks like myself don't think he deserved it his senior year.

[captmojo]

Was this limited to division 1 players?

I kind of like Lloyd(World B) Free, Artis Gilmore, Julius Erving

[dkbaseball]

Was this limited to division 1 players?

I kind of like Lloyd(World B) Free, Artis Gilmore, Julius Erving

Artis and Doc played in Div. One (recall that Artis transferred to Jacksonville and played in the NCCA finals in '70). Doc flew a little under the radar unti he got to the pros, given that UMass wasn't a big basketball name back then.

[Indoor66]

Artis and Doc played in Div. One (recall that Artis transferred to Jacksonville and played in the NCCA finals in '70). Doc flew a little under the radar unti he got to the pros, given that UMass wasn't a big basketball name back then.

Though, UMass did defeat UNC with the Dr. playing.

[dkbaseball]

sophomores Marques Johnson and Richard Washington.

Minor correction: They were freshmen in '73-'74. I agree with the rest of the post, with the possible exception of putting Ernie D Among the immortals. Probably was as clever a passer as we've seen, but I always thought of him as pretty one-dimensional.

My personal list, BTW, has Grant Hill somewhere in the top 20. Two NCAA titles, nearly carried his team to a third. Called by K the best player he's ever coached. As versatile a player as I can remember.