Mario West

[Channing]

I always liked the way he played at GT (except against Duke). Was he a walk on originally?

Well, he has earned a spot on the Hawks roster.

Good for him!

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/hawks/stories/2007/10/25/mariowest_1026.html

[Olympic Fan]

Mario West was a "recruited" walk-on.

Georgia Tech wooed him, but Hewitt said he couldn't offer a scholarship right away. His promise was that if things worked out, West would go on scholarship after his sophomore season.

But one day during West's freshman year, Hewitt saw West dive for yet another loose ball and decided not to wait any longer. He says he blew his whistle, stopped practice and said, 'Okay, you got it." The way the rules work, he was not able to put West on 'ship in midseason, but he did go on scholarship after his freshman year -- a year early.

BTW, last weekend at Operation Basketball, I read that Hewitt got tired of being asked about the loss to Thaddeus Young and Jarvis Crittenton and finally told reporters that he thought Tech would miss West as much or more as either of those two defections.

[riverside6]

Great story about West. We obviously don't need another poll, but it'd be interesting to see which players were our favorite non-Duke performers. Here are a few of mine, in which case West is certainly included...

Jon Barry (http://www.scacchoops.com/forms/players.asp?search=jon barry)
Drew Barry (http://www.scacchoops.com/forms/players.asp?search=drew barry)
Bob Sura (http://www.scacchoops.com/forms/players.asp?search=bob sura)
Mario West (http://www.scacchoops.com/forms/players.asp?search=mario west)
Dennis Scott (http://www.scacchoops.com/forms/players.asp?search=dennis scott)
Juan Dixon (http://www.scacchoops.com/forms/players.asp?search=juan dixon)
Monte Cummings (http://www.scacchoops.com/forms/players.asp?search=monte cummings)

I could keep going, but I'm curious what other names might pop up.

[gw67]

I agree that story on West was great. For several years, I got to watch 2-3 Virginia games so some of my favorite non-Duke/non-Terps players were Cavaliers - Stith, Crotty, Carlisle, Miller, Edelin. Heels that I liked included Jones, Ford and Pepper. One recent player that I liked was Fein of Tech.

gw67

[Olympic Fan]

I agree that story on West was great. For several years, I got to watch 2-3 Virginia games so some of my favorite non-Duke/non-Terps players were Cavaliers - Stith, Crotty, Carlisle, Miller, Edelin. Heels that I liked included Jones, Ford and Pepper. One recent player that I liked was Fein of Tech.

I also liked Bryant Stith a lot ... but always with a little sadness because he's a player Coach K tried very hard to recruit. Wow, if he'd played for Coach K, he'd be one of the guys we're voting on this week.

I was trying to think of great players who were universally loved around the ACC and I came up with Jeff Mullins of Duke, Charlie Davis of Wake (the respect for him was kind of a reaction by all the people who hated Charlie Scott and didn't want to be thought of as racists) and David Thompson of N.C. State -- not only the best player in ACC history, but probably the most popular among opposing fans. I don't remember anybody hating on Tim Duncan.

As for the LEAST popular non-Duke players (to stay away from reviving the whole Duke-hatin' thing), I'd suggest John Roche, Ralph Sampson, Charlie Scott (not all, but a lot of it was racism), Phil Ford (although I liked him a lot), and Julius Hodge (although I also liked him).

Any more?