11/05/24
January 21, 2004
ESPN's lists silver anniversary teams this week...: I caught the tail end of tonight's ACC listing and it was Laettner, Sampson, Mark Price, Jordan; I would imagine Len Bias at other forward. Did anyone see this or has seen the others???
posted by dales15 to basketball at 09:07 PM - 23 comments
tieguy--if you remember the lineups from the other conferences and get a chance, please post them. thanks
posted by dales15 at 09:23 PM on January 21, 2004
Unfortunately, I don't. I'm sure once they've run through them all they'll be somewhere on ESPN.com, though. The ones I saw all seemed to have one or two 'iffy' choices, though- not bad players per se, just not mad superstars, like the ACC group was- I mean, the ACC group probably had Mark Price as the weakest member, with Price and Bias, and then arguably the greatest college player ever (Sampson), the greatest tournament player ever (Laettner), and the greatest player ever (Jordan).
posted by tieguy at 09:34 PM on January 21, 2004
Also, for the record, Maryland really irritates me. Duke seems to turn on the stupid cap against them the past few years.
posted by tieguy at 09:35 PM on January 21, 2004
And I like Gary Williams (mostly) and I respect his players- they play their minds out. Shaking Juan Dixon's hand really was one of the high points of my Cameron career. But those fans- 'Fuck You Redick'? What the hell kind of a moron's cheer is that? At least they didn't throw bottles this year.
posted by tieguy at 10:05 PM on January 21, 2004
These are the other teams I noted - SEC: Shaquille O'Neal Chuck Person Chris Jackson Jamal Mashburn Allan Houston Big East: Patrick Ewing Chris Mullin Pearl Washington Ray Allen Derrick Coleman Big Ten: Steve Alford Kevin McHale Jimmy Jackson Glenn Robinson Mateen Cleaves Big Twelve: Wayman Tisdale Danny Manning Steve Stipanovich Rolando Blackmon T.J. Ford
posted by Into the Black at 11:35 PM on January 21, 2004
Wilbon talks about it a little bit this morning. He mentions Kornheiser's all-ACC second team was James Worthy, Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, and Juan Dixon. I'd replace Dixon with Jason Williams (I loved Juan, but think Jason was a better pure basketball player) and take that team against most of the other conferences first teams.
posted by tieguy at 06:19 AM on January 22, 2004
Cool. From growing up as a kid I would be much more interested in my own lists of cats that I remember getting it done. I was a Pac-10 and Big-10 fan mostly. Big 10 Roy Tarpley Glen Rice Steve Scheffler Jim Jackson Keith Edwards Pac 10 Sean Elliot Jason Kidd Gary Payton Detlef Schrempf Judd Beuchler And I would have put Walter Berry and Ed Pinckney on the Big Beast team
posted by vito90 at 08:20 AM on January 22, 2004
Am I the only one here that thinks Worthy should replace either Price or Laetnerr on the first team?
posted by trox at 08:20 AM on January 22, 2004
Where is Randolph Childress? Childress struck terror in the hearts of ACC hoops. By the bye, Welcome into the black. If anyone happens to catch the rest of the silver anniversary teams please post them here for debate.
posted by lilnemo at 11:01 AM on January 22, 2004
Big props on remembering Childress lilnemo. I did find him on the list when I voted on my all ACC team. Strangely, Worthy wasn't even on that list either. Another one missing from the list was Kenny Anderson, who was amazing in his brief time at Georgia Tech.
posted by trox at 12:40 PM on January 22, 2004
Weren't there any all-time players in college hoops before 1970?
posted by billsaysthis at 01:37 PM on January 22, 2004
Yes, but this list is just for players since 79, hence the silver anniversery.
posted by corpse at 01:42 PM on January 22, 2004
And, oh man, I hated Childress. He'd definetly go on my list, over Price. The rest I can't argue with.
posted by corpse at 02:21 PM on January 22, 2004
I think the lists were based on what guys accomplished in college, so the edge seemed to go to three and four-year guys. So there went Kenny Anderson, and for that matter, Isaiah Thomas, who might be a smidge better than Mateen Cleeves. Here's the case for Mark Price: Three-time All-American, which is tough for Childress to trump. The best team was the C-USA's, which had Drexler, Olajuwon, Mark Aguirre, Darrell Griffith and Anfernee Hardaway. From the Big 12 list, TJ Ford simply was not as good as Mookie Blaylock. I don't know what they were thinking.
posted by jackhererra at 03:29 PM on January 22, 2004
bilsaysthis, good point about the 25 year cutoff. Without that, this list would have a totally different feel (i.e., David Thompson, the best college player I ever saw). Good point on Anderson, but that still doesn't explain to me why James Worthy isn't on the list. He was the best player on UNC's 82 National Championship Team, and he played until his Junior Year (longer than Jordan who left after his sophmore year I believe) when he became a first round draft pick.. In fact, as a college player, he was probably better than Jordan. Now assorted Spofites, who would be the worst starting five over the last 25 years in the ACC (must have been a significant contributor to their teams). Here's my shot: C - Cherokee Parks (Duke) - never lived up to the hype but played a lot F - Serge Zwikker (UNC) - personally handed semifinal to Arizona F - Matt Doherty (UNC) - journeyman basically sums Matt up G - C. Alexander (UVA) - again, never lived up to the hype, but was biggest producer or very mediocre teams G - Steve Blake (MD) - all hustle too much bad shooting (Wojo could go here too almost) (That list is a lot harder than the 1st and 2nd teams... Instead of worst, I should have said 10th team given my caveat).
posted by trox at 03:49 PM on January 22, 2004
Oh trox! Steve Blake? How can you diss a guy for (in your OWN words no less!) "all hustle"??? One more change - as far as college careers are concerned I would put John Wallace over Derrick Coleman.
posted by vito90 at 04:07 PM on January 22, 2004
My all time worst team of contributors: ACC King Rice Bruce Dalrymple Tyrone Bogues Charles Shackleford Alla Abdelnaby
posted by vito90 at 04:24 PM on January 22, 2004
trox: Cherokee is totally trumped by Greg Newton. If you are an ACC fan, and you haven't read March To Madness, run, don't walk to your local bookstore. And there have been any number of starting ACC points in the past few years worse than Steve Blake- he was an irritating little brat (with all due respect), but the man had 1K assists, more than all but two players in NCAA history.
posted by tieguy at 05:45 PM on January 22, 2004
From the Big 12 list, TJ Ford simply was not as good as Mookie Blaylock. I don't know what they were thinking. Mookie was a better scorer and defender but Ford is a better playmaker by far. They both got into the Final Four, but TJ did much more with less. If TJ were excluded and Mookie made the list I wouldn't make an argument either. I just think the voters saw that Ford better exemplified the PG role. They made the same toss-up judgement with the Big East Team when they took Washington over Iverson. Iverson was hands-down a better scorer than Pearl, but Pearl was a better set-up man.
posted by lilnemo at 06:12 PM on January 22, 2004
vito and tieguy, your points are both well taken. I really didn't want to put Blake on the list, but I had a hard time coming up with the point guard (I did think of King, but didn't want to double ding the heels when someone as maddening as Zwikker was already on the list).
posted by trox at 08:40 AM on January 23, 2004
Good eye goddam.
posted by lilnemo at 02:33 PM on January 26, 2004
It was Bias at the other forward. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have results anywhere on their site. Crazy how deep such an ACC team would be; either UNC or Duke's all time teams would be competitive with most of the silver anniversary teams I saw from the other conferences. Now back to watching the actual game...