Some of my Facebook friends were debating a college basketball topic this week, and I had to devote an entire column to my reply.
The topic? If you took the best players ever from UNC and the best ever from Duke, who would win an NBA-style playoff series with a best-of-seven format?
First off, wouldn’t that just be the greatest thing EVER? I think 2K Sports needs to work on a video game version right now. Make it a downloadable content purchase for the Xbox and Playstation.
Wouldn’t that be the best sporting event ever?
Imagine these starting lineups:
UNC vs. Duke
PG Kenny Smith — Chris Duhon
SG Wayne Ellington — R.J. Barrett
SF Rick Fox — Kyle Singler
PF Rasheed Wallace — Danny Ferry
C Sean May — Elton Brand
And those are the guys that didn’t even make my first teams!
Since it takes a while to debate the rosters, I’ll do them in separate columns. First up I’ll discuss Carolina.
The first time I saw an ACC basketball game was 1982, so I can only judge players since then. Sorry Phil Ford and Mike Gminski.
Also, only college production applies, so it doesn’t matter that Vince Carter will one day be in the Hall of Fame; he wasn’t a star in college.
Here are my lineups, first team and second team, 12 players each.
First Team
PG: Ty Lawson, Ed Cota
SG: Michael Jordan, Rashad McCants
SF: Jerry Stackhouse, George Lynch
PF: Antawn Jamison, Rasheed Wallace, Brice Johnson
C: Tyler Hansbrough, Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty
Second Team
PG: Raymond Felton, Kenny Smith, Marcus Paige
SG: Shammond Williams, Wayne Ellington, Vince Carter
SF: Rick Fox, Danny Green
PF: James Worthy, J.R. Reid
C: Sean May, Tyler Zeller
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So how did I come to my conclusions? Some guys had breakout final years and other guys were strong contributors for a long time.
Ty Lawson won a title by averaging 16.6 points, 6.6 assists, 56.0% shooting on two-point tries, 47.2% on 3’s and 79.8% at the line, with 2.1 steals.
Ed Cota was only the third player in NCAA history to break 1,000 career assists. And with a team stacked with scoring talent, somebody has to be willing to pass.
Rashad McCants pointed out to the media once that he actually was more efficient on offense than J.J. Redick, but Duke ran lots of plays that allowed J.J. to lead the NCAA in scoring.
He was right. Over three seasons he scored 17.6 points on 54.4% shooting on 2’s and 42.3% on 3’s to go with 4.1 boards and 1.5 steals.
Stackhouse exploded onto the scene as a sohomore with 19.2 points on 54.6% shooting on 2’s and 41.1% shooting from deept to go with 8.2 boards, 1.5 steals and 1.7 blocks as a 6-foot-6 small forward.
George Lynch played a lot of power forward, but I’m sliding him to small forward because he was so versatile. One of the best glue players in team history, he had 1,747 points, 1,097 rebounds and 241 steals. The best reason to pick him is that the 1993-94 team was absolutely loaded — except Lynch was gone and the chemistry fell apart.
The sports-reference.com website has tracked win shares since 1995. Four-year players have the advantage in career win shares. The first player to leave college early and still make the career list is Antawn Jamison at 15th (Duke’s Carlos Boozer is right behind him at 16th).
Rasheed Wallace in his second year had 16.6 points, 8.2 boards, 2.7 blocks and a ridiculous 65.7% shooting.
Brice Johnson finished with 1,716 points, 1,035 boards and 100+ blocks and steals. He shot 57.5% for his career and 61.4% as a senior. He also improved his foul shooting each season.
Hansbrough broke the team records for career points (2,872), rebounds (1,219) and is the NCAA’s all-time leader in both made two-point baskets and free throws.
Sam Perkins scored 2,145 points, grabbed 1,167 boards and shot about 59% on two-point tries (the experimental 3-point line in 1983 throws off the listed stats).
Brad Daugherty had 1,912 points, 1,003 rebounds, 62.0% shooting and 146 blocks.
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On the second team, some of the names are obvious.
Raymond Felton, Wayne Ellington, Sean May and James Worthy were all integral parts of national championship teams.
Marcus Paige finished with 1,844 points, 602 assists and 299 3’s made. He beat out his running mate Joel Berry who had 1,811 points, 451 assists and 266 3’s made.
Kenny Smith scored 1,600 points even though there wasn’t a 3-point line except for his senior season when he shot 40.8%. He also had 768 assists and 195 steals.
Shammond Williams was actually the second scorer after Jamison on those Bill Guthridge teams. Vince Carter was the third-leading scorer. Shammond was highly efficient; as a senior he shot 57.7% on 2’s, 40.0% on 3’s and 91.1% at the line, with 4.2 assists.
Rick Fox had 1,703 pts. on 58.0% on 2’s, 38.8% on 3’s, 75.7% at the line, 197 steals, and improved his rebounding every year.
Danny Green is my glue guy for the second team. He was always undervalued to me. He finished with 1,368 points, 37.5% on 3’s, 52.2% on 2’s, 590 boards, 256 assists, 160 steals, and a surprising 154 blocks as a small forward.
J.R. Reid averaged 16.2 points over three years with 60.1% shooting and 7.6 rebounds.
Tyler Zeller didn’t do too much for the first two seasons, but then blossomed. For his junior and senior seasons alone he tallied 1,200 points and 600 boards.
• There were several guys I agonized about omiting, like Joel Berry. Here are a few more:
As a sophomore Kendall Marshall averaged 8.1 points and led the nation with 9.8 assists per game. He had 581 assists in only two years, well over the pace to break the record of 1,076 held by Duke’s Bobby Hurley. He also shot 36.6% on 3’s and 48.4% on 2’s.
Cameron Johnson scored 1,514 points, but some of those were before he transferred to UNC. He shot 40.5% on 3’s, including a powerful 45.7% as a senior.
Luke Maye was like Zeller with a slow start to his career, but finished with 1,394 points, 36.1% on 3’s, 49.2% 2’s, and improved his foul shooting every year to 77.4% as a senior.
Look for the Duke rosters in the sports section of the Sunday edition.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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