The Big East's Top 10 All-Time Players
So last night, blogger Dan Shanoff caught the SNY show, Beasts of the Big East: Top 10 All-Time Players, celebrating 30 years of the Big East's existence. That got Dan thinking...so in this morning's edition of the Wake-Up Call on The Sporting Blog he threw out his top 10 players in Big East history.
All due respect to Mr. Shanoff who is a respected writer and maybe even a nicer person (a mensch if you will), but he has some glaring omissions, questionable inclusions, and distorted rankings. Shanoff is well-known for being quick to superlatives and to crown the latest to be the greatest, but I really don't mean to make this a rant against him. I understand that the purpose of any list like this is meant to discuss and argue those on it and is inherently debatable. I also understand that this is but a small section of his otherwise large WUC (done daily), so I doubt he put hours and hours of research into his categorization. And in all fairness, I can't find the original list featured on the SNY program to balance and contrast his rankings against.
Below I have laid out a couple of comparisons between two players who played similar positions. In each case, one of the players is on Shanoff's list and the other isn't. Who would you rather name to the all-time top 10 players in Big East history?
Player A: 1 season, 22.2 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 1.6 spg, NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, 1 National Championship
Player B: 3 seasons, 21.4 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.3 bpg, 2x Big East POY
In this first comparison, I'll concede that the numbers are pretty similar. The only differences seem to be Player B's career of three solid seasons compared to Player A's stunning run in the NCAA Tournament on the national stage. What if I told you that Player A didn't even win Big East POY in his only season playing? I'm open to discussion whether Troy Murphy (Player B) or Carmelo Anthony (Player A) had a better Big East career, but at the very least Melo should not be anywhere close to #2 on this list.
Player A: 19.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.4 apg, Big East POY
Player B: 19.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.7 apg, 2x Big East POY, NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, 1 National Championship
Player A and Player B both played three season and have virtually identical statistics. Shouldn't one more Big East POY and a National Championship MOP be the tiebreaker? I'm not sure who Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun would choose, but I'm going with Rip Hamilton (Player B) over Ray Allen (Player A) any day.
Player A: 10.9 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 4.5 apg
Player B: 21.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 3.5 apg, 2,632 career points (1st in Big East history), 2x Big East POY
Here is clearly the most egregious slight and inclusion in the list. How can Player A possibly be considered for this list? What if I told you that he didn't have the benefit of the three-point line (which he would have taken advantage of)? Would it matter that he didn't play that much as an underclassman? How about averaging over 20 ppg while carrying his team to a Final Four appearance in his senior season? Yeah...all of that still doesn't matter to me either. How Billy Donovan (Player A) makes Shanoff's list and Troy Bell (Player B) doesn't is beyond me. I didn't realize that Shanoff's love for Tebow and all things Florida also wrote revisionist history for Donovan's playing career at Providence.
I'll end this post with my list so I can give everyone the same benefit of picking my rankings to shreds. Feel free to rip me in the comments...
1. Patrick Ewing
2. Chris Mullin
3. Derrick Coleman
4. Allen Iverson
5. Alonzo Mourning
6. Rip Hamilton
7. Troy Bell
8. Pearl Washington
9. Troy Murphy
10. Sherman Douglas
11. Carmelo Anthony
Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy's Sugar Ball...
Nostalgia: I was watching a show last night about the Top 10 players in Big East history, and it got me thinking who would make my list: (1) Ewing, (2) Carmelo, (3) Mullin, (4) Pearl, (5) Coleman, (6) Iverson, (7) Mourning, (8) Donovan, (9) Douglas, (10) Allen. Apologies to all snubees.
All due respect to Mr. Shanoff who is a respected writer and maybe even a nicer person (a mensch if you will), but he has some glaring omissions, questionable inclusions, and distorted rankings. Shanoff is well-known for being quick to superlatives and to crown the latest to be the greatest, but I really don't mean to make this a rant against him. I understand that the purpose of any list like this is meant to discuss and argue those on it and is inherently debatable. I also understand that this is but a small section of his otherwise large WUC (done daily), so I doubt he put hours and hours of research into his categorization. And in all fairness, I can't find the original list featured on the SNY program to balance and contrast his rankings against.Below I have laid out a couple of comparisons between two players who played similar positions. In each case, one of the players is on Shanoff's list and the other isn't. Who would you rather name to the all-time top 10 players in Big East history?
Player A: 1 season, 22.2 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 1.6 spg, NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, 1 National Championship
Player B: 3 seasons, 21.4 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.3 bpg, 2x Big East POY
In this first comparison, I'll concede that the numbers are pretty similar. The only differences seem to be Player B's career of three solid seasons compared to Player A's stunning run in the NCAA Tournament on the national stage. What if I told you that Player A didn't even win Big East POY in his only season playing? I'm open to discussion whether Troy Murphy (Player B) or Carmelo Anthony (Player A) had a better Big East career, but at the very least Melo should not be anywhere close to #2 on this list.
Player A: 19.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.4 apg, Big East POY
Player B: 19.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.7 apg, 2x Big East POY, NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, 1 National Championship
Player A and Player B both played three season and have virtually identical statistics. Shouldn't one more Big East POY and a National Championship MOP be the tiebreaker? I'm not sure who Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun would choose, but I'm going with Rip Hamilton (Player B) over Ray Allen (Player A) any day.
Player A: 10.9 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 4.5 apg
Player B: 21.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 3.5 apg, 2,632 career points (1st in Big East history), 2x Big East POY
Here is clearly the most egregious slight and inclusion in the list. How can Player A possibly be considered for this list? What if I told you that he didn't have the benefit of the three-point line (which he would have taken advantage of)? Would it matter that he didn't play that much as an underclassman? How about averaging over 20 ppg while carrying his team to a Final Four appearance in his senior season? Yeah...all of that still doesn't matter to me either. How Billy Donovan (Player A) makes Shanoff's list and Troy Bell (Player B) doesn't is beyond me. I didn't realize that Shanoff's love for Tebow and all things Florida also wrote revisionist history for Donovan's playing career at Providence.
I'll end this post with my list so I can give everyone the same benefit of picking my rankings to shreds. Feel free to rip me in the comments...
1. Patrick Ewing
2. Chris Mullin
3. Derrick Coleman
4. Allen Iverson
5. Alonzo Mourning
6. Rip Hamilton
7. Troy Bell
8. Pearl Washington
9. Troy Murphy
10. Sherman Douglas
11. Carmelo Anthony
Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy's Sugar Ball...
Posted by Max Power at 3/9/2010 3:00 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: SNY Troy Bell Carmelo Anthony Rip Hamilton Ray Allen Top 10 All-Time Players Troy Murphy Dan Shanoff Big East Chris Mullin Patrick Ewing Beasts of the Big East Wake-Up Call Sporting Blog Billy Donovan
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: SNY Troy Bell Carmelo Anthony Rip Hamilton Ray Allen Top 10 All-Time Players Troy Murphy Dan Shanoff Big East Chris Mullin Patrick Ewing Beasts of the Big East Wake-Up Call Sporting Blog Billy Donovan
I can agree with the majority but with any list there are still some glaring omissions. Ray Allen had a huge college career and could easily make the list, and the same could be said for Kerry Kittles. The big omission to me is St Johns F/C Walter 'the truth' Berry. This guy was a beast playing with Mullin Jackson and Wennington but when Wennington graduated, Berry became unstoppable. He also played hardnosed defense averaging nearly 2 blocks per game and 1 steal per game while hauling in 10 boards and averaging 20.1 pts per game.
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PJ - - I agree that Berry was a beast, unfortunately he was only there for 2 years and for whatever reason that holds weight (or lack thereof) for me
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I agree that a full career is better and I agree that Melo should not be ther for his one year. What I think set Berry aside in this case is that when he tranferred from JUCO he was put in a forward spot because Wennington was there. After Wennington graduated Berry moved into the Center spot and elevated his game. At 6'8", he was not the tallest center but his defensive tenacity and scoring ability keep him on the list, albeit in the 9,10 spot due to the two year career.
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