Who's Your Fave UofL Player That Wasn’t Considered The Best Player On Their Team?

[shadow force]

Who's your favorite Louisville basketball player of all time, that was never considered the best player on any of their respective teams?

With all the doom and gloom I thought we could all use a lighter thread.

 

[beantowncard]

Alvin Sims for me.

 

[UofLouisville]

Got two. Rodney McCray and second was Cornelius Holden because he dunked har.hard. Props to the Simms pick above because of the same.

 

[Art79]

Scooter McCray. His freshman season, 1978-79, as a center (Griffith was a junior), absolute best passing I have ever seen from the high post. And Bobby Turner was pretty great that year also, pretty good game, including rebounding, for a 6'3" forward.

Sadly, we haven't seen much of anything go through the ol' high post for several years now.

 

[Louis III]

I have few and they were all very different, but I love them for different reasons. Few that came to mind. Greg Minor, Ellis Myles, Taquan Dean, Kyle Kuric, Gorgui.

They were all very impactful in their own way from scoring to doing all the nasty stuff!

 

[Zoellersystem]

Jerome Harmon and Derrick Caracter.
So much potential, so much talent ultimately wasted.

 

[Rhino Byars]

I like the hustle guys the best. Dudes who did the dirty work when needed and always showed their toughness. Luke Whitehead, Ellis Myles & Stephen Van Treese to name a few.

 

[OldhamCard335]

Wichita and VanTrese

 

[Knucklehank1]

Preston Knowles. He made himself into the best player his senior year

 

[SoulSr]

Preston Knowles. He made himself into the best player his senior year

I remember the "Miracle on Main Game". He put the team on his back and we came back from 18 points down with 7 minutes to play against Marguette.

 

[pappy52]

HENRY BACON

 

[Louisvillian]

Luke Whitehead 2003-2004

 

[wreckcard#22]

Herbert Crook...helped us hang a banner and his goofy looking release.

 

[Louisvillian]

Herbert Crook...helped us hang a banner and his goofy looking release.

Played against him in a Freshman game when he was at Eastern. He was a 7th grader and dominated us from start to finish. His 12 rebounds in the 86’ Championship game is something I’ll never forget.

 

[chevelle99]

Great thread. Can't name any players that haven't already been listed. But I'm old and some of these posts take me back.

 

[CardsFan2112]

Tick Rogers and Alvin Sims. Both from state of KY

 

[CardsFan2112]

Tick Rogers and Alvin Sims. Both from state of KY

And Dewayne Morton

 

[earsky]

Ricky Wilson on the 77-78 team. Griff was a Sophomore and Wilson a Senior. What a one-two 👊. Out of bounds play Crum used with 3 guys screening at the free throw line and Wilson was money at the top of the circle.
Fun fact: Wilson was a pretty good softball player in the early 80s for the Ky. Bourbons.

 

[nccardfan]

Hancock, Kuric, Obannon, Just to name a few.

 

[PervisTheGreat]

Herbert Crook
Mark McSwain

 

[Villecard502]

Jeff Hall
Jerome Harmon
Wayne Blackshear

 

[Deeva]

Ryan McMahon

 

[UofLouisville]

Ryan McMahon

Always love a shooter.

 

[DanvilleCard]

Brian Kiser anyone?

 

[CommodoreCard]

BJ Flynn.

 

[Louis III]

BJ Flynn.

Aw man......one of my least favorite players ever. I actually played against him around town a few times too he was so damn cocky. He was a flopper before flopping became a big part of the game.

 

[BooneCo_Card]

Who's your favorite Louisville basketball player of all time, that was never considered the best player on any of their respective teams?

With all the doom and gloom I thought we could all use a lighter thread.

I've laid off of this thread largely b/c of my self imposed respite from posting, but I have hit a few likes.

#1 Alvin Sims
The Sims on Texas dunk in the NCAAs is an exclamation point. Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News put Alvin on his All-Time Cards team.

#2 Rodney McCray
Never THE star, but he made the stars shine with his passing and rebounding. My daughter was instructed to watch #22 when she was learning the game.

#3 Preston Knowles
An afterthought recruit who became the star as a Sr. Paul Rogers paid him the ultimate compliment in a tribute to the 2013 team by saying that PK had set the tone for those who followed.

#4 Stephen Van Treese
Slow, non-jumping rebounder who sat many a pick or screen. Much like old Boone is his day. Pitino was right. He didn't play SVT enough.

#5 Roger Burkman
You knew things were going to get interesting when Instant Defense came into the game.

A couple of side notes - Scooter was the best I have ever seen at passing from the high post. Bill Russell like. I never got to see Wes in college but a couple of times. A promising career curtailed by injury.

Tick Rogers made the transition from HS scorer to a beast on defense.

 

[Louisvillian]

Another of my favorites was PG Cameron Murray. He outplayed his more well known counterpart, Wayne Turner in back to back wins against Kentucky 1997 and 1998.

 

[shadow force]

Kyle Kuric, Preston Knowles, Luke Hancock, Ellis Myles

 

[CommodoreCard]

Aw man......one of my least favorite players ever. I actually played against him around town a few times too he was so damn cocky. He was a flopper before flopping became a big part of the game.

If he played for anyone but Louisville, I would have disliked him too. Lol

 

[earsky]

Kinda weird that Rodney is mentioned several times on this thread. It's debatable whether or not he was the best player on those 3 Final Four teams or not. Certainly not on the Championship team as a Freshman with Griff,probably not as a Sophomore either with his brother and Junior Derek Smith on that team. Certainly debatable going forward as a Junior and Senior.
Depends on which team because he was arguably the glue to all 3 Final Fours 🤔
However,it's easy to see him as maybe not the best player on any of those teams because of his modest career averages of 11 and 8.
What's incredible is that next only to Griff and Pervis,he was thought of so highly by the NBA,being drafted in the top 5 coming out. A true testament to being the consumate team player. Love talking about RM. These young basketball players should take note..

 

[BooneCo_Card]

Kinda weird that Rodney is mentioned several times on this thread. It's debatable whether or not he was the best player on those 3 Final Four teams or not. Certainly not on the Championship team as a Freshman with Griff,probably not as a Sophomore either with his brother and Junior Derek Smith on that team. Certainly debatable going forward as a Junior and Senior.
Depends on which team because he was arguably the glue to all 3 Final Fours 🤔
However,it's easy to see him as maybe not the best player on any of those teams because of his modest career averages of 11 and 8.
What's incredible is that next only to Griff and Pervis,he was thought of so highly by the NBA,being drafted in the top 5 coming out. A true testament to being the consumate team player. Love talking about RM. These young basketball players should take note..

For a long period of time, he and Bill Hanzlick of ND were the answer to a trivia question, "Who were the only two NBA 1st Round draft picks to never average 15 ppg in college?"

 

[Knucklehank1]

This thread has only reminded me of how f’ing strange things have been since about the time we self imposed with Lee and Lewis. We’ve had such a strange cast of characters. Random names through those years (some decent players, some not playing at all): Kwane Fore, Fresh Kimble, Sam Williamson, Gabe Wiznitzer, Charles Minlend, Syd Curry, Noah Locke, Matt Cross, Koron Davis to name a few

 

[nccardfan]

This thread has only reminded me of how f’ing strange things have been since about the time we self imposed with Lee and Lewis. We’ve had such a strange cast of characters. Random names through those years (some decent players, some not playing at all): Kwane Fore, Fresh Kimble, Sam Williamson, Gabe Wiznitzer, Charles Minlend, Syd Curry, Noah Locke, Matt Cross, Koron Davis to name a few

I must be losing my short term memory... I don't remember any of those guys!

 

[BPGhost]

I must be losing my short term memory... I don't remember any of those guys!

I sure didn’t until Knuckles reminded me. It’s sure been a long time in many respects since the “Year of the Cardinals”.

 

[cardinalrod]

Kenny Payne……

Jeff Hall
Herbert Crook
Ellis Myles