ESPN ranking of tourney coaches as players.
I've seen ESPN do this in previous years but it's a little more interesting for Michigan fans this year because of the obvious.
The drop off from 2 to 3 is significant. If Georgetown wouldn't have made the run that they did through the Big East tourney, Juwan would have been in a class by himself.
March 18th, 2021 at 11:44 AM ^
Out of the big 3, i always liked David Robinson the most. But in my older years, i have deferred to Hakeem Olajuwon being the best out of the big 3. I always viewed Ewing as the 3rd best.
March 18th, 2021 at 11:57 AM ^
I feel a little sorry for Ewing sometimes. He was pretty good but the other two were clearly better.
He'd be even more of a forgotten man without the East Coast media hype he had at every stage of his career (Boston, DC, NYC).
March 18th, 2021 at 12:34 PM ^
Pretty good is one way to describe a no brainer HOFer.
I'm not sure your criteria for the big 3, but in college, for me, the big 3 that were on the court the same time-ish were Ewing (c/o 85), Hakeem (c/o 84), and Ralph Sampson (c/o 83).
March 18th, 2021 at 12:03 PM ^
I played high school basketball, and then street ball. That includes my only brag, playing on NYC's famous 4th Street court.
So it's humbling to realize I probably couldn't beat any of the coaches, except maybe the golfer at the end.
March 18th, 2021 at 12:55 PM ^
The pictures of Fran McCaffery, Rick Pitino, Dana Altman, and Bill Self are hilarious in that article.
The drop off from 2 to 3 is significant.
Yeah, not a hole lot of star power after Juwan. The bottom half often weren't even Division I players.
I went into reading this thinking: “Bob Huggins has to be around #68”
Come to learn he was a pretty damn good player. Also, the most surprising still to me is that Tony Bennett lasted as long as he did in the NBA.
Will Wade being a former HS golfer who never even played hoops and ALSO being the coach who stupidly said he was trying to buy players while being recorded explains a lot.
Anyway, yeah, the drop-off from Howard and Ewing to everyone else is pretty jarring. And honestly, Ewing hasn't been a particularly good coach; he needed a miracle run to get the Hoyas into the tournament and was on the hot seat for most of the year. So taking a run on a former player doesn't usually work out, and UM should be happy that they got a good one with Juwan.