Pick 2 players, past or present, from UM for your NBA Jam Team

Submitted by ypsituckyboy on

Saw this tweet from B1G Network and thought it'd make for fun discussion:

 

Random, but this should be fun. Which two players, past or present, from your #B1G team would you pick for a mythical B1G NBA Jam?

— Brent Yarina(@BTNBrentYarina) June 12, 2014

I think I'd go with Glen Rice and Chris Webber. In NBA Jam, I was always a fan of having one guy who was awesome at 3-point shooting and one guy who was awesome at dunking. Generally, I'd have the dunker passing to the 3-point guy, who would take like 50 3's a game. Then, I'd have the big guy stand under the basket and basically goaltend everything because (IIRC) I think the goaltends counted on the stat sheet as blocks for some reason. You?

LSAClassOf2000

June 12th, 2014 at 2:43 PM ^

This is the combination that I thought of as well. One of the two would be doing something at any given moment in this contest, and but the offense would definitely keep rolling along with little to no interruption. Pretty sure defenses wouldn't know who or how to guard between the outside shooting  and accuracy of Stauskas and the knack for getting open looks and assisting on what seemed like every over shot in the case of Webber.

mGrowOld

June 12th, 2014 at 3:23 PM ^

I actually am - thanks for asking.  But given that the OP's premise is whimsical I thought it would be fun to look at players from the past who had skills that might translate to the gameplay.  Rudy T was a incredible outside shooter who could take the ball to the hole when needed and Cazzie was a multidimensional player who was probably not the best choice but hey...this is Michigan and no discussion of Michigan players can be complete with Cazzie in their someplace.  And everybody had already given what was probably the obvious choice C-Webb & either Nik or Rice so was just trying to be a bit different and look at players from a different era.

My first two choices were Alan Hardy (fierce dunker) and Marty Bodner for whatever that's worth.

getsome

June 12th, 2014 at 2:34 PM ^

webber and stauskas (though tough to pass on burke)...if i recall that game was all about perceived player strengths and of course who heats up quickest and most frequently...webber would be one of best athletes on both ends and stauskas is a historically accurate shooter...nice post though, love the topic, that game was sick

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

June 12th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^

Stauskas and Robert Traylor.  Stauskas because I'd spend the whole game on fire, and Traylor because of the no-fouls rule.  Every rebound would be mine, I don't care how fast and athletic you are.  It's like NES Ice Hockey.  Just pick four fat guys.

maize-blue

June 12th, 2014 at 3:09 PM ^

I had NBA Jam on my Game Boy, the original one. I also had this clip on magnifier with a light because the screen was small and shitty, but awesome at the time.

San Diego Mick

June 12th, 2014 at 3:10 PM ^

Glen Rice and Roy Tarpley.

 

If Tarpley had been a more recent player, people wouldn't be forgetting about him, he was a better player than any other big man I've seen at U-M.

Mercury Hayes

June 12th, 2014 at 4:00 PM ^

C Webb for sure because there is no traveling in NBA Jam.

Glenn Robinson also seems to be built for the game because of his dunking ability. I think Glenn Rice and Glenn Robinson could be a solid team.

JamieH

June 12th, 2014 at 5:24 PM ^

taking Stauskas over Glen Rice is nuts. Stauskas is the best shooter Michigan has had since Glen Rice.  But he's not Glen Rice.  How much of that is because he's only a sophomore I don't know, so maybe in 2 or 3 years he'll be Glen Rice. 

Beyond Rice I don't see how you pass on Webber.  The rare times Rice misses, Webber would just rebound and dunk.  Plus, Webber would give you some blocks and rebouding. 

The only weakness here is that neither of these guys is really a great ballhandler.  I doubt that would matter that much in NBA Jam.  But maybe Burke is your sub so that you have a distributor.