Most talented basketball team ever?
Should Nik, Glenn and Mitch be selected in the first round, will that make UM 2013 team one of the most talented college teams ever? I cannot think of a recent college team that had 5 first round NBA players who started at the same time.
plays stellar defense and were unselfish team who always share the ball. Yes, they're not a good shooting team and turn the ball over a ton, but they make up for it with their athleticism and unselfish plays.
No disrespect to him, but how many years did he have in the league vs. Howard?
11 to 19
Or the 1989 team.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves with this "Best team ever" thing.
Plus, the entire premise is false. You can't pick players from 2013 and players from 2014 and call it a team. Yes, some of those players played both years. But not all. And roles were different. You have to look at those teams individually. Or you simply discuss who had the best 5 players within a 5 year span, which is a totally different concept.
That team was just fun to watch.
That 1990-91 team in particular - as I recall - had four players go in the 1991 NBA Draft - three in the first and one in the second, if memory serves. I want to say George Ackles went in the second round, but relatively early. The first round picks would have been Greg Anthoy, Larry Johnson and Stacy Augmon then. Elmore Spencer was on that team but went in the 1992 draft, I think.
who was not drafted, but nonetheless won the 1990 Final Four MVP award.
Hunt played high school ball in Detroit.
Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, James Worthy, Brad Daughrty not a bad lineup and the 1960s UCLA teams were OK 38 game NCAA Tourny winning streak. 10 national championship in 12 years. I bet there were some good teams before that aswell. I know it might seem like the game started in 2000 but there was NCAA basketball before that.
This got me thinking how fun it was watch last year's team grow up in such a hurry.
Also, I was thinking if Michigan will ever have 3 upper classmen start again?
Also, the 85-86 Big Ten Champions had 7 guys drafted. Frieder had some really talented teams. They just didn't finish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968–69_UCLA_Bruins_men's_basketball_team
Curtis Rowe, Sidney Wicks, Lucius Allen, Lynn Shackleford - oh and possibly the most dominant player in college hoops history, the guy who got the dunk banned.
from that link:
Alcindor had considered transferring to the University of Michigan, because of unfulfilled promises from recruiting.
- 1. Lew Alcindor
- 2. Sidney Wicks
- 3. Lucius Allen
- 11.Curtis Rowe
- 14. Lynn Vallely
- 18. Steve Patterson
Not all the same draft, of course.
That's six top-20 picks on one team. plus Shackelford who didn't go until pick 91. Ken Heitz and Bill Sweek were on the team and were drafted ahead of him.
This team has been pretty talented, but look at some of those Kentcuky teams under Pitino if you want to see an NBA factory.
It was a super talented team to be sure.
Burke and Hardaway were both 1st round picks.
Stauskas and GRIII will both be 1st round picks. McGary has an outside shot at a late 1st, but will certainly get drafted.
Caris is already being projected as a top 20 pick for next year.
There was a lot of talent on that team.
It's certainly right up there as one of the 5 most talented Michigan squads ever.
But this raises the question of how we define "talented." Are we talking about how they were at the time or their eventual future? A year ago, Caris was an extremely raw freshman and Nik was more of a designated stand-in-the-corner guy. They both dramatically improved their games over the past 12 months. During 2012-13 itself, they were not playing at a 1st-round NBA level.
They had a #1 overall (Benson), #2 overall (Scott May), #7(Buckner), #11 WIlkerson, and #30 (Steve Green), but #30 was then in the second round. That team's top three subs went #43(Ted Abernathy, #32 (John Laskowski), and #27(Wayne Radford). That team was better than the 76 team, but May broke his arm and they lost in the Regional Final.
lol no.
- Bill Walton (#1 in '74)
- Keith Wilkes (#11 in '74)
- David Meyers (#2 in '75)
- Richard Washington (#3 in '76)
Marques Johnson (#3 in '77) was a freshman and didn't play. That was the second year freshmen were eligible to play varsity basketball but Wooden didn't like the rule and didn't let his freshmen suit up. Not that he needed them.
So that's four top-three picks in one school at one time, and five in the top eleven. And two future hall-of-famers in the same graduating class.
Two future HOFers playing together in college as seniors.
That's unthinkable now. They'd be third-year NBA players, probably all-stars, Walton might even have been an MVP candidate.
They were knocked out of the tournament by David Thompson, still in college as a junior.
College basketball was awesome in the 70s. You young guys don't know what you missed.
During a seven season span from 1697-1973, UCLA lost five games total and won seven straight championships. Wooden may have gotten a huge assist from bagman extraordinaire Sam Gilbert all of those years, but I am going to give those rosters the nod as the most talented ever, especially when they had Kareem or Walton.
Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Sam Perkins.
Good night!
Did Pitino put a lot of players in the NBA at UK? Other then Mashburn how guys went on to do much in the NBA?
I know this will send me to Bolivia, but one of my favorite rosters of the 2000's was the 2001 Duke championship team...
Boozer
Battier
Duhon
Dunleavy
Jay Williams
Or the next year when they lost Battier, but picked up Dhantay Jones and Daniel Ewing.
I thought this was going to be about the possibility of Carmelo Anthony playing in Miami next season.