Top 5 UM Basketball Players of the Decade

Submitted by steviebrownfor… on

When I was watching the Indiana v Michigan basketball game a few weeks back they had a poll that gave viewers the opportunity to vote for UM & IU's best basketball player of the decade. For U-M, I believe the list contained Manny Harris, Deon Harris, Chris Hunter, LaVell Blanchard, and Bernard Robinson Jr.

Maybe it's just me, but when I think of Michigan basketball from 2000-2009 the first name that I think of is Daniel Horton. Horton may not have had the best professional career, but I believe he personified U-M basketball better than any other player this past decade. Any Thoughts?

blueheron

January 11th, 2010 at 7:09 PM ^

Says here that he played in 17 games, so add him, I say.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/crawfja01.html

He's one of only three UM alums in the NBA:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/alumni-tracker/school/1839

That site needs an update (- Rose).

I can remember when UM had > 10 players in the NBA. Those were the days.

ntclark

January 11th, 2010 at 7:06 PM ^

I always found this amusing:

If you go to the Wilson (sports equipment manufacturer) website, they have links at the bottom of the page for the different sports. Most of them have really great players: the football link has a picture of Tom Brady, the tennis link has a picture of Roger Federer, the volleyball link has Misty May-Traynor.

And if you look at the basketball link you get Graham Brown.

Bando Calrissian

January 11th, 2010 at 6:30 PM ^

Bernard Robinson, Jr.
Lavell Blanchard
Manny Harris
Daniel Horton
Dion Harris

If only Hunter and Lester Abram had been able to stay healthy throughout their careers...

And even at that, the potential in those 5 players that was stifled by either bad teams or bad coaching (often both) is staggering.

FGB

January 11th, 2010 at 6:40 PM ^

This exercise got me thinking about various past M players, including Josh Moore, who got several shots at the NBA based on his 7'2" frame, despite doing absolutely nothing while at Michigan other than showing an uncanny ability to fumble every single interior pass he ever received.

Anyway, his wikipedia page reads like a sample persuasive writing essay: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_A._Moore

My favorite is the explanation of his lack of success at Michigan: "Amidst turmoil and scandal within the University's athletic department, Moore was never able to find his form at the collegiate level, consistently finding himself in foul trouble due to unfavorable match ups against undersized post players his freshman season. Perimeter focused offenses and the guard oriented coaching styles were also contributing factors to his ineffectiveness at the collegiate level."

I'm not trying to rag on him in particular, I just find it funny that he or his agent probably wrote the entirety of his wikipedia entry. I wish him the best of luck as a social commentator.

bcsblue

January 11th, 2010 at 7:33 PM ^

Horton is the only guy over the last 10 years that hasn't caused me at least 5 facepalms a game. As good as Harris and Simms are they do 5-10 absolutely stupid things a game that make you think they havn't played basketball 5 hours a day for the last 20 years. Seriously. I love Manny but sometimes his game is just maddening. Chargers, turnovers, terrible D.

thevictors85

January 11th, 2010 at 7:33 PM ^

what about dion harris... he was a = to a daniel horton recruit at the time and didn't have a terrible career, given the 'success' of the amaker era.

Buckeye

January 11th, 2010 at 7:40 PM ^

I liked watching Petway and his nice dunks. I remember he had a few nice ones at a game i went to in Columbus

VictorsValiant09

January 11th, 2010 at 7:47 PM ^

Amadou Ba, of course.

I remember watching Michigan Basketball on TV during high school, and the Maize Rage would always chant for him to enter the game.

If Eso Akunne hadn't been ruled academically-ineligible, I imagine he would have filled that role at some point, if nothing more than for a cool name.

SFBlue

January 11th, 2010 at 8:29 PM ^

Bernard Robinson, Jr. (so underrated)
Lavell Blanchard (could have gone anywhere, he went Blue)
Daniel Horton (brought them *so close*... great run in '02-'03)
Manny Harris (obviously)
DeShawn Sims (little competition at his position)