Yes, it's been fun reading everyone's picks and bringing back a load of memories. I just wish we had a lot more fans that care this much about Aggie hoops.
Hey, we are now going way way back! When i first saw Baranco and Frost it was preHam if my savaged memory isn’t completely lost.i forget the head coaches name but we were never predicted to win league, but we did that year ‘69-‘70. He was a great head coach. I think he quit for health reasons. As for hickey it was an amazing place to watch basketball and feel it as if you were close to the court you could get a basketball in your face if you weren’t paying attention. Those were the days.
I remember one time I was sitting in the student section (as a student) at Rec Hall. During a game against Grand Canyon one of the Antelopes ran halfway up the steps after a loose ball. As his momentum carried him he yelled, "Oh, @&#? !!!" The students taunted him with the same expletive every time he got the ball.. This would have been either the 98- 99 or 00- 01seasons
Yes movie. Joe Carlson. Great guy and great coach. Is he still with us? Was Hickey cool? Yes, when you stomped on the bleachers they were so loose that the sound went all the way to the floor and was amplified so the sound was incredible. Yes we had a thunder dome before there was a thunder dome. I here that the lady’s practice there a lot. True? Do the men? It just felt like almost a cathedral when you walked in. All the stone and steps up. The gym smell. Maybe still does. Makes me shiver to remember all of those days.
And, of course, what was Hickey Gym without Ham barely sitting in his chair writhing in agony, chewing on his white towel, stomping his feet and yelling like crazy and then throwing his towel high up in the air while he went up a few rows and sat down beside some Aggie fans. He was so wild to watch...what a character!
Your post got me thinking. Usually when you hear people talk about an player being selected for the Hall of Fame their stats are brought up. Not one post in this thread even mentions stats for any player. Thought that was interesting.
I think folks are making teams from what they remember of the players instead of being totally data driven. I like that because team chemistry and the how the players connect with the fans is really important. I'll take a good team player that has great chemistry with his teammates and is a hard worker over pure talent every time.
Here's another team that I think would be fantastic:
PG - TJ Shorts II - The more I watch this kid play, the more I think he could become our best PG ever.
SG - Corey Hawkins - We all know why.
SG - Ryan Sypkens - The best pure 3 point shooter we've ever had.
F - Mark Payne - Defense, offense, all-around baller.
PF - Chima Moneke - what else is there to say.
6th man - SG Lawrence White - tremendous defender and rebounder and 100% all the time.
I love this lineup: Speed, ball handling and scoring at the point, lights out shooting from Sypkens and Hawkins, rebounding, defense an lots of offense from Payne and Moneke, and great defense, hustle and effort from White when the team needs a jolt of energy.
I'm too lazy to look up the stats, but I thought Tyler Les had a better 3 point percentage. Nevertheless, that team with Sypkens and Les had a plethora of fine 3 point shooters.
Tyler Les was a deadly 3 point shooter also. I remember when he hit an NBA distance 3 at the buzzer to send the game against Utah State in the Pavilion. The place went crazy and I think we won the game in overtime but...???
Tyler may have had a better percentage but I think Ryan holds the records for 3's.
They were good shooters for sure. We had some great D2 players who may have been pretty good playing at the D1 level but they didn't make their marks against the kind of competition we've have faced in the D1 era. I don't think a Aggie D2 dream team would fair all that well against an Aggie D1 dream team.
I know it's way to early to chat about this but, do you guys think this team is March Madness ready?
My gut says no being that outside of Chima and Shorts we have no true scorer that can create on their own. In the past, we've had the luxury of Corey and Brynton.
The only thing that makes me change my mind is how we played against Washington & Washington St. We looked incredible - I couldn't believe that was us!
Right now, we have way too many turnovers, inconsistent offense, and a defense that can be good but only if they play with max effort. But fortunately, the BWT is over a month away, and we play in a conference that doesn't have a dominant team.
In my mind, the key is if we learn how to perform in close games. Last year we were two clutch plays/situations away from going home early (Chima's put back in the semi's, and Lemar's unstoppable effort down the stretch against UCI). Heck, throw in a typically close game against Poly in the first round, and last years team could easily have been very disappointed. I'm guessing this years team will be similar...play close games and it'll come down to if we can get key stops on defense and consistent offense.
We've been craving for another player to step up (after Chima, Siler and Shorts). I really think that if John can continue to get healthy, and stay out of foul trouble, he can provide that 4th option. His outside shots seems to be coming around, but more importantly, he's added a defensive presence that we didn't have earlier in the year. If he can continue that progression, and if Mooney can be a little more consistent with his 3's, I think we do have a very good chance of running the table in Anaheim.
Nice summation, Obdh. In Ailene Voisin's Sac Bee article today Les said he felt that this year's team has more talent overall than last year's team but is still searching for that "connectivity" that last year's team had. At last night's coaches show he said that he feels that his team this year has not played it's best ball yet and the goal is to be peaking at the end of February and the first of March.
This is an interesting team Les has put together and there have been flashes of brilliance at times where the offense and defense were really clicking and you could see the great potential that is there. This team is still growing and building their team chemistry. They are teetering on the edge of being a very good basketball team and it will be fun to see how they continue to develop down the stretch in February.
In answer to 69Aggie, the coach from 1967 through 1989 was Bob Hamilton for whom they named Hamilton Court. He won 301 games at UCD. I loved to watch him throw his towel, stomp on the floor, but never yell at the refs. I probably saw about 50 of his victories including all of them in 1972-73 when I handled the stats for the campus' radio broadcasts of the games.
Aggie6thman mentioned stats. Here are some from the media guide:
All time career leaders in career scoring:
Audwin Thomas - 1821
Corey Hawkines* - 1694
Preston Neumeyer - 1578
Vince Oliver* - 1523
Mark Olson - 1440
All tine career leaders in rebounding:
Alan Budde - 952
Mark Olson - 869
Dominic Callori - 844
Pete Buchwald - 757
Ron McMillan - 682
All time career leaders in assists:
Angelo Rivers - 467
Mark Payne* - 448
Darius Graham* - 418
Dante Ross - 380
Rommel Romentz* - 307
The asterisk* shows players who were on the team at least part of the time that the Ags were in Div. I and I want to suggest that a more fair way to decide who the best payers were is to separate the DIv I and Div II players. Al Budde, who was an ferocious board man, was only 6'5" and would have had trouble starting for a Div I team. Corey Hawkins would not have played for Davis in Div. II.
I would feel extremely confident at choosing players for the 1, 2, and 3 positions from the DII era to compete with our DI alums. They competed, very well, against DI comp with no 3-point line and had NBA tryouts.
Big men and depth are where the separation probably happens. I never saw Budde, Olson or Lein. We had a few players leave who would have stayed if we were DI, real studs who concentrated on academics.
Audwin Thomas was a very good player. I remember most of those players that Toke69 listed and the ones I saw play were very good in their respective divisions.
Well, my preference was to have stayed in Davis, but I got married out here and pretty much lived her for half my life. It's hard to portray a place in a few words, but here are a few thoughts: It's warm all of the time, people here are very friendly and polite, the population is very diverse, the politics are very liberal, the cost of living is similar to the Bay Area, you cannot drive more than 40 miles in one direction and we get occasional false alarms about nuclear missiles.
I work for a company called Perform Media which owns Sporting News & Goal.com in the US. It's obviously that time of the year to go after clients who would be interested in March Madness...
I was looking for a video and stumbled upon this one. While its only a simple stats video, seeing our logo pop up brought back all of those happy memories of making the big dance! I know we were blown out, but winning that first game and seeing our logo next to Kansas was still a blast!