On the eve of the Michigan game....

[peoriakid]

On the eve of the Michigan game, this is a pretty good read.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1134331/1/index.htm


Now, realistically, I would be pretty satisfied with playing well tomorrow and not getting embarassed.

 

[BUBalum05]

Great article, now if only this 2012 team had an up and coming player like that Chet Walker kid, I hear he turned out to be a decent player. ;-)

 

[tornado]

in all the lists of "Greatest college players" I have ever seen people compile -- those are TWO great players who are ALWAYS,
ALWAYS underappreciated and disrespected - Oscar Robertson & Chet Walker...
And I can understand many reasons why those who write up rankings and lists might overlook Chet & Big O...

-Of course it was long ago - way before a lot of people who do the writing - they might be old enough to recall seeing Bird & Magic but few writers alive today ever saw Oscar & Chet...

-there's actually not even much film or video evidence available -- in fact Dave Snell himself has done gobs of research and efforts to find film of Chet Walker playing basketball in a Bradley unioform - and to this date NONE has ever been found!! Likewise - not even much of Oscar...all we have to go on are the ever decreasing number of eyewitnesses and the stats in print.

-lastly even tho BU & Cincy were major, nationally ranked programs, today a lot of people only think of Duke, UCLA, Kentucky, or the BCS conferences when they talk about top level college basketball and college players - so teams like Bradley and even Cincy might just be hurt again by the anti-midmajor bias

BUT............any list of the TOP 10 or so college players ever that fails to include Chet & Oscar is bogus.....
These guys produced MONSTER numbers all THREE years they were allowed to play at the college level (even Magic, Carmello, etc.. did not play more than a year opr two) and they did it (unlike some today) against nothing but TOP opponents - no Savannah State's or Maryland-Eastern Shore.

And it's only going to get worse and the few remaining old-timers like me who actually recall seeing Chet & Oscar - leave the building....

As good as some of the top college players are today (and I won't name names) they would get eaten alive and spit out by Chet the Jet & Big O..


Example - here's a guy who lists his picks of the Top 50 college players of ALL TIME..
the guy has names like Jimmer Fredette, Fennis Dembo, David Rivers, Gerry McNamara, Phillip Hutcheson (who?????????) and Daren Queenan (who???)...
...and yet he does NOT have
either Chet or Oscar anywhere in his Top 50!! Just totally asinine and shameful...

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7185970/the-50-greatest-college-basketball-players-all-time

 

[JMM28]

As good as some of the top college players are today (and I won't name names) they would get eaten alive and spit out by Chet the Jet & Big O..

Agreed. I think another reason they never got their due was their... (surlyness? anger? general attitude?) towards life. Probably the same reason they were great players.

 

[TNel]

Ask Gene Morse how good Oscar was. He usually got the defensive assignment and never backed down. Giving up two or three inches, he did as good a defensive job on him as humanly possible. Both Chet and O were masterful at using the backboard for shots within 10-12 feet ... seemingly a lost art.

 

[Braveman]

Saw the Big O play for the Cincinnati Royals as a youngster in 1969... Only NBA player to "average" a triple double for an entire season....

 

[SFP]

Ask Gene Morse how good Oscar was. He usually got the defensive assignment and never backed down. Giving up two or three inches, he did as good a defensive job on him as humanly possible. Both Chet and O were masterful at using the backboard for shots within 10-12 feet ... seemingly a lost art.

D-Wade uses the backboard quite often but I agree, not to many players use it for their advantage.

 

[tornado]

there is one really good player in our conference whose skills include extremely proficient use of the backboard - that skill likely gets him 10-12 points extra every game that others who don't utilize the technique get