ESPN's Jay Williams to Corey Sanders...

[DirtyRU]

Laettner, Bias, Tim Duncan, Larry Johnson. Heck Bobby Hurley and Kenyon Martin

Played in a tournament with Kenyon when we were both in 7th grade. He was the smallest guy on his team! Little PG from Dallas. I never would've guessed he would grow to be a 6'10" beast of a baller.

Bias was a little before my time. LJ and of course Tim were beasts. Hurley? I don't know, he was clutch and a tremendous basketball player but if we're gonna talk PGs at that time and talk Bobby, then we also gotta mention the kid down there at Georgia Tech. He was no slouch. ;)

 

[PurpleR]

Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor , Larry Bird, David Thompson, Ralph Sampson and Pete Maravich

 

[RU82]

JW loved Bannon and wanted to play for him. His parents pushed him to Duke.

Can't say that I blame them. If my kid were that good I'd probably push him to Duke over Rutgers too.

 

[jellyman]

JWill is very supportive of Rutgers and thinks they are a sleeping giant. He WANTED to come to Rutgers - but was turned off by Bannon's free throw event. Makes me soooo mad.

Maybe that was a factor ... the way I understood it Williams was actually ready to verbal to RU and Bannon in the summer of 1998. But his mother insisted he visit Duke that August, though he did not wish to. On the visit, Duke wowed the family, through a variety of techniques. Some were legitimate (such as Duke having a great campus, great academics, and a great basketball program). Some were borderline - like arranging for ex-Duke players who were NBA'ers to engage in activities with recruits (there is some NCAA rule that makes the way they were interacting borderline). And later, there were reports in the Raleigh-Durham local papers that the some of Williams family ended up with cushy jobs with Duke alumnus owned businesses, and got a below-rate mortgage from a Duke alumnus-owned mortgage broker/company.

I cannot blame Williams for his decision (Duke is Duke, after all), not the way I blame Dahntay Jones (who really screwed RU), but there was some dodgy stuff going on. I never heard the naked free throw situation was a factor.

 

[RU-ROCS]

Could he be recruiting him for Duke ? LOL.

That's the first thing I thought too.

 

[soundcrib]

"Do you want to be the prince of paupers or the prince of kings?"

And I'll never forget when Alvydas told me at our house that Dahntay was transferring to Duke. My heart sank.

 

[biazza38]

P.S. DJ's junior year at Duke, which was also Jay's JR. year due to DJ sitting from transfer, they also started Duhon, Battier and Boozer. How that team didn't have a deeper tourney run is a mystery and a real knock on an otherwise stellar Coach K coaching career. Who knows maybe it was chemistry or depth issues but that is a LOT of starting 5 talent.

They ran in they ran into a hot Indiana team. I think they lost Nate Jame and an interior player from the year before. I don't they they had much depth. But yes, that team had a lot of talent. Btw, I've met Jay as well. Just a flat out cool dude to talk to. He thinks Corey is very talented. I ran into him a couple of months ago, and he talked about possibly coaching at Rutgers. He mentioned that this was the first time he's really thought about coaching. I told him I went to Rutgers and after I was done chatting it up with him, he said "maybe I'll see you at the Rac."

 

[shields]

And we lost Flores too, if jones had left earlier we could have had Luis Flores.

 

[goru7]

Laettner, Bias, Tim Duncan, Larry Johnson. Heck Bobby Hurley and Kenyon Martin

David Thompson, one of the best ever !,

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Laettner, Bias, Tim Duncan, Larry Johnson. Heck Bobby Hurley and Kenyon Martin

Just to name a few, thanks!

 

[shields]

Agree about David Thompson, great player.

 

[Russ Wood]

Laettner, Bias, Tim Duncan, Larry Johnson. Heck Bobby Hurley and Kenyon Martin

Just to be clear @Greene Rice FIG said he was 44 years old so I tried to focus on guys he definitely would have seen. I figured he was too young to have seen Walton, Alcindor, David Thompson etc other than highlights or something on ESPN Classic

 

[jellyman]

James Bailey was a better college player than was Jay Williams ... Phil Sellers too. And those are just RU players.

Magic Johnson ... Larry Bird ... Wayne Tisdale ... David Robinson. And all these are without even thinking hard, and in addition to some of the names already mentioned.

 

[shields]

James Bailey used to eat Wayne McCoy of St.John's for lunch.

 

[NickKnight 1]

Laettner, Bias, Tim Duncan, Larry Johnson. Heck Bobby Hurley and Kenyon Martin

Pistol Pete by far.

 

[knightinaz]

For the couple years he was at LSU, Chris Jackson was pretty damn good

 

[El Curioso Impertinente]

For the couple years he was at LSU, Chris Jackson was pretty damn good

+1, Wow. Chris Jackson was a Beast!!! I think he still has the record for highest lifetime pct. from the charity stripe.

 

[RutgHoops]

While I don't think he was the best CBB player I ever saw he is on my 1st or 2nd team. I was 12 in 1979 which is the first year I remember CBB (not a bad year! Bird-Magic final).

Here is JWill's resume:

Two time first team All ACC (2001, 2002)
Two time consensus first team AA (2001, 2002)
National College Player of the Year (2002)
National Championship (2001)

That is damn good.

 

[El Curioso Impertinente]

While I don't think he was the best CBB player I ever saw he is on my 1st or 2nd team. I was 12 in 1979 which is the first year I remember CBB (not a bad year! Bird-Magic final).

Here is JWill's resume:

Two time first team All ACC (2001, 2002)
Two time consensus first team AA (2001, 2002)
National College Player of the Year (2002)
National Championship (2001)

That is damn good.

Much love to Pistol Pete, CJack and Kenny Anderson. I'm going with JWill. Doing what he did under a Tyrant like Coach K makes it even more special.

 

[WJLeggett]

Who is better?

Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullen, Ralph Sampson, Hank Gathers, Danny Manning