All-time U of R basketball team

[UR80sfan]

This should make for a great discussion. Here are my greatest UR basketball teams since 1980.

First team

Johnny Newman F
Michael Perry F
TJ Cline C
Kevin Anderson G
Jacob Gilyard G

Second team

Justin Harper F
Peter Woolfolk F
Grant Golden C (he might move up depending on senior year)
Curtis Blair G
Tony Dobbins G

 

[MrTbone]

I would replace Grant Goldman with Grant Golden. Goldman never did much for us.

And it’s a little unfair placing an extra guy on the second time via the Cedrick Lindsay/Curtis Blair mashup.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

This should make for a great discussion. Here are my greatest UR basketball teams since 1980.

First team

Johnny Newman F
Michael Perry F
TJ Cline C
Kevin Anderson G
Jacob Gilyard G

Second team

Justin Harper F
Peter Woolfolk F
Grant Goldman C (he might move up depending on senior year)
Cedric Blair G
Tony Dobbins G

Curtis Blair

 

[CarolinaSpider]

1st Team

Aron Stewart
John Newman
Mike Wineki
Kevin Anderson
Curtis Blair

2nd team

Mike Perry
John Schweitz
TJ Cline
Kenny Atkinson
Jake Gilyard

 

[Gallipoli]

I have often wondered what if we had a team of only guards, who could steal the ball and wreak havoc on other teams. Can you imagine trying to defend against a team like this!?

First team:
Kevin Anderson
Blake Francis
Jacob Gilyard
Kenny Atkinson
Kendall Anthony

Second team:
Cedrick Lindsay
Greg Beckwith
Curtis Blair
Kevin Eastman
Shawn Dre Jones

The short guys could steal balls, run out, make shots, drive for shots, and run circles around everyone.

 

[DTSpider]

Interesting concept here. Thinking about putting a team on the court with current rules. Also included the 11th & 12th spots for specialists.

starting 5
Kevin Anderson
Tony Dobbins
Johnny Newman
Justin Harper
Grant Golden

2nd 5 (full hockey line shifts)
Cedrick Lindsay
Shawdre Jones
Jarod Stevenson
Terry Allen
TJ Cline

11th & 12th spots
Darrius Garrett
Reggie Brown

 

[spiderman]

are we picking the best player for his full UR career, or for one given season? I feel like guys who have Harper or Wineicki super high are focusing on their senior year.

 

[Wood Hall]

As anyone who ever saw him play will attest, any all-time team without Aron Stewart is 100% bogus.

Any all-time team without Bob McCurdy is probably 95% bogus.

And yes, get off my lawn.

 

[DTSpider]

are we picking the best player for his full UR career, or for one given season? I feel like guys who have Harper or Wineicki super high are focusing on their senior year.

i definitely went with the senior year version of Harper. Mine was focused on a team though. Like how he spaced the floor.

 

[DTSpider]

As anyone who ever saw him play will attest, any all-time team without Aron Stewart is 100% bogus.

Any all-time team without Bob McCurdy is probably 95% bogus.

And yes, get off my lawn.

premise in the first thread was players after 1980

 

[spider3309]

Gilyard
Anderson
Stewart
Golden
Newman

Beckwith
Blair
Harper
Cline
Woolfolk

 

[CarolinaSpider]

premise in the first thread was players after 1980

I think that is a little prejudicial eliminating us old guys from the 70s. I agree with Wood Hall about Aron Stewart for if he had played with a 3 pt line his pt avg would have been out of sight. Bob McCurdy was just an unbelieveale shooter also who played with really bad ankles that I was told required cortisone shots before most games.

If we had to choose an all time greatest team front court (3-5) Aron Stewart, Eric Gray and Bob McCurdy would be the best by a long shot. It is a lot fun trying to pick our favorite players, no matter what year and brings back some great memories.

 

[UR80sfan]

Aron Stewart and Bob McCurdy sound like they were great players. I wish I had seen them play. I am going to add a category of other great players and include people before 1980 or people that had extraordinary senior seniors. The 1st 2 teams I want to keep since 1980, which is around when we started competing in the NIT and NCAA. I also think we should ranked them by total career at U of R.

Here our my updated teams

First team

Johnny Newman F
Michael Perry F
TJ Cline C
Kevin Anderson G
Jacob Gilyard PG (A point guard should be rated by how well he handles the ball – he will finish as the all-time assist and steal leader, ranked one of top 10 defensive players in country and lead the A10 in scoring during conference play last year)

Second team

Peter Woolfolk F or Mike Wineki
Grant Golden C (he might move up depending on senior year)
Curtis Blair G
Tony Dobbins G
Kendall Anthony G

1st team other great players
Aron Stewart
Bob McCurdy
Justin Harper (great senior year, played in NBA)
John Schweitz (One of the best pure shooters, played in NBA)
?

 

[PASpider]

No Greg Stevenson?

 

[UR80sfan]

No Greg Stevenson?

I am completely flexible outside of Newman and Anderson. Who would you replace him with?

I think it would be really cool if this board could agree on the All-time Spider Basketball teams.

 

[whampas]

Kenny Foster was a very good player and I liked his running mate Picot Frazier as well.

 

[urfan1]

I don't know how you keep Kenny Atkinson off an all time team.

 

[localspider]

I don't know how you keep Kenny Atkinson off an all time team.

Kenny or Kevin, difficult choice first team all time. Kevin was determined to take over late game, money time. Kenny was absolutely driven, Not only a scoring but finding open teammates for easy buckets. No research, but I recall Kenny playing against much challenging competition than Kevin. Kenny best PG at UR.

 

[SpiderRick]

Why not break it down by decades? We can have us older guys vote on the older decades, and the older guys vote on the most recent decades.

 

[spider23]

Very tough call between KA1 vs KA2. Both guys that loved to play the game and both just great competitors.

 

[AnnapSpider]

As anyone who ever saw him play will attest, any all-time team without Aron Stewart is 100% bogus.

Any all-time team without Bob McCurdy is probably 95% bogus.

And yes, get off my lawn.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[AnnapSpider]

You know else is missing from these lists-Johnny Moats.

 

[SpiderK]

Harper and Allen didn’t show up until their senior year. I would go with John Schweitz over them any day.

 

[Marley13]

Shooting forward: Newman
Wing: Newman
Center: Woolfolk
Shooting guard: Newman
Point guard: Beckwith

Hope that doesn’t show my age.

 

[Eight Legger]

Oumar Sylla
Adam Mobley
Bradley Nanney
Nick Patrick
Jason McKinney

 

[spider23]

Shooting forward: Newman
Wing: Newman
Center: Woolfolk
Shooting guard: Newman
Point guard: Beckwith

Hope that doesn’t show my age.

Who is coaching that team - full size Ditka/Tarrant or mini Ditka/Tarrant?

 

[spider23]

Oumar Sylla
Adam Mobley
Bradley Nanney
Nick Patrick
Jason McKinney

Wish my memory was better - Tarrant had a few misses too - kid who I called Doogie Howser MD, looked super young and never saw the court - I think he played at same prep school as Atkinson. And then there was a 6'10" guy that RTD called "a poor mans Danny Manning". Very poor, I remember a 6'3" intramural player outplaying him in the carpet gym.

 

[97spiderfan]

If you are talking all time teams, I have to see players that won multiple big games for us, in addition to putting up a gaudy stat line. Gilyard is a fantastic player for us, has put up some really incredible numbers, but when I see a noticeable lacking in big time wins and big time plays in the those games to make that possible. He did get robbed of a potential opportunities with the cancellation of the season this year to put him there, but as of yet, name me a big time win that he led us too.

The players I most associate with big time wins and a stat line game to back it up in my era include (mid 90's to now).

Kevin Anderson
David Gonzalvez
Greg Stephenson
TJ Cline
Jarod Stepheson

 

[spider23]

Good points 97. I can remember so many huge games that either KA or Gonzo, or both, made just huge plays against top competition to win. Especially remember Gonzo's battles against Xavier.

Prior to those guys Kenny Atkinson and Curtis Blair were those alpha dogs. I recall CAA semifinal in which Atkinson passed to Blair as clock is winding down and Spiders down 1. Blair take his guy off the dribble for patented mid range jumper, AU player clearly hacks Blair's arm - he fends him off and swishes game winner. Atkinson had numerous too. Kind of like Mooney ran for SDJ end of game iso's, Tarrant ran for Atkinson, then Blair. But they seemed to have a really high success rate.
My favorite may have been at halftime buzzer of home game vs. JMU. Blair was being guarded by CAA POY Steve Hood, breaks his ankles around the foul line, take one dribble in the lane and throws down a monster dunk.
Blair was probably the best defender out of all those guys. 2nd round NBA pick.

But yes, let's hope Gilly and Francis have the opportunity to win some big games in their Spiders career like those greats did at multiple huge times.

 

[spiderman]

if our great players have to be on winning teams, that would pretty much rule out the guys in the 70's, right? no matter how many ppg Stewart and McCurdy and others put up, I don't think those teams won. before my time, though. never saw them.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

if our great players have to be on winning teams, that would pretty much rule out the guys in the 70's, right? no matter how many ppg Stewart and McCurdy and others put up, I don't think those teams won. before my time, though. never saw them.

No UR with Stewart, Gray and McCurdy had some winning teams for at least two years if I remember correctly. We were SoCon back then and Furman, ECU, believe or not VMI had a great team that beat a Ernie Grunfield/King UT team in NCAA., were strong teams. Maybe best TOP 5 UR basketball game of all time was the 2OT win against VaTech team that beat Notre Dame in the NIT championship game. VPI had Alan Bristow, Bobby Stevens, Charlie Thomas. Not an empty seat in the house and the atmosphere was electric.

 

[Gallipoli]

No way. Think how competitive a UR team would be with only guards. Those guys would run circles around everyone else.

 

[urmite]

No UR with Stewart, Gray and McCurdy had some winning teams for at least two years if I remember correctly. We were SoCon back then and Furman, ECU, believe or not VMI had a great team that beat a Ernie Grunfield/King UT team in NCAA., were strong teams. Maybe best TOP 5 UR basketball game of all time was the 2OT win against VaTech team that beat Notre Dame in the NIT championship game. VPI had Alan Bristow, Bobby Stevens, Charlie Thomas. Not an empty seat in the house and the atmosphere was electric.

1969-1970 9-18
1970-1971 7-21
1971-1972 6-19
1972-1973 8-16
1973-1974 16-12 .571
1974-1975 10-16
1975-1976 14-14
1976-1977 15-11 .577
1977-1978 4-22
1978-1979 10-16
1979-1980 13-14

I'm sure that the schedules were all over the map, and I'm sure there were some great wins in that time period. But I wonder if Spiderman was only looking at the final record each year.

Not many great records in there, and no postseason.

 

[KE Spider]

Tarrant, becoming head coach by accident, rescued us from this wasteland. Changed the expectations of our fan base every since.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

1969-1970 9-18
1970-1971 7-21
1971-1972 6-19
1972-1973 8-16
1973-1974 16-12 .571
1974-1975 10-16
1975-1976 14-14
1976-1977 15-11 .577
1977-1978 4-22
1978-1979 10-16
1979-1980 13-14

I'm sure that the schedules were all over the map, and I'm sure there were some great wins in that time period. But I wonder if Spiderman was only looking at the final record each year.

Not many great records in there, and no postseason.

No it was the Lew Mills, Carl Sloan and Lou Goetz era. As a loyal Spider since childhood,
any improvement was a big deal. I was there 72-76 and the big games were within conference
or someone like VaTech agreeing to play us. W&M was in SoCon and I believe they had big win
over UNC in the 70s. 70s UR basketball was not much to write home about, but it was great to
move from the Arena at Parker Field to the RC. Regardless of records there were some great players
during this time that also included Kevin Eastman and Michael Perry.

 

[coach fezz]

i like to watch the games on youtube . I think it should always be on youtube to watch later. then maybe alumni not in Virginia would give more money to the billion dollar pile HA

 

[Gallipoli]

Tarrant, becoming head coach by accident, rescued us from this wasteland. Changed the expectations of our fan base every since.

Yes, but he was also very careful to dampen expectations. He knew that UR was developmental program. His teams succeeded every 2 years or so. It was not a high-powered program.

 

[spider23]

I need to go '88 forward, since I did not see guys before that:
Also, plenty of guys in contention on our current team obviously, but just considering guys that finished their careers.

1st
Kenny Atkinson
Kevin Anderson
Curtis Blair
Kenny Wood
Mike Winiecki

2nd
David Gonzalvez
TJ Cline
Jarod Stevenson
Justin Harper
Jim Shields


All Glue Team:
Eric English, Kevin Smith - Co Captains
Terry Connolly
Scott Stapleton
Ryan Butler
Dan Geriot

Hon Mention:
Ced Lindsay
Kendall Anthony
Skrocki
Poole
Eugen Burroughs

All Woulda/Coulda Been:
Milton Bell
Gravelle Craig
William Herndon
AWIII

EDIT: All Got Schooled by 23 in Millhiser Team:
Brian Muldowney

 

[97spiderfan]

23, great list. I can't comment on the Tarrant guys because all before my time. Love the all glue team. If every team had a Kevin Smith on it they would all win more. The screaming omission to me that I also didn't have on my list, Tony Dobbins. Perhaps, the best defensive player at UR in my lifetime.

 

[spider23]

Yes, I forget Dobbins b/c I did not really get to see him play that much.

But the all glue guys are guys that impacted winning in a huge way.
Eric English got very little notoriety or shots, but I think shot 45% from 3 (leading the CAA?) his sr. year, played lock down D, and did all the little things.
Stapleton pretty much had 12 ft range on his shot, but super athletic (never forget his dunk in the NIT), great defender, great facilitator and passer, great competitor.
Connolly was a 6'5" stretch forward built like a truck and could do just about everything on the court. Good reason he went to NCAA in each of his two seasons at UR. Tough as hell inside, and could step out and hit a 3. I remember one game he just went down the lane and posterized a guy - I had never seen him dunk in a game. He said the guys were razzing him about being able to dunk. As Yanni Wetzel said once: No ceiling sir, no ceiling sir!
Kevin Smith - Unfathomable combination of competitive fire and athleticism.
Butler - took a lot of heat on here first few years, but by senior year he was a guy that always made the right play, hit some huge shots in big games.
Geriot - was looking to be an all time great prior to the ACL tear. Battled back to be a huge part of an NCAA run. Watch the videos around that and you can see he kept guys loose and always produced.