NCAA Day 4 Running Thread

Maybe I've got East Coast bias, or Miner was undervalued by the masses because his teams never won, or maybe he played in an era with far better shooting guards, but here is the best list of All-Americans i could find in the years he played.

1990
Derrick Coleman, Syracuse
Chris Jackson, LSU
Larry Johnson, UNLV
Gary Payton, Oregon St.
Lionel Simmons, LaSalle
Hank Gathers, Loyola Marymount
Kendall Gill, Illinois
Bo Kimble, Loyola-Marymount
Alonzo Mourning, Georgetown
Rumeal Robinson, Michigan
Dennis Scott, Georgia Tech
Doug Smith, Missouri
Hank Gathers, Loyola Marymount
Steve Scheffler, Purdue

1991
Kenny Anderson, Georgia Tech
Jim Jackson, Ohio St.
Larry Johnson, UNLV
Shaquille O'Neal, LSU
Billy Owens, Syracuse
Stacey Augmon, UNLV
Keith Jennings, East Tenn. St.
Christian Laettner, Duke
Eric Murdock, Providence
Steve Smith, Michigan St.
Todd Day, Arkansas
Rodney Monroe, North Carolina State
Doug Smith, Missouri
1992
Jim Jackson, Ohio St.
Christian Laettner, Duke
<b>Harold Miner, Southern California</b>
Alonzo Mourning, Georgetown
Shaquille O'Neal, LSU
Byron Houston, Oklahoma St.
Don MacLean, UCLA
Anthony Peeler, Missouri
Malik Sealy, St. John's (NY)
Walt Williams, Maryland
Adam Keefe, Stanford
Todd Day, Arkansas
Bobby Hurley, Duke

 

The problem is Miner did nothing but score a bunch of points. Honest question: Did the guy win a Pac-10 title? Does he own any Pac-10 records?
Because I'm fairly certain at some point Ferry/Pearl/Alford all had some kind of record, be it scoring, assists, or 3's. Hell, Alford is one of the best shooters in college basketball history, no? Wasn't Pearl at one point the NCAA career assist leader? Maybe it's the BE leader.

 

Time flies too fast. All of those names! It was just yesterday. Steve Scheffler?! And didn't they call ETSU's Keith Jennings "The Little General" or something like that? Todd Day? Everyone talked him up like he'd be Mr. NBA Stud. Adam Keefe, I remember, had this insane dunk when he played for Utah; I couldn't believe the kid from Woodbridge High could actually dunk the ball. And Gary Payton used to kill USC during his Beaver days. It really does feel like yesterday.

And Almost Famous, Miner *was* USC. It wasn't about the records or titles. It was about the scoring machine that he was, whether he shot 16 of 39 for the game of 16 of 21. All he did was score. You're right. But nobody ever stopped him. Except James Forrest and that dogshit last-second shot at the buzzer. I should've shoved a 2-foot monkey wrench up the mechanic's ass.

 

Miner WAS USC because he dunked and made the highlights. Nick Young is a better player than Miner ever was. In fact, I'd almost take Gabe Pruitt over Miner.

 

Register for newspaper sites?

http://www.bugmenot.com

Even better when you have the Bugmenot extension for Firefox, which puts the Bugmenot functionality on your right-click menu.

And I just give my Yahoo mail address to the sites I actually register for, since I don't use it for regular e-mail anymore.

Oh man ... that's too easy ...

 

That's a bold, bold statement. Basketball has a long history.

He was a very good college player, and a nothing NBA player with some athleticism. That's quite common. Let's not judge his college career becuse he was a horrid pro.

A-F: http://www.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/pac10/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/mbb-05mg-individual-records

Miner finished his career with 2,048 points in three seasons. The leading all-time conference scorer at the time had 2,608 in four seasons. You can extrapolate that any way you wish, but with another season, who knows?

Miner was second all-time in Pac-10 scoring average with 23.5 a game, behind Lew Alcindor's 26.4. His conference scoring average was also scoend all time to Lew. When he finished college, he was tops on the freshman scoring average, now eclipsed by Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

Don MacLean owned a lot of those records you speak of, like career scoring, conference scoring, etc. And his team finished first, though was swept by second-place USC in 1992, if I'm not mistaken.

In case you're wondering, it's okay that "all Miner did was score a bunch of points." Indeed. A very good college basketball player, but too one-dimensional to succeed as a pro.

 

Found this in today's LA Times ... re: Miner. Good story.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-crowe12feb12,1,2636313.story?track=rss

edit: the story is from February.

 

How many of these players have we seen? Scoring machines who

a) NEver took their team anywhere (if they won a pac-10 title, i'll rescind this)
b) Never hacked it in the NBA

Miner falls into this category. A filthy scoring machine, to be sure, but I hesitate to use the phrase 'hell of a college player.'

For my money - and feel free to disagree - he'll never be a Sean Elliott, Danny Ferry, Pearl Washington, etc.

Can bash Laettner all you want, but he was in in the league for at least a dozen years. Plus, he's one of the greatest winners in college bball history.

 

Sean Elliott was a fantastic all-around -- team -- player. He didn't need to score 29 a game because those Olson teams stepped on your nuts with so many threats. Ferry and Pearl were outstanding players, too. They all had their roles. Miner's role was to score.

 

AGAIN. . . . . . . being a crap NBA guy does not, repeat, DOES NOT, diminish what one did in college. Ed O'Bannon was a great college player (even won a title . . . that good enough for you?), but he was a nowhere pro.

I didn't bash Laettner. But his decade in the NBA doesn't add to what he did in college. Laettner headlined the all-american list you posted, which included Miner. All-American lists are not populated with crap college players.

College: a one- to four-year period in which a player represents the school he attends and the conference that school plays in.

Pro: the time AFTER college, which has less than nothing to do with his play in college.

Hope this helps.

 

Given that 5 of the 6 teams won their first game and MSU, IU and Purdue gave UNC, UCLA and Florida everything they could handle, I would say the Big Ten represented itself just fine.

 

In the last 20 years, is Miner even one of the best 10 SGs in college hoops?

Jim Jackson
Steve Smith
Calbert Chaney
JJ Redick
Troy Bell
Richard Hamilton
Trajon Langdon
Ray Allen
Kerry Kittles
Jalen Rose

Did Miner have a better career than all of these guys? Of course this is subjective, but the only guy on this list I can see Miner replacing is possibly Jalen Rose. MAYBE Steve Smith. Otherwise ...