Rivals Class of 2008 Centers:Ralph Sampson III rated #12, #2 statistically=outperform

[NoTalentGopher]

lolwut?

Ron Behagen
Randy Breuer
Jim Brewer
Jim Petersen
Kleggie Hermsen
Kevin McHale
Mychal Thompson
Joel Przybilla


Care to try again?

Petersen - Not even close. Career averages: 5.6 ppg and 4.0 rpg

Przybilla - Can't really be counted. His Freshman numbers were ok for a freshman, and he was having a solid Sophomore season until he left/got kicked off the team.

Hermsen - Someone playing in the 1940s doesn't count for much.

Behagen and Brewer both can't really be counted as centers, so I will give you one of them.

That's 5 centers in the history of the Gopher basketball program.

Care to try again?

 

[GophersInIowa]

Petersen - Not even close. Career averages: 5.6 ppg and 4.0 rpg

Przybilla - Can't really be counted. His Freshman numbers were ok for a freshman, and he was having a solid Sophomore season until he left/got kicked off the team.

Hermsen - Someone playing in the 1940s doesn't count for much.

Behagen and Brewer both can't really be counted as centers, so I will give you one of them.

That's 5 centers in the history of the Gopher basketball program.

Care to try again?

Not that it really matters, but if you think his sophomore year was just "solid", then you must think Mbakwe's season last year was just solid as well. Their numbers were pretty close to the same.

And Przybilla would have shattered the school record for blocks in a season that year if he hadn't gotten kicked off the team. He still has two of the top four shot-blocking seasons in Gopher history, one of course was when he was a freshman. He's also 5th in career blocks in school history, even though he only played just under two seasons.

 

[NoTalentGopher]

Not that it really matters, but if you think his sophomore year was just "solid", then you must think Mbakwe's season last year was just solid as well. Their numbers were pretty close to the same.

And Przybilla would have shattered the school record for blocks in a season that year if he hadn't gotten kicked off the team. He still has two of the top four shot-blocking seasons in Gopher history, one of course was when he was a freshman. He's also 5th in career blocks in school history, even though he only played just under two seasons.

Przybilla definitely had potential and talent, as he's proving that in the NBA. However, it's silly to put him in the same class as McHale, Thompson, and Breuer when he only played a year and a half here. He was a dang good shot blocker, no doubt about it, but he wasn't dominant in either season he was here.

Do I think he would have turned into that his next two seasons? Yeah, probably.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Przybilla definitely had potential and talent, as he's proving that in the NBA. However, it's silly to put him in the same class as McHale, Thompson, and Breuer when he only played a year and a half here. He was a dang good shot blocker, no doubt about it, but he wasn't dominant in either season he was here.

Do I think he would have turned into that his next two seasons? Yeah, probably.

The list was who was a good center. No one said he was at the level of those guys.

I could include Kevin Martin on a list of good shooting guards in the NBA, but that doesn't mean I think he's as good as Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.

 

[dpodoll68]

Petersen - Not even close. Career averages: 5.6 ppg and 4.0 rpg

Career numbers are virtually meaningless for many college players, especially when he hardly played his freshman and sophomore years. His senior year (when he actually played quite a bit), his numbers were 11.2 and 6.9. Those are "good" numbers in any era, by any standard. He was also drafted into the NBA.

Przybilla - Can't really be counted. His Freshman numbers were ok for a freshman, and he was having a solid Sophomore season until he left/got kicked off the team.

Can't really be counted? Based on what? He was very good in his sophomore season. He was also drafted highly in the first round.

Hermsen - Someone playing in the 1940s doesn't count for much.

Doesn't count for much? Your logic is unimpeachable. We are having a discussion of good college centers, and he was a good college center. When he played is entirely irrelevant. You sound like a Badger fan pretending the football team didn't exist until 1993.

Behagen and Brewer both can't really be counted as centers, so I will give you one of them.

They both played center, so yes, they can "really be counted" as centers.

That's 5 centers in the history of the Gopher basketball program.

Wrong. It is at least 8.

Care to try again?

No, because you are wrong. This is a terrible argument. Center is the richest, most talented, and deepest position in the history of Golden Gopher basketball. We have had 3 top 3 NBA draft picks from the position.

 

[From the Barn]

Just because Green shoots some 3s doesn't make him a small forward. Most of his damage comes in the paint. He's definitely a F/C. Not many teams have a true center anymore, but he acts like theirs.

Jones plays a lot in the paint. Again, another team without a true center. He plays a F/C.

Again, with the Morris twins, Markieff was more of an outside shooter, but they both guarded down low, and Marcus played down low a lot of the time.

As someone mentioned before. It's not so much of a center in college as it is big men. Ralph played a lot of forward before this year when he was on the court at the same time as Iverson.

Dude. MSU has two centers, Payne and Nix. Not Green.

WVU has the crazy lumberjack eastern european dude. Jones is not a center.

 

[NoTalentGopher]

Career numbers are virtually meaningless for many college players, especially when he hardly played his freshman and sophomore years. His senior year (when he actually played quite a bit), his numbers were 11.2 and 6.9. Those are "good" numbers in any era, by any standard. He was also drafted into the NBA.



Can't really be counted? Based on what? He was very good in his sophomore season. He was also drafted highly in the first round.



Doesn't count for much? Your logic is unimpeachable. We are having a discussion of good college centers, and he was a good college center. When he played is entirely irrelevant. You sound like a Badger fan pretending the football team didn't exist until 1993.



They both played center, so yes, they can "really be counted" as centers.



Wrong. It is at least 8.



No, because you are wrong. This is a terrible argument. Center is the richest, most talented, and deepest position in the history of Golden Gopher basketball. We have had 3 top 3 NBA draft picks from the position.

Peterson - The whole point of this thread was about good careers. Go through and read the comments if you don't believe me. He had one solid year. That's like saying we should throw Spencer Tollackson into the argument.

Pryzbilla - We will have to agree to disagree here. Our definitions for very good are obviously different. Was he having a good year? Absolutely. But he also got booted off the team. Again, this thread is about careers. Having a decent Freshman season, followed by a good half season your Sophomore year doesn't qualify you as having a good career

Hermsen - He might have been very good back in his time. But the fact that he played in the 1940s and no one here has seen him play is kind of silly. But whatever I will give it to you.

Behagen/Brewer - You still get one. They are on the court at the same time. Only one can guard the opposing teams' center.

I will give you 6 by adding Hermsen. That's 6 in the history of the program.

Again, calling a position "the richest, most talented and deepest" position in the history of the Gophers is moot. Some of those players have been extremely good. But we are talking about 5-6 players in the history of a program. That doesn't say much.

 

[NoTalentGopher]

Dude. MSU has two centers, Payne and Nix. Not Green.

WVU has the crazy lumberjack eastern european dude. Jones is not a center.

Green has guarded the other teams center plenty of times. He plays in the low post most of the time, and in college, like others have already said, it's about big men and not centers.

I will remove Jones from the argument because you want to cherry pick on him and miss the whole point of the argument, which was there are plenty of centers out there from Ralph's class that are better than him.

 

[jamalo]

John Shasky should definitely be on that list. Averaged 13.6/6.8 and 15/7 in his junior and senior years, respectively. One could also make an argument for Jim Shikenjanski having a good career at Minnesota

 

[dpodoll68]

Here is your original quote:

"there haven't been that many good Gopher's centers, so saying he is one of the best doesn't mean a whole lot"

I don't see anything in there about careers, nor anything about "very good". All of the players mentioned were good (at minimum) centers for the Gophers. Period. I didn't say anything about careers or anything about "very good". If your point was "there haven't been that many centers who had very good careers for the Gophers", then that's what you should've said.

And the Behagen/Brewer point is terrible. Both were centers in college. The fact that they were both on the floor at the same time doesn't mean they both weren't centers. That's like trying to say that Sampson/Olajuwon and Robinson/Duncan weren't both centers.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Here is your original quote:

"there haven't been that many good Gopher's centers, so saying he is one of the best doesn't mean a whole lot"

I don't see anything in there about careers, nor anything about "very good". All of the players mentioned were good (at minimum) centers for the Gophers. Period. I didn't say anything about careers or anything about "very good". If your point was "there haven't been that many centers who had very good careers for the Gophers", then that's what you should've said.

And the Behagen/Brewer point is terrible. Both were centers in college. The fact that they were both on the floor at the same time doesn't mean they both weren't centers. That's like trying to say that Sampson/Olajuwon and Robinson/Duncan weren't both centers.

Even if you used his logic, shouldn't you get credit for one of those two, at least?

I also want to add that John Thomas was a pretty good college center. He wasn't a "great" or anything like that, but what did he average...10 and 6?

 

[howieramone]

John Shasky should definitely be on that list. Averaged 13.6/6.8 and 15/7 in his junior and senior years, respectively. One could also make an argument for Jim Shikenjanski having a good career at Minnesota

+1

 

[GophersInIowa]

Even if you used his logic, shouldn't you get credit for one of those two, at least?

I also want to add that John Thomas was a pretty good college center. He wasn't a "great" or anything like that, but what did he average...10 and 6?

John Thomas is an interesting one. His numbers were never great, but he was drafted in the 1st round.

 

[coolhandgopher]

So, after watching Jeff Withey in this NCAA tournament hold his own on the defensive side against the likes of Sullinger and Davis, this argument seems all the more ridiculous.

 

[Johnnyboy18]

So, after watching Jeff Withey in this NCAA tournament hold his own on the defensive side against the likes of Sullinger and Davis, this argument seems all the more ridiculous.

Yes, lets knock a player who already played his last game for the U....

 

[coolhandgopher]

I'm not knocking Sampson, I'm acknowledging that Withey has developed into an elite shot blocker and defender who shined in the NCAA tournament against stellar competition.