Top 20 Golden Gophers All-Time?

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coolhandgopher

coolhandgopher

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This is inspired from another post, where CP Gopher stated Dusty Rychart was a top 20 player all-time in the Gopher program. I'm not necessarily questioning, but it did get me to thinking-who are the top 20 (or 25, 30, 50) Gophers of all-time? Here's an "off the top of my head" categorization, with certainly room for discussion (especially pre-1982 when I began following the Gophers):
No Doubters
Willie Burton
Bobby Jackson
Kevin McHale
Randy Breuer
Mychal Thompson
Voshon Lenard
Jim Brewer
Trent Tucker
Lou Hudson
Whitey Skoog
Quincy Lewis
Archie Clark
Ron Johnson
Sam Jacobson
Larry Mikan

Strong Contenders
Dusty Rychart
Melvin Newburn
Ray Williams
Ron Behagen
Osborne Lockhart
Ariel McDonald
Chuck Mencel
Dick Garmaker
Tom Kondla
Randy Carter
Ollie Shannon
Vincent Grier

What Could of Been?
Mark Olberding
Mark Landsberger
Rick Rickert
Courtney James

Sentimental Favs, but Not Enough to Crack Top 20
Damian Johnson
Richard Coffey
Kevin Lynch
John Thomas
Travarus Bennett
Jeff Hagen
Aaron Robinson
Walter Bond
Terrance Simmons

What Twain Was Talking about When Referring to Statistics as Damn Lies
Kris Humphries

When I look at the Gophers media guide, it seems hard to keep players such as Garmaker and Kondla off the list; also, if you look at the strong contenders list you'll see several players whose Gopher career was very short (Grier, Shannon, Williams, Behagen) and didn't seem to be quite as transcendent Bobby Jackson or Lou Hudson, at least in the folklore of the team (once again, I didn't see many of these players, I'll rely upon others to argue their merits).

So is Dusty Rychart a top 20 Gopher? He's close, but the list of sure bets is 15 and I think Newburn, Williams, Garmaker, Kondla, and McDonald may push Dusty to the Top 25.

Obviously, this is all up for debate, so have at it.
 


I would flip

I would flip Williams for Jacobsen...

Larry Mikan III ? Mencel was All American !

Mencel has to be "upgraded " IMHO.
 

Pretty good list. Willie is still the best, imo.

Wish Courtney would've never picked up that phone book.
 

Uh, not sure if you know this, but the NCAA knows nothing of this Bobby Jackson person you speak of.
 



I am old enough to have watched Lou Hudon and Archie Clark. I know Whitey Skoog was a Laker and coach at Gustavus but I never saw him play. Mention of Chuck Mencel and Dick Garmaker make me feel like a youngster. I wonder if there are any Gholers reading this who saw those guys play and what they could share about them.
 

Another name that might be worth considering would be Jayson Walton. I'm not sure he ranks in the top 20 (or even top 50 for that matter), but he was a pretty darn good college player as well.

And I agree with the previous statement about Courtney James. Had he stayed out of trouble off the court, he could have been one of the Gophers all-time greats on it.
 

Section201 said:
I would flip Williams for Jacobsen...
Click to expand...

Ditto. Ray Williams was a lot better than Jacobsen and I liked both.

As far as the best-it isn't even close. Mychal Thompson. Trust me, the gap between first and second is very wide.
 




I would add Tommy Davis to the list of contenders. Lights-out shooter and one of my all-time favorites
 

Nice catch jamalo, I don't know how I overlooked him, he was definitely in my head, just didn't transfer him to the post.
 

There's a pretty glaring omission from the "sentimental faves" if you ask me.
 



I don't mean to steal your thread but I can only count to five.

C - M Thompson
F - K McHale
F - L Hudson
G - A Clark
G - B Jackson

Ray Williams should be on the No Doubt list.
Flip Saunders should be near the top of Strong Contender list.- People forget how much of an athlete Flip was.
 

Dick Garmaker was all American. And all pro. Has to move up.
 

The mention of Larry Mikan reminds me of when the Gophers played UCLA. At the time every team double teamed Lew Alcindor but the Gophers tried defending him with only Mikan. I believe Alcindor scored 60 points.
 

I would put Jayson Walton on the what could have been list. He played four years but was constantly hurt.
 

Lindsey Whalen

Hey, you didn't specify that the Top 20 BB players in Gopher history had to be all guys.

The Final Four run for the Gopher women was something special and LW carried the team on her back - didn't follow the Gopher women before the Whelan era and don't follow them much now, but her Junior/ Senior years put the Gopher women's program on the map.
 

What about Clyde Turner? - one of my all-time favorites
 



Unless I'm missing him, I don't see Michael Bauer on the list. If he's not in strong contenders then I nominate him for sentimental favorites at least.
 

tikited said:
As far as the best-it isn't even close. Mychal Thompson. Trust me, the gap between first and second is very wide.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't trust you. I saw them both, and Lou Hudson is right there with Mychal if not ahead slightly. Only reason his numbers aren't closer is freshmen weren't eligible when he played, and he broke his shooting hand halfway through his senior year. Still scored consistently in double figures with a cast on it. His junior year he was unbelievable. Our problem was Michigan had the Cazzie Russell teams at the same time and we just couldn't get by them to get into the tournament..
 

Tommy Davis

Davis was First Team All Big 10 so he merits consideration for the No Doubt list and is certainly toward the top of the Strong Contender List.
 

Agree on Davis. I believe they were a borderline NCAA team his senior year but Jim Peterson made a mistake in one of the last regular season games that sent them to the NIT. Was a freshman on the Big Ten title team
 

Roy Christensen said:
The mention of Larry Mikan reminds me of when the Gophers played UCLA. At the time every team double teamed Lew Alcindor but the Gophers tried defending him with only Mikan. I believe Alcindor scored 60 points.
Click to expand...

I must have deleted that game from my memory bank (1968?). The game I recall involving UCLA and Larry Mikan occurred at the barn in December 1969 - UCLA was between franchise centers as Lew Alcindor had graduated the year before and Bill Walton hadn't yet arrived on the scene - the center's name was Patterson and the team included Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe at forwards with John Vallely and Henry Bibby in the backcourt. The Gophers were nursing a small lead very late in the game when Mikan committed a crucial turnover which allowed UCLA to tie the game and send it to overtime - the Gophers ended up losing by 1 point in OT but it was still a helluva game.

Besides Mikan, the Gopher team included Larry Overskei, Tom Masterson, Ollie Shannon and Eric Hill. It seems hard to believe, but the game drew less than 8,000 fans to the barn - I believe UCLA was ranked #4 at the time.
 

Daryl Mitchell deserves a mention. He was may favorite player on the '82 team.
 

Southpaw said:
I must have deleted that game from my memory bank (1968?). The game I recall involving UCLA and Larry Mikan occurred at the barn in December 1969 - UCLA was between franchise centers as Lew Alcindor had graduated the year before and Bill Walton hadn't yet arrived on the scene - the center's name was Patterson and the team included Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe at forwards with John Vallely and Henry Bibby in the backcourt. The Gophers were nursing a small lead very late in the game when Mikan committed a crucial turnover which allowed UCLA to tie the game and send it to overtime - the Gophers ended up losing by 1 point in OT but it was still a helluva game.

Besides Mikan, the Gopher team included Larry Overskei, Tom Masterson, Ollie Shannon and Eric Hill. It seems hard to believe, but the game drew less than 8,000 fans to the barn - I believe UCLA was ranked #4 at the time.
Click to expand...

Ollie Shannon--not only never passed but also never passed up a shot! He would let it go from anywhere.
 

tikited said:
As far as the best-it isn't even close. Mychal Thompson. Trust me, the gap between first and second is very wide.
Click to expand...
A good argument can easily be made for Mychal Thompson, but, as pointed out by Mulligan, the gap between first and second is not at all big. Trust us.
 

I'd add Eric Harris as a sentimental favorite. He was as solid with the ball in crunch time as anybody. Not going to turn it over, and will find his man for the open shot.
 

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