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The five greatest men's basketball players in NCAA history

Who are your picks for the five greatest college basketball players?

  • Lew Alcindor

    Votes: 220 84.6%
  • Larry Bird

    Votes: 115 44.2%
  • Pete Maravich

    Votes: 192 73.8%
  • Oscar Robertson

    Votes: 172 66.2%
  • Bill Russell

    Votes: 104 40.0%
  • Ralph Sampson

    Votes: 36 13.8%
  • David Thompson

    Votes: 46 17.7%
  • Bill Walton

    Votes: 145 55.8%
  • Jerry West

    Votes: 76 29.2%
  • Other

    Votes: 77 29.6%

  • Total voters
    260
Not top 5 but I started watching basketball closely when Tyler Hansbrough was on the scene and he was pretty darn good. I remember my dad being pissed about him and Brandon Wright going there instead of to us. Started following more closely after Wright. One of the more dominant players ive seen in my time but far from a Walton or whatever

He was untouchable. A foul every time he caught the ball. I'll pass on him being close to a list like this.
 
Fun topic. I do think it's hard to make that poll without having Laettner on the list. He is a really decorated college player and was damn good.
 
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I hate Laettner but he should be on the list and he'd probably be in my top 5.

Alcindor and Walton would top my list with Robertson and Russell behind them.

Laettner, Lucas, Thompson, and Beard would battle it out for the 5th spot.

Maravich was ahead of his time and helped change the way the game is played but that's partly why I wouldn't have him in my top 5. He had the ultimate green light and did whatever he wanted. The thing that hurts him to me is he never won anything.
 
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And now my goal has switched to getting you to post back in here.

Why is it silly to put Pistol Pete before Walton in YOUR opinion? I don't disagree. Just curious what knowledge you'd like to shed on those who voted in opposition to you.

For the record, I didn't vote.
I saw both in person, both college and pro. Pistol was the best player of the 2. Pistol as a side note is the only player that ever led both the the NCAA and the NBA in scoring. He did things in bb I had never seen before and havent seen since
 
Good list. He wouldnt make my top 5, but Danny Manning could make the list for the poll.

I think Alcindor, Thomson, Maravich and Walton have to be in any top 5.
 
Alcindor
Bird
Robertson
Sampson
Walton

Would have picked Pete Maravich but he was a loser.

Jerry Lucas should have been on this poll. 2x AP Player of the Year. One of only 4 players to win it multiple times. That pretty much puts you in college GOAT tier.
 
Yea AD might have been a one year player but he can't help his era. He has the hardware and awards to be considered.
 
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Since Pete Maravich was brought up in this thread, I would like to mention a couple things:

- Pete Maravich averaged 44 points a game. One analysis found he would have averaged 13 made 3s a game in college had there been a 3 point line at the time. That would have bumped his PPG average up to 57 points a game.

- I think a lot of people hold his NBA career against him since he was never as good as a pro as he was in college. He was still honored as a top 50 NBA player of all time in 1996. As someone else in this thread mentioned, he lead the NBA in scoring one season and is the only player to ever do so in college and the NBA.

He never played on a really great NBA team (minus his final season for the Celtics where he was over the hill) but should have played with Dr. J. They played 3 exhibition games where Maravich averaged 18 assists per game. Erving was asked about the possibility of playing with the Hawks later in life and said "I was in camp with Pistol [Pete Maravich], Walt Bellamy, Lou Hudson. We had an All-Star team. We played two exhibitions games, and I bet you in both we scored north of 140 points. We were an unstoppable team. I don't know if anybody could have stopped us. It would have been different for everyone involved."
 
Where is Wilt Chamberlain? Any player that is good enough to cause the rules of the game to be modified, needs to be on the list.

Assman wilt chamberlain needs to be on the list. No telling I’d say a quarter of his 20k were bagged at KU and the vicinity
 
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No AD option=Stupid thread. Best college player in the modern era and by far most dominant. Never seen anything like it.
 
No AD option=Stupid thread. Best college player in the modern era and by far most dominant. Never seen anything like it.
If the poll was divided into eras, AD would definitely be near or at the top of the OAD era. I love AD, he was amazing here. It should also be noted that Tyler Zeller was the 2nd best center in the game, so AD’s competition that year was pretty weak. It’s too bad AD didn’t come along 20 years earlier so we could see him over 3 or 4 years against guys like Shaq, Moorning and Laettner.
 
If the poll was divided into eras, AD would definitely be near or at the top of the OAD era. I love AD, he was amazing here. It should also be noted that Tyler Zeller was the 2nd best center in the game, so AD’s competition that year was pretty weak. It’s too bad AD didn’t come along 20 years earlier so we could see him over 3 or 4 years against guys like Shaq, Moorning and Laettner.
The draft that year was pretty good. Overall it was a good year in cbb. The big drop in competition came the next season. Where the worst draft maybe ever had happened, where an absolutely pitiful (as far as the normalcy of a one seed goes) #1 UL seed won a title when any other year they wouldn't have a chance nor come close to a top 3 seed. Thankfully that title never happened. But 2012 was a good year all around, 2013 not so much. AD was most dominant player over a seasons span to ever touch the floor in today's game. Ever. The things we saw that season from an individual as far as domination goes, we will never see again. It wasn't the centers he was facing, he absolutely destroyed every single opposing offense he faced.

Every single player on the other team got destroyed by him, we beat every single team we faced that season. He put fear into players and scared them from going to the rim like no one else has in the shot clock era. Teams had to gameplan and either compeletely quit trying to score downlow, or figure out a way to get him away from the basket and find ways to score down low. Every single alternative teams took as for how to gameplan against him, failed, and failed miserably. It wasn't the number of blocked shots that set him apart, it was the number of shots he effected where people threw up prayers in order to not get blocked, it was the fear he put into teams every single time they drove to the basket. Hes the best player to ever don the blue and white and not because of what he's done after his time here but based on what he did while he was here.
 
I saw both in person, both college and pro. Pistol was the best player of the 2. Pistol as a side note is the only player that ever led both the the NCAA and the NBA in scoring. He did things in bb I had never seen before and havent seen since
Good choice if you enjoy losing.

Utterly, completely absurd in every other way.

Pete Maravich wasn't even as good a college player as Austin Carr, BTW. Not even really that close.
 
Actually, Ralph Beard's is 2nd to Alcindor.

3 x consensus 1st team AA
3 times played on a National Tournament Winner (2 NCAA titles, 1 NIT Title)
4 times played in a national Final 4 (2 NCAA, 2 NIT)
4 times played in a national tournament championship game (1946 NIT, 1947 NIT, 1948 NCAA, 1949 NCAA)

Cool.
 
Wayne Turner had a great run in college. Pretty high winning percentage. I can close my eyes and still see he taking wojo to the hole time after time. Probably not a popular choice, but a great college player none the less.
 
More people voted for Pete Maravich than Bill Walton and that's why I won't be posting in this thread beyond this. [laughing]
Pete was revolutionary in a lot of ways and definately more entertaining, but Walton at his time was dominate and game changing in how he played. Made the ally oop a weapon for the first time.

In my picks I sort of went with who was the most dominant at their time and one of the ones I thought might should have been on the list is David Robinson. Played on bad teams and had no help but man he was dominant.
 
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I must of missed it, but you should of added lavar ball. Dude was a beast had he gotten to play, he would of won atleast 2 championships
 
Oh my....You either didn't see them or have fading memories.
No, I didn't, but sometimes statistical superiority is so overwhelming that it tells a far more accurate story than anything people think they saw.

Maravich was a circus show. The people who saw him can conflate that with being a great basketball player all they want, but that doesn't make it right. Great basketball players do more than make fancy plays and shoot (and miss) more than anyone in the history of the game.

I'm partial to Bevo Francis.
 
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I still think Ralph Sampson was the most dominating college player I’ve seen, and my memory dates to the 1976-77 season. Three time player of the year, in the greatest era of college hoops - his competition for those awards included Jordan, Barkley, Ewing, etc.

Does “greatest” mean best or most accomplished?

Michael Jordan remains the best player ever, but most accomplished is Kareem. One of the two most hyped high school recruits ever (with LeBron - they both lived up to the hype, which is interesting). 3x player of year, 3x national champion. 88-2 record at UCLA. 6x MVP and 5 titles (?) in the NBA. All time leading scorer.....
 
I hate Laettner but he should be on the list and he'd probably be in my top 5.

Alcindor and Walton would top my list with Robertson and Russell behind them.

Laettner, Lucas, Thompson, and Beard would battle it out for the 5th spot.

Maravich was ahead of his time and helped change the way the game is played but that's partly why I wouldn't have him in my top 5. He had the ultimate green light and did whatever he wanted. The thing that hurts him to me is he never won anything.

It wasn't by choice. He wanted to go to WVU because of his idol Jerry West but his dad told him not to bother to come back home if he did. Press Maravich also hated recruiting (and it showed) because he thought it was unbecoming for an adult to grovel to a kid to come play for him.

Press was good at NC State but I think he left for LSU because Pete didn't have the grades for the ACC at the time.

One of the main things that sucked for Pete's NBA career is that Dr. J signed to play with the Hawks but the ABA's Nets (I believe?) sued them for something and it killed the deal. Could you imagine how cool that would have been to see in the 70s?
 
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"Good choice if you enjoy losing."

Utterly, completely absurd in every other way.

Pete Maravich wasn't even as good a college player as Austin Carr, BTW. Not even really that close."- mj2k10

This is one of the worst takes I've ever read on this board.

On no list, should Pete be worse than top five- Alcindor, Big O, Russell, Pistol, Walton, Thompson and probably Sampson are the cream of the crop when it comes to college basketball.

Most accomplished is a different argument, obviously.
 
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Rupp pretty much admitted he never beat Pete Maravich but he was undefeated against Pete's teammates. People who belittle Maravich seem to think the pistol was a hog but the truth is he did not have many capable players on his team with him. People talk about how this team or that team is just one player away from being championship caliber, Maravich was four players away. Pete's problem was his dad. As Dan Issel who battle Pete said, "Maravich wasn't a great shooter, but he was the best ballhandler and passer I've ever seen, lots of times people just think he was a gunner. I don't think he gets his rightful place in basketball history for what he could do with a ball in his hands."
 
"Good choice if you enjoy losing."

Utterly, completely absurd in every other way.

Pete Maravich wasn't even as good a college player as Austin Carr, BTW. Not even really that close."- mj2k10

1779. That's how many shots Maravich missed in his career at LSU. That averaged out to 21.4 per game. He never even hit 45% of his shots. His teams sucked, he didn't make them all that much better, and then he went to the NBA and immediately made a pretty good team worse.

Austin Carr, OTOH, managed to average 38 ppg each of his last 2 years in college while shooting 55.6% and 51.7%, He was a better FT shooter than Maravich, a better rebounder, and though Maravich was certainly a better passer, I'm also betting that Carr turned the ball over less than half as much (no stats kept on it at the time, but Maravich went on to set NBA records for TO's). Defensively, I have no idea beyond the fact that Maravich was considered an absolute 0 on that end in the NBA, whereas Austin Carr was not.

And Carr put up his numbers on pretty good teams. His Sr year, he got a win against UCLA.

Maravich also played against UCLA his Sr year (year before Carr). LSU lost 133-84.

Here are the Pistol's stats vs UK his Jr and Sr years. 4 games, 216 points (54 ppg), 85/187 (45.5%) shooting.

Here are Carr's in the 3 games he played against UK his Jr and Sr years, including one in the tournament: 145 points (48.3 ppg), 63/94 (67%) shooting.
 
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1779. That's how many shots Maravich missed in his career at LSU. That averaged out to 21.4 per game. He never even hit 45% of his shots. His teams sucked, he didn't make them all that much better, and then he went to the NBA and immediately made a pretty good team worse.

Austin Carr, OTOH, managed to average 38 ppg each of his last 2 years in college while shooting 55.6% and 51.7%, He was a better FT shooter than Maravich, a better rebounder, and though Maravich was certainly a better passer, I'm also betting that Carr turned the ball over less than half as much (no stats kept on it at the time, but Maravich went on to set NBA records for TO's). Defensively, I have no idea beyond the fact that Maravich was considered an absolute 0 on that end in the NBA, whereas Austin Carr was not.

And Carr put up his numbers on pretty good teams. His Sr year, he got a win against UCLA.

Maravich also played against UCLA his Sr year (year before Carr). LSU lost 133-84.

Here are the Pistol's stats vs UK his Jr and Sr years. 4 games, 216 points (54 ppg), 85/187 (45.5%) shooting.

Here are Carr's in the 3 games he played against UK his Jr and Sr years, including one in the tournament: 145 points (48.3 ppg), 63/94 (67%) shooting.
Good post. Hard to counter. Pete is one of those mythical figures about whom legend takes hold - more so than other great basketball players of the past. He was larger than life, and for those reasons and others it seems people tend to remember him as being, simply put, better than he really was....
 
I think Wilt has to be a consideration, and he's not even listed.
They outlawed the dunk for many years because of him.
 
I think Wilt has to be a consideration, and he's not even listed.
They outlawed the dunk for many years because of him.
I think that's the second time I've seen this referenced in this thread. The dunk was illegal from 1967-1976, and it's commonly thought the rule was intended to neuter Alcindor. Not Wilt.
 
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