Monday, December 1, 2008

The All-Time Men's Basketball Team

TigerBlog was watching the Georgetown-Maryland game Sunday night when ESPN's Len Elmore put his all-time Georgetown and Maryland lineups on the screen. It left TigerBlog wondering what the all-time Princeton team would be.

Elmore's teams had two guards, two forwards, a center and a sixth man on them. So, here goes, keeping in mind that this is simply the thoughts of TigerBlog and do not represent any official designation. Feel free to supply your own in reponse:

Obviously, it starts with Bill Bradley at one of the forward spots. Brian Taylor would be one of the guards. TigerBlog isn't 100% sure if Geoff Petrie should count as a guard or forward, so he'll fill in at one of the spots.

After those three, it's a little hard to pick just one other non-center. There are probably 20 solid contenders, including Craig Robinson, Brian Earl, Armond Hill, Frank Sowinski, Bob Scrabis and others from the 1940s through the 2000s. TigerBlog is biased towards Earl.

That leaves the center and the sixth man. The top centers is school history are probably Kit Mueller, Steve Goodrich, Chris Young and Chris Thomforde. Young would probably have become indisputably the best, but he left after two years to play professional baseball (in fairness, Taylor also left after two seasons). It's hard to choose against Mueller, who ranks second all-time in scoring and assists at Princeton and who was the keystone of the Tiger basketball resurgence beginning with arrival in the 1987-88 season.

That leaves a team of Bradley and Petrie at forwards, Earl and Taylor as guards and Mueller at center. Throw in Hill as the sixth man, and there you have it.

Alternate opinions are welcome.

2 comments:

Stuart S said...

I would argue strenuously for Craig Robinson over Brian Earl (moving Petrie to the backcourt). Robinson was a two-time Ivy POTY (vs 1x for Earl), who scored 1,441 points in an era before the 3-point shot and (more importantly) before the shot clock.

Robinson was clearly the best player of his generation. Brian Earl is one of the 15 best players in school history, but may have been the 3rd or 4th best player on his team many nights, sharing the court with Henderson, Lewullis and Goodrich.

I would also argue (less strenuously) for Young over Mueller. I think Chris did enough in his two years (obliterating the block record, showing plus ballhandling skills, scoring consistently) to at least merit more serious consideration.

Anonymous said...

Bradley, Petrie, Taylor & Hummer are clear. You seem to forget Hummer was a #1 NBA draft pick. He also played forward until Thomforde graduated. Since Petrie was clearly a guard, the only question is who do you take as Center/Forward. It pretty much has to be Mueller based on his body of work.