[conartist85Participant]

but never really made it.

Ive never posted before, so maybe something like this has been done….but thought would be a fun topic.

So Ill name a few of my favorite college players that i thought would at least turn out to be decent pros, if not stars. Some of which really shocked me , others i just kinda hoped would make it.

Scoonie Penn, OSU PG
–He was a star along with Mike Redd on the 99 OSU FInal 4 team, was a 5 year senior so he prolly had already reached his peak. However not sure he ever really got a legit shot in the NBA, since he fell to like the 56th overall pick to the Hawks, and i dont think he ever made a roster. Has had a decent career overseas….bottomline prolly too short/slow for the NBA PG position…..great college player.

Steve Logan , Cincinnati Guard
–This guy was awesome im sorry…..again, i think he only had a cup of tea with Golden State in the NBA, was incredible scorer on the college level. His undoing was again prolly his height as he was nowhere near a PG, straight scorer, and i think he might of only been like 6’0. Not sure where hes playing these days.

Randolph Childress , Wake Forest Guard
–Anybody that saw the 1995 ACC tourney knows what im talking about, dude was amazing. He looked like the best player on the Deacs not Tim Duncan. Was the 17th overall pick for the pistons, struggled during his 2 year NBA run, and an ACL injury pretty much chalked him up. Recovered from the injury to have a pretty decent career overseas. This one really suprised me because i thought he could play the PG position in the NBA.

Dan Dickau , Gonzaga PG
–It was all about the Hair!….lol John Stockton’s heir apparent 20 years later at Gonzaga made the Zags revelent in college basketball, and since then theyve pretty much remained a force on the National Scene. Has hung around the league, but has never really been more than a 12th guy type player. Not sure if hes in the league at the moment or not?

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

2 WVU ballers. Mike Gansey and Kevin Pitsnoggle. If Gansey wouldnt have gotten sick he could have had a decent career and the big man had his last name turned into a verb. How many NBA ballers can say that? Long body with long range but no rebounding. The story of Kevins career. Now he is a middle school teacher and an assistant coach in his hometown. Gansey is, well i have no clue. Does anyone??

[QHaynes123]

Pietrus….I thought he was gonna be a French Jordan….

Telfair- As a NYC kid…i thought he was gonna make it….

[deuce4off]

Jaron Rush. Lamar Odom. Not that Odom hasn’t been a solid player, just thought he would be a star.

[Mr.Duke 1426Participant]

I thought pietrus was gonna be great! Same with telfair but another few are Trajan langdon and jay Williams. Yes I know I’m biased towards duke but didn’t a lot of people think the same? I thought both were going to be stars.

[joecheck88Participant]

wow steve logan, i thought he was gonna be good too. i remember him dropping 42 on a team and the whole other team scored 37. that was great. i have always hoped jr smith would put it all together. he is good but i always thought with his range and leaping ability that he would do more.

[Ryan.Cook2Participant]

im a sucker for tall asians and people said he could shoot as well.

[tli232]

Denham Brown was gonna be at least a decent role player in the league imho. Nice combo of athleticism, intensity, and court savvy. I believe he is doing OK in the D-League right now putting up solid numbers.

Pittsnogle– I’m sure most of us thought he was going to have an impact similar to a young Raef Lafrentz, but the kid didn’t get a fair shot in the NBA.

Rafael Araujo– Remember this guy? He was a beast at BYU. A near 7 footer who boxed out well and could shoot a nice little 12 footer. I really thought he was going to at least be a solid role player coming off the bench, but that’s not the case. Last year, Araujo didn’t even make the Russian A league. He was relegated to B league. unlike most of the guys talked about above, this guy had more than a fair chance in the NBA with the Raptors. He played 2 years of horrible ball there (started a whole bunch of games), was shipped to Utah, never heard from again.

Luke Jackson– He looked so solid at Oregon shooting and making intelligent basketball plays on the court. He got a shot with the Cavs at 8, didn’t pan out at all. He was not given decent playing time, but can you blame the Cavs? The dude just couldn’t guard a chair for the life of him, especially playing on the wing with so many athletic marvels.

Adam Morrison
Injuries have hurt him a bunch, but still inexcusable for him to be barely in the league a mere 3 years after being drafted 3rd overall. But let’s go back to the good old days; 30 a game for Zaga. Ultra competitive SF with a ton of heart who cried when his team got knocked out of the tourney his final year. I don’t know about you guys, but I thought that he would be a sixth man at worst by his third year in the NBA. The guy had a great package of Size and skill, just lacked the athleticism. He suffered the same fate as Luke Jackson as he was an unathletic wing player who might have gotten more playing time his second and third (this) year to develop if only he could only play any defense.

[HaleParticipant]

I thought Darius Washingotn Jr. out of Memphis would be really good after his fr. year, I thought Ariza and Von Wafer would be really good, but they are just getting into their games now. Tyrus Thomas was supposed to be an absolute monster, again just tapping into his potential now though.

[DigEmSmacksParticipant]

Omar Cook: I know he wasn’t the best shooter, but I thought he’d be a decent backup at best..another overrated NYC guard

DeAngelo Collins: Applied for the draft out of HS, I thought he was a bit more skilled the Amare, but he was never heard from again.

Fred Jones & Desmond Mason: Not terrible, but I thought they’d be better.

[sheltwon3Participant]

Desmon Mason put up some pretty good numbers for a few years but now he is so far on some teams bench. Fred Jones just got put in the bad position go getting caught up in trades to teams that did not know how to use him. It took Eddie House a while before it found the right spot in Boston. A think sometimes it is the players lack of growth and sometimes it is wrong place at the wrong time. You had a whole bunch of undersize shooting guards and undersized power forward not getting drafted then a few got drafted and did well so now everyone is looking at them also sometimes people get injuries. I though Dajuan Wagner would be crazy awesome but because on his sickness and other factors he is not in the league. Demarr Johnson was supposed to be good. Ricky Davis as crazy as he is was supposed to be good but hey what happened. Quintel Woods was another one. Sometimes it is a numbers games and bad Gms screw people. Think about it what if Billups never got the chance he did after being trade so much. Do yall remember how Mcgrady was a sidekick to Carter but after he came to Orlando he put up better numbers than Carter. Pietrus is not a bad player. He got stuck on a GSW team that did not know how to use him and now he is doing well for Orlando but lost minutes because an injury showed the team how valuable Lee is.

[llperez]

so many players over the years. As a UCLA fan Jerome Moiso was by far the hugest bust I’ve seen in the last 15 years. He went lottery ws 6-11 could shoot run jump everything. He was a bigger bust then guys like Ed ‘Obanon and Jaron Rush easily.

outside of my bruins, boy how long do we got? I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

[JNixonParticipant]

I liked Steve Logan, he looked like DMX lol. But I thought Darius Washington was going to great, he had it all in terms of talent. But the person that I thought was going to be a great player in the league that never panned out was Ndubi Edi, but he declared out of hs (big mistake)

[mbunner23Participant]

I also liked Steve Logan. Here are a few of mine tho.

Kenny Satterfield-Cincinnati
Lenny Cook-Just couldnt stay out of trouble. People said he outplayed LeBron head to head at the ABCD camp.
Omar Cook-St Johns
Troy Bell-Boston College
Gerald Green-I have always thought that he was going to be a beast in the league.
Johnathen Hargett-Played a year at West Virginia. Known as one of the best point guards in his class.

[UNC4eva8806Participant]

As a UNC fan I’m sorry to do it, but

JOSEPH FORTE- after being the ACC Freshman of the year in 00 and being the 01 ACC player of the year, he only averaged 1.2 points and 0.7 assist per game and only played 2 seasons in the league!!!

Ron Mercer- This guy was the number one player coming out of Oak hill, ahead of The Big Ticket and starbury. Won a National championship his freashman year and was the SEC player of the year. Was drafted 6th by Boston and ended up playing for 7 NBA teams. He did have one good season with Chicago where he averaged 19 points, but still was a bust

[montrell_Participant]

basically all but a few duke players

im a big duke fan but names like chris carawell, william avery, trajon langdon, shane battier was a great college player, but now he’s just a Great defensive guy, remember drew gooden putting up 20+points and 20+rebs in games for kansas, i thought he would be a super beast, jj reddick =[, my fav college player of all time, jonathan bender str8 outta highschool, broke MJ’s McDonalds All-American scoring record….BUST, mike dunleavy jr., brenden haywood, yea he’s still producing for washington but in college, him and forte man!, mastufa shakur, i think i spelled that right, arizona guard going into college he was highly touted never lived up…..thats all i can think of right now tho

[auberParticipant]

Chris Taft

Andre Emmett

Darius Washington JR

Gerald Green

Omar Cook

John Wallace

Lenny Cooke

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

– Demarr Johnson out of Cincinatti. I remember he used to be a beast! A 6’9″ shooting guard. I know he got into the car accident & broke his neck in 2002… I’m just thinking of what could’ve been.

– Khalid El-Amin out of Uconn! Chubby lil dude, but he was a beast at Uconn.

– Jason Gardner, Michael Wright & Loren Woods out of Arizona! I thought their whole team was going pro lol. Whoever would’ve thought Gilbert Arenas would be the biggest NBA star out of that bunch? Richard Jefferson & Luke Walton are holding it down too.

– Miles Simon out of Arizona! I know everybody remembers him pairing w/ Bibby.

– Chris Thomas out of Notre Dame! Triple double his first college game.

– Shawn Respert out of Michigan State! This dude was a beast in college. Drafted 8th by the Blazers. I never thought his college teammate Eric Snow would’ve turned out better than him.

[gatorheelsParticipant]

Adam Morrison- Yes I was one of those people that thought he was the next Larry Bird hahaha.

Ron Mercer- Pitino used his skills to perfection in college. Too bad NBA teams didn’t know how to use those skills.

Anthony Roberson- Just never got a chance to lead an NBA team. Currently sits on the bench for the Bulls. One of the best scoring point guards I have ever seen.

[conartist85Participant]

Some great responses and you reminded me of a few guys i hadn’t thought of for a while, like Troy Bell, Omar Cook n Chris Thomas….

Also one guy no one has mentioned that at one point i thought would be a starting PG in the league for sure was Marcus Taylor from Michigan State. Thought he had all the tools, he just left school a little too early i guess.

[ghostfaceParticipant]

I noticed some of the guys listed here were players drafted based more on their athleticism rather than their basketball skills. Gerald Green, Jonathon Bender, Tyrus Thomas. You would think by now NBA teams would learn not to draft these kind of guys so high. Lebron and Kobe are very athletic, but they were also very skilled when they entered the NBA.

Here are some players that I thought would be good NBA players but didn’t.

Joe Smith – solid NBA player, but not as good as I thought he would be
Hasaan Adams
Michael Jordan
Stacey King – Never more than a role player
Tim Thomas – My god, what a waste of talent

I’m just playin’ on MJ. Did I catch anyone off guard?

[QHaynes123]

Does anyone remember Dorell Wright?

He was supposed to go to DePaul and he when from HS to Pros….I thought he was gonna be a stud. I dont even know if he’s in the league

[xbadgerhustlerParticipant]

Larry Hughes- thought he was gonna be a STAR

Hakim Warrick- so athletic on that cuse team

Jared Jeffries- so skilled and long

JJ Redick- just shot the lights out that year

Ndudi Ebi- PSYCH!

Sean Williams- beast of a shot blocker and overall athlete.

Steve Francis- damn he was dominant in MD that year

[bluedevils12Participant]

i thought jjredick, trajan langdon, allan ray, and jared jeffries were gonna be good

[johnecoParticipant]

Gerald Greene
Jonathan Bender (although due to injury IMO)
Jalen Rose
Tyson Chandler
Jamaal Crawford
Tyrus Thomas
Nick Young
Luther Head
Troy Bell

Obviously Chandler turned out decent, but I thought he would dominate. When Chicago got him and Curry, after just getting Crawford, I thought they would become a dynasty in a few years. oops…

[delfamParticipant]

I second that Chris Taft vote, I thought he was going to be a monster, should’ve stayed another year.

Lynn Greer was unstoppable in college but has never really stayed in the league, thought he was going to be a great backup pg in the league who could score at will.

[rtbtParticipant]

What Does This Have to do with the NBA Draft? This thread belongs in the NBA forum.

[Mr. BasketballParticipant]

shaun livingston 🙁

[knicksfreakParticipant]

Gerald Green but he still has time

Jerry Stackhouse was a huge star in college but he never reached the perennial all-star status I thought he would.

Christian Laettner was one of the best college players ever

Grant Hill was supposed to be the next MJ

Drew Gooden

Eddy Curry

Shannon Brown but hes starting to emerge now

Qyntel Woods showed signs of stardom and had great size for a 2 at 6’8″ but couldnt stay out of trouble

Shaun Livingston had great size and dribbling but things didnt come together, then the injury

[delfamParticipant]

Shaun Livingston is stll only 22, and when he came back last year had a couple good games with the Thunder. Expect him to be a more than capable backup for Westbrook this year, and I actually see becoming a starter for another team in a couple years.

[Stanford hoopsParticipant]

lebron outplayed cooke at abcd..wasnt even close…i cant lie..i weas young at the time and i thought shwn bradley was gonna be very good and all i saw was highlighs of him….harold miner..we all thought bender cuz of what he did at the all american game now we know tonot judge a player by a all star game…vincent yarborouh schea cotton dan gadzuric ( i thought he was the net shaq after watching some of his highschool games ad in the micky d game dunking on people…robert swift looked like he had great post moves kwame brown ( cuz jordan picked him how could jordan be wrong) ronnie feilds..dermarr johnson

[D-Rose1Participant]

I am young so the first one that comes to mind is Gerald Green. I remember watching him at the McDonalds all american game and dunk contest and he was ridiculous. He dominated and seemed like he had it all. I have watched him a few times in the NBA and always thought he was good when he played but for some reason never got any time.

Another is JJ Redick. He absolutely shot the lights out at Duke. Ive never seen a player that was such a good shooter, he hit from anywhere on the floor and i feel like he was hitting every night. I never thought he would be a superstar in the NBA but I thought he would be a premier shooter for sure.

My next one is a player many may not even know. His name is Reece Gaines. He was a 6′ 6″ PG out of Louisville. At Louisville he dominated and was an unbelievable scorer. He had several head to head battles with Dwyane Wade and actually got the best of Wade on several occasions. Gaines got picked 15th by the Magic and I thought they were getting a real steal. He turned out to be a huge bust though who never got time in the League.

[sayanythingParticipant]

Shaun Livingston was so sick coming out of highschool, 6’7 pointguard with handles, solid athleticism, and above average vision. Hes had a lot of bad luck and it was a concern when he couldnt even bench 135 one time at the combine.

Drew Gooden was disgusting in Kansas but I guess he was a product of being with a great head coach and with great talent. Still a good player in the league but I was expecting closer to 20-10 to the 14-8 he puts up.

Dajaun Wagner was a guy who could do ANYTHING on the offensive end but was another guy that just had a streak of bad luck and isn’t even in the league anymore. LeBron, Wagner, and Darius Miles were supposed to put Cleveland on the map… turns out LeBron didn’t need them anyway haha.

[billykParticipant]

What ever happened to William Avery??? I thought when he left Duke after his sophmore year he was going to be a SOLID pg in the league, but it turns out he left college way too early….

[bryant markson1]

lol..will avery is my boy..hes was over in greece this past season

[billykParticipant]

How has he been doing overseas??? I always thought he had the combination of IQ, ball handling, and vision to be a decent NBA pg…

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