[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

Who was the best best college player who was horrible at the next level or didnt even go to the NBA??

Also,

Who was the worst college player to be pretty productive in the NBA??

[esperanzafleet69Participant]

acie law or joe alexander for the first one… and for the second one i dont think theres such a thing….

[MagikKnickParticipant]

LOL Yeah…the 2nd one is impossible
Cuz if you werent good enough for college, how would u be productive in the pros? let alone make it to the pros

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

My inspiration was Steve Nash because he was only offered 1 D1 scholarship and now he is a 2 time MVP and a whatever time All-Star…

[quinceyhodges]

this is easy.. the best would have to be danny ferry…i asked my uncle and he said LaRue Martin..i think he was college basketball player of the year and his nba career compared to his nba career was a big difference. worst college player who played ok in the nba…. hmmmm.. id say ben wallace. he was ok at a divison 2 school. wasnt great but in the nba he turned out to be a allstar

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

I think Jason Gardner could fit the first description… He had a great college career, but couldn’t make it to the NBA. Too little and not good enough at running a team.

As far as the 2nd description… I think a player like Anthony Morrow fits it. He was a good player in college, but had no buzz from NBA scouts. They completely overlooked him. He went undrafted, but looks like he should’ve been a lottery pick.

[quinceyhodges]

steve nash was very very good in college though. probably was very good in hs too but he played in canada and those aau and hs camps were real big back then so there wasnt many ways for him to get known

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

Steve Nash was an absolute beast at Santa Clara though.

I think a player who fits that Steve Nash story is Stephen Curry. He wasn’t recruited by any big time schools coming out of high school…

[quinceyhodges]

i recall nash very well in college. he put my terps out of the tourney. killed either simpkins or stokes. cant recall which but who ever it was he was eating them up. but now that i think about it he fits since he was playing at sana clara and he was pretty good but not great at that mid major and ended up winning 2 mvp’s ..he might be number one on this list

[quinceyhodges]

mmmmmmm about stephen jackson…i think he was a mcdonalds allamerican though while playing at oakhill so its not like he wasnt talented. was just like drafting a allamerican hs player except letting him work on his game for a year or 2 after hs

[Adi Joseph]

David Lee played four years at Florida, and his best was averaging 13.6 points and 9 rebounds as a senior. He’s since become an NBA All-Star and box score stuffer.

 

Trevor Ariza played just one year at UCLA, so that may disqualify him as he would have been a star had he stuck around. But he’s clearly been a significantly better NBA player, too. The same is true for Corey Maggette (Duke) and Gerald Wallace (Alabama). In my opinion, though, one-and-dones shouldn’t count.

 

But another example that I think is more debatable is Gilbert Arenas. He came out of his shell in the NBA and became one of the best scorers in the league, but in college he was very, very good, in a significantly more limited role. Had he returned for his senior season, I think most people would have expected an All-American caliber year, but in his two years at Arizona, his best season he averaged just 16.2 points per game as he shared the rock with Michael Wright, Richard Jefferson and, to a lesser degree, Loren Woods and Jason Gardner.

 

Stephen Jackson never played college basketball. He sat out at Butler Community College trying to get his grades up but never did.

 

As far as college stars who failed in the pros, the list is enormous. Adam Morrison is a great recent example.

[McWinningParticipant]

for the first one definitely the stache.

and i think the the birdman for the second he went to Blinn junior College barely recruited at at all and has turned into a solid player.

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

I know Nash was good but I was talking about a player like that.. Nobody expected anything out of them but they were good.. Gilbert Arenas and maybe Monta Ellis….I thought they were all pretty good in college though

[Adi Joseph]

Monta Ellis didn’t go to college.

And Nash was a top-20 pick.

 

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

Hmm…thats probably why I dont remember him in college… He was second round pick though… I guess Birdman is a good pick.. Ben Wallace is another good one.. Umm, Scottie Pippen is another guy.

[Adi Joseph]

See, 8th, you can’t just change the subject of your entire post. Ben Wallace and Scottie Pippen tore it up in college. Pippen was selected fifth overall. You need to consider more carefully how you word your posts, but right now, this thread is about players who weren’t good in college but were good in the pros, and vice versa.

Therefore, Nash, Wallace and Pippen are really bad examples, for the same reason Rodney Stuckey would be a bad example. They all had great college careers at small schools. 

[JNixonParticipant]

Julius Hodge is my choice for the 1st one. I thought he could be doing something like what Jamal Crawford has been doing in the NBA. He never got any time in the NBA though.

I think the “worst guy to make the NBA and be good” one is too hard to answer

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

My bad Adi.. Now that I go back and look, it was very poor wording on my part…

[DanEboyParticipant]

Best in college- How about Marcus Fizer. a lot of guys will be put on this list that were busts because of injuries but this guy just sucked.

Worst in college–I don’t know how to answer this. How about Stephen Jackson? He played like 5 games for some community college and got drafted.

Edit–my point about Jackson is that he actually went to college and didn’t do much while he was there.

Quincey——I know he was a MCD all-american and was obviously good enough in the eyes of scouts to be drafted. That is a weird question to answer though, ‘worst college player’.

[quinceyhodges]

ACTUALLY adi wallace didnt tear it up in college. i remeber watching some of his games because my father was all about the ciaa and black colleges. wallace would only score about 10-3 points and get about 8-11 reb. thats not tearing it up in division 2 basketball. tearing it up out there would be like what flip did

[llperez]

i think there are some bad names being dropped on here. Tezo mentioned Jason Gardner saying he had a great college career. He was never considerd much of an nba prospect, he was never the best player on his team and he shot a horrendous fg% and was too small.

Steve Nash tore it up at santa clara, so you can’t bring him in on this either.

Here are some of the best college players i can think of that did nothing in the nba:

EdO’Banon-Player of the year, had like 31 and 19 in the tile game was a top 10 pick, was out of the league in 3 years.

Shawn Respert-Tore it up at MIchigan State, was a lights out shooter who was dropping 30 on a regular basis for a very good team. Was a lottery pick. Was out the league in a few seasons.

Adam Morrison-Tore it up and was one of top players in america. Top 5 pick. Probably should be out the league all ready.

[Adi Joseph]

Ben Wallace averaged 14 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks per game, roughly, at Virginia Union. He also played just two years there. So he didn’t quite do what Dennis Rodman did, but he was certainly hardly a flake.

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