Thursday, March 13, 2008
UVa point guards, Part 2
The experts weigh in
Doug Doughty
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When I turned on the computer Monday morning, one of the first e-mails I opened was from a former Virginia men’s basketball player who had voted in last week’s UVa Insider poll.
He wanted to change his vote from John Crotty to Sean Singletary.
Who wouldn’t after watching Singletary’s final home game, when he had 27 points, eight assists and six rebounds in a 91-76 victory over Maryland?
Singletary was a runaway winner even without the vote-switching. More than 500 people voted in the UVa’s best all-time point guard survey and Singletary collected more than 60 percent of the votes, followed by Crotty with 16 percent and Barry Parkhill with 11 percent.
In my mind, Singletary’s selection this week as first-team All-ACC clinched it. There have been three-time, first-team All-ACC selections in Virginia history – Ralph Sampson, Bryant Stith and Singletary – and Singletary is the only point guard in that bunch.
Only two other Virginia point guards had made first-team All-ACC even once, Parkhill in 1972 and Othell Wilson in 1982. Parkhill was named ACC player of the year, one of only two Cavaliers to be so honored, along with Sampson in 1981, ’82 an d ’83.
I think that Crotty and Parkhill were worthy Nos. 2 and 3 vote-getters, particularly since Crotty is the school’s all-time assist leader and scored 1,646 points, but Wilson probably merited more than 6 percent of the vote.
“Othell Wilson is one of the best basketball players I ever played with,” said Rick Carlisle, who was one of Wilson’s teammates on Virginia’s 1984 Final Four team and later spent five seasons in the NBA as a player.
Carlisle was on the Boston Celtics’ 1986 NBA Championship team, where his teammates included Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish.
“Othell was one of the best players I ever played with, period, and I played with a lot of great ones in Boston and [New York and New Jersey]. At his position, he was tremendous.
“It’s a shame that his NBA career didn’t last longer because he was a great player. His talent was way above the norm.”
Terry Holland was the Cavaliers’ head coach from 1974-1990 and coached one-time UVa assist leader Jeff Jones, Wilson and Crotty. Later, as the Cavaliers’ athletic director, he was in Charlottesville during Harod Deane’s term as UVa’s lead guard.
Here’s what Holland had to say about Wilson:
“He was, as far as talent is concerned, by far the best of the group,” said Holland of his ex-point guards. “He had such great speed and quickness and strength.
“Crotty had the ball in his hands a lot much more, just because of the other guards [Jones, Ricky Stokes and Rick Carlisle] that Othell played with.
“Crotty was a very hard-nosed player and very knowledgeable about the game. He could shoot and he had range. He was a threat from [3-point range] and he could get his own shot.
“Jeff was probably the smartest of them all.”
Jones scored only 850 points during his career “and people made him score a good many of those,” he said.
If there is a former point guard whom Singletary most resembles, it would be Cory Alexander, who was injured for long stretches during the prime of his career, which lasted from 1991-95.
In his heart, Alexander feels he was as talented or more talented than any of the other Virginia point guard but his acknowledges that time missed prevents him fromhaving a prominent place in the conversation.
“Had I played four years, like everyone else, I believe I would have been up there,” said Alexander, who could have returned for a fifth season in 1995-1996 but placed his name in consideration for the NBA Draft and was a late first-round pick.
For the record, Crotty played in 477 NBA games over 11 seasons, Alexander played in 307 games in seven seasons, Wilson played in 127 games over two seasons and Parkhill played in 173 games over three ABA seasons.
One thing that Singletary clearly has done better than any of the other UVa point guards is get to the free-throw line and then convert.
He entered Thursday night’s ACC Tournament opener against Georgia Tech as a career 84.7-percent free-throw shooter on 649 attempts.
The only player close to him in that regard was Harold Deane, a 78.1-percent free-throw shooter on 699 attempts. Crotty shot 69.4-percent free-throw shooter on 595 attempts; Wilson shot 73.4 percent on 406 attempts.
Alexander said he would not rate Singletary at the top of the list as a shooter overall, but Singletary has a better career 3-point percentage (36.3) than either Crotty (34.6), Alexander (33.6) or Deane (34.2).
“I think [Singletary] is quick as lightning,” Alexander said. “I think if there’s one advantage he had on everyone else, it was that he was quicker with the ball. He gets to the basket. That is his greatest strength.”
If Virginia is lucky, the debate might continue some day.
