State of LA HAll of Fame
Original Source: The Town Talk
Alexandria Daily Town Talk (LA)
July 15, 1999
Column: Bob Tompkins
Tough voting for La. hoops century team
Author: Bob Tompkins; Staff
Section: Sports
Page: B1
Dateline: Louisiana
Index Terms:
Sports
College Sports
College Basketball
Estimated printed pages: 3
Article Text:
Bob Tompkins The Town Talk
Who should be on Louisiana's "Team of the Century" for college basketball?
It's a tough choice because there are so many good ones from which to choose.
I've been asked by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches to vote for the top 15 players, ranking them on first, second or third teams.
Biographies of 70 players were sent, and the voters were asked to vote for the players, based solely on their college careers. Professional careers were not to be weighed into the vote.
The breakdown
After much hand-wringing and second-guessing, here are my top three teams:
Starting five: Pete Maravich, LSU Chris Jackson (now Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf), LSU Bob Hopkins, Grambling Dwight "Bo" Lamar, USL and Robert Parish, Centenary.
Second team: Jackie Moreland, Louisiana Tech Bob Pettit, LSU Shaquille O'Neal, LSU Willis Reed, Grambling and Larry Wilson, Nicholls State.
Third team: Mike Green, Louisiana Tech Bob Love, Southern University Calvin Natt, Northeast Louisiana Bill Reigel, McNeese State and Andrew Toney, USL.
I know, I know. It doesn't seem right that guys like Willis Reed and Bob Pettit are on the second team. As a matter of fact, one might even argue that the second or third team is better than the first.
Many greats missing
And I know there are a ton of great former college basketball players in the state who didn't make this voter's top 15, like Joe Dumars, Edmund Lawrence and John Rudd of McNeese or Red Thomas, George and John McConathy and Billy Reynolds of Northwestern State Sparky Wade, Frank Brian, Joe Dean, Rudy Macklin, Howard Carter and Don Redden of LSU Aaron James of Grambling, Ervin Johnson of UNO Glynn Saulters of Northeast Louisiana Warren Perkins and Jim Kerwin of Tulane Willie Jackson of Centenary and on and on.
One thing the difficulty of the voting made more evident than ever is the wealth of basketball talent we've had in Louisiana, especially when compared to, say, our neighbor to the east, Mississippi. Other than Mississippi State's Bailey Howell, the best basketball player to play collegiately in the Magnolia State, and maybe Ole Miss' Johnny Neumann, what other player from a Mississippi university could have bumped anyone off Louisiana's top 15?
Mississippi native Abdul-Rauf, formerly known as Chris Jackson, was a two-time consensus first team All-American at LSU, not to mention two-time Southeastern Conference and Louisiana Player of the Year. He was the most exciting LSU basketball player I've seen since Maravich, who was a three-time consensus first team All-American, the National Player of the Year in 1970 and the biggest showman the college game has ever known.
That explains two of my first-team choices.
Hopkins was a three-time All-American in the 1950s at Grambling and was the school's first consensus All-American. He finished his career as the most prolific scorer in small college basketball history and owner of seven NCAA and NAIA small college career records.
Lamar, whose last season at USL was 1972-73, was a three-time consensus first team All-American and two-time Louisiana Player of the Year. He finished his career as the fourth leading scorer in NCAA history.
Parish was a three-time All-American for Centenary in the 1970s and three-time Louisiana Player of the Year. He led the nation in rebounding for two consecutive years.
They all seem deserving of first team recognition on Louisiana's Team of the Century.
Bob Tompkins is a sports columnist for The Town Talk. He can be reached at 487-6349.
Copyright (c) Alexandria Daily Town Talk. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
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