Most Overrated/Underrated Hoya Ever?

[idhoya]

O woulda worked well with an athletic five; moving him to the four where he could take advantage of his myriad of offensive skills. And pump fakes. Seriously, who threw more fakes O or Charles Smith (Knicks)?

[SirSaxa]

Othella?

How can someone who has the following GU career rankings among all the great Hoyas ever be considered "Most overrated"?

Career Points -- 5th -- 1,839
Career Rebounds -- 4th -- 983
Career Blocks -- 5th -- 201
Career FT's -- 2nd -- 539

[strummer8526]

Jul 17, 2008 13:48:45 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

Othella?

How can someone who has the following GU career rankings among all the great Hoyas ever be considered "Most overrated"?

Career Points -- 5th -- 1,839
Career Rebounds -- 4th -- 983
Career Blocks -- 5th -- 201
Career FT's -- 2nd -- 539

Too few threes?

[idhoya]

I think taking into account that he was the #1 player in the country ( I remember rushing to the grocery store to get street & smith's) plus his non athleticism, people were expecting the 2nd coming of Alonzo. He had much more offense, but wasn't the athlete or defender/intimidator Zo was, obviously. O just didn't strike fear into people. Remember, he was the next "great" Hoya big man. He had a outstanding career, but his impact was less felt. I honestly think people still remember all those pump fakes and the ball gettin thrown back in his face. O probably had more offensive skills than any other Hoya big man.

[blueandgray]

Jul 17, 2008 13:48:45 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

Othella?

How can someone who has the following GU career rankings among all the great Hoyas ever be considered "Most overrated"?

Career Points -- 5th -- 1,839
Career Rebounds -- 4th -- 983
Career Blocks -- 5th -- 201
Career FT's -- 2nd -- 539

Yeah... but could he dunk?

[stafford72]

I really disagree with the common practice of dissing Othella on this board. He was not overrated. He had a great career at Gtown and a very serviceable tenure in the NBA.
We should all be so overrated. Othella was a power forward playing mostly center at Gtown. Given better circumstances he would have had even better numbers. The only power forwards I would rank ahead of him are Shelton, Sweetney, and Green. I would have ranked him ahead of David Wingate on DFW's list.

[hoyadrummer]

I take overrated to mean over rated after their college performance, not coming out of high school. And with that as the criteria, I think Braswell wins hands down. His stats were ridiculously inflated because of the cupcake schools he played against, he nearly always missed the end of game shots. Yes he scored 40 -- but in triple overtime on 11-25 shooting. And missed how many potential game winners along the way.

[lichoya68]

coming INTO SCHOOL the most underrated and then maybe the most improved EVER was don reid by far if thats the critieria underrated in vs., his final production adn not a bad nba career then the most overrated coming in jahadi white thats my take go hoyas stilll love em all yup cause they are hoyas even ones that left go hoyas ;D ;D ;D ;D

[idhoya]

Don Reid made himself into an NBA player.

[Nevada Hoya]

Underrated: Perry McDonald

[Locker]

Man, I still remember seeing the interview with John Wooden after the '92 McDonald's game, where he was raving about Othella and Jason Kidd as far and away the two best players in the country.

In retrospect he probably ended up being a Top 25 player or so in that class. Pretty big disappointment relative to expectations. But I think all blue chip recruits coming out of Mississippi in the early-to-mid 90s were overrated (O, Jerry Nichols, Ronnie Henderson).

[jerseyhoya34]

At least since I've been a fan:

Overrated: Kevin Braswell (usually appears on top 20 lists, but I thought he was a .500 PG who would win you as many games as he'd lose for you. I found his steals record to be misleading because he gambled on the defensive end and hoped for easy picks instead of playing straight up like we do now.)

Underrated: Jeremiah Rivers (He won us more games with his defense than he'll ever get credit for because he threw the program under the bus after his transfer. I don't particularly like him, but we'll miss him on one side of the floor anyway.)

[richfame]

Underrated guys- Def joey brown, I know ZO was the team but how many clutch shots did Joey make let alot a pention for a ton of half court buzzer beaters before the half
Also Brian kelly, come on that guy was a baller he brought the intensity every game even though he didnt have a ton of basketball talent..

Overrated-Cortland Freeman, that guy was supposed to be good i ll put him in the vernon macklin wing of hoya hoop history..
I dont know just my two cents First time poster huge hoya fan

[blueandgray]

how can joey brown be underrated and braswell be overrated....they served virtually the same function on crappy teams?
I think they both exceeded expectations.

sidenote: I read somewhere that I'D was considering ending the best and worst of hoya history threads. don't stop now man...its only july.

[HoyaFanNY]

overrated: anthony allen
underrated: lamont morgan

[Hoya TMF]

Jul 17, 2008 22:17:48 GMT -5 blueandgray said:

how can joey brown be underrated and braswell be overrated....they served virtually the same function on crappy teams?
I think they both exceeded expectations.

sidenote: I read somewhere that I'D was considering ending the best and worst of hoya history threads. don't stop now man...its only july.

kevin played two years with a guy named mike sweetney. i can't consider that team crappy. the team that went to the sweet sixteen had braswell, perry, mike, riley, ruben and eddie lee scruggs. of course we only went to the sweet 16 because hampton upset iowa state and nat burton rescued us agaisnt arkansas, but that team was not crappy. braswell just seemed to be a bad decision maker at times. his shot selection was particularly poor for someone playing with arguably the best low post scorer in college basketball for two years.

[the_way]

overrated: Othella Harrington.

O played against weak competition in high school. I think he was the #2 high school rebounder of all time in the country. He averaged like 24 rebounds (yes 24) a game his senior. And yes he was the #1 player coming out of high school. Every school wanted. The McDonalds all-merican, it was the Jason Kidd and Othella show. I think O had like 21 rebounds that game too.

When he came to g-town, you saw his flaws immediately. And the number 1 flaw was that he wasn't the type of player he was hyped up to be. Its why we missed the NCAAA tournament for the first time during his freshman year. And barely got in his sophomore year.

And O had to play center by default due to his poor athleticism. He couldn't jump and he lacked lateral movement. If he was 7'1 it wouldn't be a problem. But at 6'8/6'9' its a liability. He had small hands and couldn't palm the ball. He also lacked a killer instinct.

O really got exposed when G-town played Maryland and Joe Smith embarrassed him. That was after that big SI article about Hoya bigmen and how O was the next great one in line. Well, he got exposed by Joe Smith, who at that time, was just Joe Smith.

O did have good points about him. He was a good student, nice, and he gave it his all with what little he had. He also had a sweet touch on his jump shot. He was a solid player, but not the player he was recruited to be.

As far as underrated, I would have to go with David Wingate. People always talk about Reggie, and sometimes forget about the other star from B-more in Wingate. He was so good. He had a good offensive game too, but there was so much talent on his team, it wasn't needed like that. He was lightning quick, and could guard people. Ask Chris Mullin. A great all-around player. And he had lasted a good number of years in the NBA due to his defensive skills.

[blueandgray]

Jul 18, 2008 9:03:06 GMT -5 Hoya TMF said:

Jul 17, 2008 22:17:48 GMT -5 blueandgray said:

how can joey brown be underrated and braswell be overrated....they served virtually the same function on crappy teams?
I think they both exceeded expectations.

sidenote: I read somewhere that I'D was considering ending the best and worst of hoya history threads. don't stop now man...its only july.

kevin played two years with a guy named mike sweetney. i can't consider that team crappy. the team that went to the sweet sixteen had braswell, perry, mike, riley, ruben and eddie lee scruggs. of course we only went to the sweet 16 because hampton upset iowa state and nat burton rescued us agaisnt arkansas, but that team was not crappy. braswell just seemed to be a bad decision maker at times. his shot selection was particularly poor for someone playing with arguably the best low post scorer in college basketball for two years.

I think its fair to question bras' shot selection....but calling him overrated is out of the question. you make my point for me by mentioning that he and Sweets led us to the sweet 16 where we gave maryland a run for their money. this was done with esh at the helm no less. 2nd to sweets, bras was the man on that team and our floor general. forget the 40 points game bras went for...what about the 9 seed taking down the 1 seed (cuse) in the BE tourney where Bras won the player of the game. he was solid.

I put bras ahead of both dwayne bryant (speaking of overrated), and joey brown.... but well behind jwall.

Ild happily take a kevin braswell on this years team...wouldn't you?

[RDF]

I'd take Dwayne Bryant over Braswell every day of the week. Bryant--who had to split time with Charles Smith--move to 2G when Mark Tillmon was injured in '89, and then back to PG on '90 team and his defense/game improved a great deal. He was part of a cog--not a guy who over dribbled and took too many shots. It's more important to WIN as a program then to have great stats-but this "ME-get mine" generation has a hard time understanding that-becuase it's not something that looks pretty on the computer/video games that have teams/players ranked high based on fantasy BULL**** stats.

Joey Brown would've been great as a backup guard--and he got most he had out of his ability--but he also shouldn't have been a starter at Georgetown for four years. Zo could've gone from Charles Smith/Dwayne Bryant to Chris Jackson or Kenny Anderson--and instead of that we saw 4 years of Joey--who worked his butt off/played hard--but couldn't hold a candle to Jackson or Anderson-or in all honesty--Bryant or Smith.

[RDF]

Jul 17, 2008 14:15:08 GMT -5 idhoya said:

I think taking into account that he was the #1 player in the country ( I remember rushing to the grocery store to get street & smith's) plus his non athleticism, people were expecting the 2nd coming of Alonzo. He had much more offense, but wasn't the athlete or defender/intimidator Zo was, obviously. O just didn't strike fear into people. Remember, he was the next "great" Hoya big man. He had a outstanding career, but his impact was less felt. I honestly think people still remember all those pump fakes and the ball gettin thrown back in his face. O probably had more offensive skills than any other Hoya big man.

If Othella played more PF with Jahidi at Center on the '96 team, that team goes to Final Four--if not wins it all. If Othella played for III--he'd be appreciated more. Everyone talks of the UMass loss--but Hoyas were down 10 in 2nd Half against Texas Tech in Sweet 16 and Othella carried team and had a great game. He was a kid who lived up to the expectations immediately-and just didn't get ball as much due to a superior talent in Iverson coming in--but the team won--got Hoyas back to Sweet 16 for first time since 1989 and Elite 8 the following year. If those Hoya teams subbed less--and stuck with main guys more-they'd have been better off--but that is hindsight now.