Roy wins Hoya of the decade poll

[vcjack]

For those of you at the game, there was a poll on ESPN.com that went up asking who was the best Georgetown player of the decade and Roy won with almost 50% of the vote over Jeff, Sweetney, Braswell, and Bowman.

[AvantGuardHoya]

I liked Roy, but I cannot fathom how the majority of voters would have chosen him over Jeff Green. Jeff was the key player in the Hoyas' NCAA tournament runs of his sophomore and junior seasons.

[tashoya]

Hibbs beat out Green and Sweets. I don't really care to compare all of the guys but maybe Hibbs gets the nod for being a 4 year guy.

[mapei]

My vote would go to Jeff #1 and Jon #2, maybe Sweets #3 and Roy #4.

[nodak89]

Heck, even I wouldn't have voted for Roy over Jeff as player of the decade. I guess people voted for 4 year player over a 3 year player, but Jeff was better.

On the other hand, from a "Generation" standpoint, I'd have go with Generation Roy.

[stafford72]

These things aren't worth the time they take up to disagree on, but without getting too hung up on overall team success, I have to think that Sweetney was the best player Gtown had in the past 10 years.

[MCIGuy]

Jan 1, 2010 19:45:06 GMT -5 stafford72 said:

These things aren't worth the time they take up to disagree on, but without getting too hung up on overall team success, I have to think that Sweetney was the best player Gtown had in the past 10 years.

Co-sign.

My Vote would have been 1)Sweetney 2)Green 3) Hibbert. If someone wants to put Green over Sweetney I wouldn't argue against it but still to me its Sweets all the way.

JJ Reddick got picked best Player of the Decade over dudes like Shane Battier and Jason Williams, both of whom actually won a title. Stuff happens.

mapei, Jon Wallace wasn't even in contention, wasn't even part of the top 5 ESPN selected. I can't argue against that. Despite The Legend of Jon that continues to grow I couldn't pick a guy who was never the best player on his team. Well, I could make an exception if Jon had played four years alongside Patrick Ewing the original. It would be hard to be better than THAT guy (although Sleepy was for that one season). But seeing that Jon didn't play alongside one of the greatest college bball players ever that's not an exception I have to worry about.

Jon never made First Team All Big East.
I'm not sure Jon even made Second Team All Big East.
Jon never made the All Big East Tournament Team.
Jon was never named a Second Team All American, Third Team All American or Honorable Mention All American as three Hoyas on that ESPN list were.
Jon never led his team in scoring and I'm not even certain he ever lead the team in assists.
Jon was never a guy teams double covered or threw out a box-in-one to slow him down.
Jon wasn't effective breaking a press.
Jon wasn't effective at driving at all.
Jon's contribution on defense wasn't very substantial.
Jon got the majority of his points off of wide open looks (often when teams doubled his teammates) because when a defender with any bit of length stayed up on him Jon could not get off his shot.

Now I loved having Jon on Gtown because he introduced the rare concept of knocking down jumpshots that was all too rare on Georgetown teams before his arrival. Plus he was smart and didn't try doing things he wasn't capable of doing. And he hit a few big shots over the course of his career. A class guy too. But #2 of the decade?

The one time he had a chance to be the best player on the team was during his senior season but he lost out to a 7'2 guy who led the team in points, rebounds and blocked shots. The guy that opposing teams doubled team more than any other Hoya. And while Roy had his struggles during his senior season Jon had his including a streak of games in which his shots weren't falling. His fg% overall was poorer that final season and he was still unable to deal with a full court press.Hitting free throws against Villanova after an awful call, finding your shot again at the Carrier Dome and "going off" during a loss to Syracuse and being clutch down the stretch against Marquette does not alone make for a great season. The intangibles Jon brought to the team were substantial. In fact those, his three point shooting, his free throw shooting, his composure and the fact that his four years in the starting lineup represents one of the greatest stretches of success for the Hoya program are worthy factors to make the arugment he is top five of the past decade. But IMO #2 would be too high.

[jerseyhoya34]

I thought of MCI when Roy won and wondered whether he voted 8754 times or whatever it was.

I laughed at the poll immediately when Bowman was an option.

[Z]

Mike did his thing on bad teams but he was flat out unstoppable and dominant. He gets my vote.

[GIGAFAN99]

No effing way on Sweetney.

Jeff Green finished 21st in the Big East in scoring, won PoY and nobody said a word. That's how good Jeff was. Oh yeah he was Co-RoY with some guy who was kind of touted as a big name going to UConn.

Mike Sweetney was a good player on bad teams. He's our Pat Garrity.

I love Sweets but he stayed as long as Jeff and was nowhere near as good a player. Jeff/Roy/someone is how this vote should go for me.

[MCIGuy]

Nowhere near as good a player? In every BIG game Mike showed up. Mike never had off nights unlike Jeff and Roy. The last Hoya I could say that of is possibly Iverson although some would say the UMass game was an "off night" for him. I'm not going to punish Mike because of who he played under and whom he played with. If Mike had stayed four years he would have owned the Gtown record books. You take him off the Gtown team those final two years and the Hoyas would probably finish at the very bottom of the Big East. Even when matched up against Syracuse with Carmello in the lineup you could argue that Mike was the best player on the floor for all three of those matchips. He was a beast.

[Hoya50]

another vote for sweetney who was the only reason the program didn't tank into oblivion and was an absolute joy to watch for 3 seasons.

[hoyaboy1]

The only reason people say Sweetney wasn't as good as Jeff (and nowhere near as good is just absurd) is because he was on garbage teams. If Jeff was on those Esh teams, I don't think he is in the discussion for player of the year. Sweetney would be a beast on any team.

[SFHoya99]

Sweetney was a fantastic player. He was also a low post player with, after his freshman year, perpetually young teammates of varying talent levels and not so special coaching.

The team went to the Sweet Sixteen when they had some talent and experience -- after that, they had a revolving door of freshman perimeter talent aside from Gerald Riley.

[chep3]

Roy can't be higher than 3. Sweets and Jeff is a toss up and I can see it either way. But no one can touch them.

[GIGAFAN99]

If Jeff went from Big East RoY to Big East PoY to averaging 15 and 6 every night in the NBA by virtue of "being on good teams" he's the luckiest guy ever. I'll go out on a limb and say it's because he's really, really good.

Love Sweets' effort and he put up big numbers, but Jeff was better every single year than Mike. When MCI wrote that he's "not going to punish Mike" for who he played with or under I had to laugh. Nobody punishes Mike for that at all. Quite the contrary, Mike gets romanticized on this board becasue of it. How many times do you have to read "If Sweets wouldn't have played for Esherick..."

Jeff Green is just a flat out better basketball player than Mike Sweetney and it's not close. Sorry it's not. That's why Jeff is the Pippen to Durant's Jordan and Mike is trying to make a comeback in the summer league. The difference between Jeff and Mike is quite simply, Jeff was the best player on the floor when he walked onto the court and Mike was the best player on Georgetown. It's not an insult to not be better than Jeff Green, and Mike isn't.

[SFHoya99]

Jeff is definitely a better basketball player than Sweets now, and junior Jeff was the best Hoya of the decade. (Although the pro argument has little weight with me -- note that Rudy Gay wasn't much of a college player.)

They were probably even as frosh and Sweets probably has the edge as a soph.

But I'd vote for Jeff. I might even vote for Roy over Sweets. But the Pat Garrity comment is what I'm reacting to -- Sweets was a much better college player than that.

[GIGAFAN99]

Jan 2, 2010 14:28:35 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Jeff is definitely a better basketball player than Sweets now, and junior Jeff was the best Hoya of the decade. (Although the pro argument has little weight with me -- note that Rudy Gay wasn't much of a college player.)

They were probably even as frosh and Sweets probably has the edge as a soph.

But I'd vote for Jeff. I might even vote for Roy over Sweets. But the Pat Garrity comment is what I'm reacting to -- Sweets was a much better college player than that.

Fair enough. He's better than Pat Garrity. But look at a guy like Harangody. If I'm an Irish fan, I love that guy. That guy is going to give you 20 and 10 even if he's quadruple-teamed. That's how I think of Sweets and that's not a bad thing. He's a great college player. He's just not Jeff Green.

[SirSaxa]

Sweetney was the best player in GU history (at least, post 1972 history)... except for Pat, Sleepy, AI, Reggie, and ZO. That would put him at #6 all time.

At least, he was when he left GU.

Mike was the best offensive post player, best hands, best finisher.
A super steady presence on the boards and as a scorer.
Best player of the non-Thompson interregnum.

But that was before Jeff Green showed up.

No, Roy Hibbert was a terrific Hoya and gave us far more than we anticipated when we first saw him as a frosh. Roy entered GU the same time as Jeff Green. He was teammates with Jeff Green. He went to the Final Four with Jeff Green. But Roy was no Jeff Green.

No, this vote comes down to Mike and Jeff.

Jeff Green was a far more complete player... Offense, Defense, passing, understanding the game and making teammates better, and absolutely unparalleled in making the big play, the big shot, at the key moment in the game.

The Hoyas best player during the 2000's was clearly Jeff Green.

[SFHoya99]

Jan 2, 2010 14:48:55 GMT -5 GIGAFAN99 said:

Jan 2, 2010 14:28:35 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Jeff is definitely a better basketball player than Sweets now, and junior Jeff was the best Hoya of the decade. (Although the pro argument has little weight with me -- note that Rudy Gay wasn't much of a college player.)

They were probably even as frosh and Sweets probably has the edge as a soph.

But I'd vote for Jeff. I might even vote for Roy over Sweets. But the Pat Garrity comment is what I'm reacting to -- Sweets was a much better college player than that.

Fair enough. He's better than Pat Garrity. But look at a guy like Harangody. If I'm an Irish fan, I love that guy. That guy is going to give you 20 and 10 even if he's quadruple-teamed. That's how I think of Sweets and that's not a bad thing. He's a great college player. He's just not Jeff Green.

Yeah, Harangody with more defense is how I think of Mike. Which is awesome.

If he had a weakness, it was simply that he wasn't as multi-dimensional as Jeff. He was a low post guy and required people getting the ball into him. He couldn't take it on the perimeter or in transition, and he couldn't do the same on D.

I would have loved to have seen him play on more talented teams, though. The guy scored 20 and 10 against double and triple teams.