Archive for March, 2012

25 best Maryland Terps of the modern era: Bias, Dixon, Lucas, Williams

March 10, 2012
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The University of Maryland basketball program has produced some of the greatest players not only in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference, but in all of college basketball. Below is my subjective list of the Top 25 Terps since 1970 (which includes the eras of Lefty Driesell and Gary Williams) first published March 24, 2010. See the updated list on Bleacher Report.

  1. Len Bias
  2. Juan Dixon
  3. John Lucas
  4. Walt Williams
  5. Tom McMillen
  6. Buck Williams
  7. Joe Smith
  8. Albert King
  9. Len Elmore
  10. Greivis Vasquez
  11. Keith Booth
  12. Steve Blake
  13. Ernest Graham
  14. Brad Davis
  15. Adrian Branch
  16. Lonny Baxter
  17. Steve Francis
  18. Greg Manning
  19. Johnny Rhodes
  20. Keith Gatlin
  21. Mo Howard
  22. Steve Sheppard
  23. Derrick Lewis
  24. Chris Wilcox
  25. Larry Gibson

Honorable Mention:  Jeff Adkins (‘81-‘85), Lawrence Boston (’75-78), Owen Brown (‘72-‘75), Evers Burns (’89-93), Nik Caner-Medley (‘02-‘06), Ben Coleman (‘82-‘84), Obinna Ekezie (’95-‘99), Rodney Elliott (‘94-‘98), John Gilchrist (‘02-‘05), James Gist (‘04-‘08), Eric Hayes (‘06-‘10), Will Hetzel (1967-70), Exree Hipp (‘92-‘96), Tahj Holden (’99-03), Ekene Ibekwe (‘03-‘07), Sarunas Jasikevicius (‘94-‘98), Cedric Lewis (’87-91), Tony Massenburg (‘85-‘90), Kevin McLinton (’89-’93), Chris McCray (‘02-‘06), Landon Milbourne (’06-’10), Dutch Morley (‘78-‘82), Terence Morris (‘97-‘01), Sean Mosley (‘08-’12), Byron Mouton (‘00-‘02), Jerrod Mustaf (‘88-‘90), Drew Nicholas (‘99-‘03), Jim O’Brien (‘70-‘73), Laron Profit (‘95-’99), Duane Simpkins (‘94-‘98), Terrell Stoglin (‘10-’12), Terrell Stokes (‘95-‘99), Terell Stoglin (’10-’12),  D.J. Strawberry (‘03-‘07), Herman Veal (’80-84), Jordan Williams (’09-’11).

This list was first published on March 24, 2010.

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Mitch Kupchak was a very good NBA player for the Washington Bullets and L.A. Lakers

March 4, 2012
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Former Washington Bullet Mitch Kupchak at a charity event in Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1980. Photo by Mike Frandsen.

I recently wrote an article on Examiner.com about how professional journalists continue to pronounce Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak’s name wrong. (It’s Kup-CHAK, not Kup-CHEK). That’s pretty pathetic.  Anyway, Kupchak has 10 NBA championship rings – seven with the Lakers as an executive, two as a player, and one as a player for the Washington Bullets in 1978. Kupchak was an All-America at North Carolina, ACC Player of the Year, started on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal, and played a key role as a member of the ’78 Bullets and ’85 Lakers championship teams. Jerry West put together most of the Lakers’ title teams, but Kupchak deserves credit for at least the two most recent ones.  Anyway, if Kupchak led the Knicks to a title rather than the Bullets, everyone would pronounce his name right.

It’s too bad how we always forget the past. Now I’m getting a little off topic, but Charles Barkley always mentions himself, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, and Dennis Rodman as the best power forwards ever, and he never mentions Elvin Hayes, as if basketball wasn’t played before Barkley’s era.

Never forget the Washington Bullets, the 1978 NBA champions.

Click here to read my article on Mitch Kupchak on Examiner.com.

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