Loved Bullock, Juwan, Simms, Rose, and Blanchard too.
If Mike Smith had been there longer he would have moved my list.
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I really don’t like to remember that 3. That and Franz’s 3 vs UCLA I just felt way too good about as they were let go. Few missed shots will ever top those for me as all time gut punches. The Poole 3 makes up for so much though that I will always feel in the black in this category in life. Obviously along with “the shot”. And Jimmy King’s putback vs UCLA in the 93 tourney. Wish Hunter’s wisco shot had a chance to enter this conversation one day but it wasn’t meant to be.
In chronological order
- Bernard Robinson, Jr.
- Ron Coleman
- Darius Morris
- Jordan “Just JMo” Morgan
- Alfonso Clark Burke III
- Derrick Walton, Jr.
- Charles Matthews
- Zavier Simpson
- Brandon Johns, Jr.
- Knasir Douglas McDaniel
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he’s jimmy butler’s answer (even over duncan lol)
Mo deserves more love for sure. I think we take for granted his impact and the fun we had watching him because Franz came and was Franz and the NC run is really memorialized by Poole more than anything. The B1G tourney run was DJ’s. There was a lot of shine to go around and we should definitely make sure to give him the love he deserves.
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when I was looking through the rosters and saw johns’ name, I thought “boutros will name him for sure”
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What about Frankie Franklin Collins IV?
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That Manny ejection was b.s.
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what could have been
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he is a special guy. very kind.
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most disappointing player in program history was too far. but, he was the actual #1 overall prospect in the country when he committed. at that point in time, that was Webber territory. we missed out on Garnett, and Ward certainly didn’t completely flame out and was a 4 year contributor who I don’t mean to dismiss completely, but as far as his HS ranking is concerned, he’s not out of the question for most disappointing players in prog. history IMHO.
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Moe should’ve made my list.
Z should have made mine
I live in Raleigh area. Carolina fans came back from KY Regional calling him Mr. Rice and some claimed to have become Michigan fans. It was epic!
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Caris. Always Caris. There are two players in the last 15 years that from the first moment I clapped eyes on them I knew they had “it.” Caris and Oladipo.
I grew up on the Frieder teams, and saw UM play in Lexington in the ‘92 tournament. Lots of great players throughout the decades but Levert appealed to my love of projectability and seeing greatness in an underrated player. Watching him actualize was incredibly gratifying.
I had a similar reaction to Poole on first encounter, but he’s too showy for me to love him the same way. Caris had the same quiet, steely, implacable presence that made Dumars my favorite Piston.
FWIW, I had the same reaction seeing Tarris’ first minutes this year. His defensive gifts were so obvious, and it was a real pleasure to watch his development.
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Not enough Derrick Walton is this thread. To me he is always the guy who embodies the most of what Beilein was trying to build. I think in large part because he was recruited for so long, played four years and really battled through everything good and bad.
There was obviously the Beilein 2.0 stuff later but Walton bought into Beilein 1.0 and had to battle to get it to that next phase.
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I have a fondness for Caris because I saw him on campus the summer before his freshman year. Two older girls were flirting with him and he just started blushing. I remember thinking, yeah this kid isn’t going to play much this year.
Then the first time he got in a game I thought, wow once he puts on some weight, he’ll be able to get anywhere he wants to go.
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That is still in my top-5 favorite games ever. After two years of UNC ending our season, and JR Reid’s trash talk, it didn’t get much sweeter than shutting them up.
Plus, the start of that game was a shootout between Rice and Jeff Lebo.
If you’re too young to have seen it live, here you go:
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