ACC's Top 50 Players of All-Time (1997 view)

© The Durham Herald-Sun, March 4, 1997

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BY AL FEATHERSTON and TIM PEELER

The first pick was easy.

David Thompson was our unanimous choice as the greatest player in ACC basketball history. That judgment was reached both by the 11 members of The Herald-Sun sports department who voted on the poll and by dozens of ACC writers, coaches and former players surveyed before the balloting.

The verdict was clear: DT is No. 1.

No debate. No arguments. No challengers.

Too bad it wasn't as simple to select and rank the next 49 players on our list of the Top 50 players in ACC history. From the selection of Duke's Christian Laettner as the league's second greatest player to the choice of Wake Forest's Tyrone ``Muggsy'' Bogues as No. 50, each choice was fraught with debate.

So why do it?

Blame Tim Duncan. The decision to rank the ACC's 50 greatest players had its roots in a discussion of Duncan's place in ACC history. The Demon Deacon senior clearly rates as one of the greatest players in the 44-year history of the league.

But where does he rank, and what criteria should be used to rate the ACC's greatest players?

"I'm going to stay away from that," Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said last week. "There's no denying Tim's going to be ranked among the best, but I'm not saying he's the best or in the top five.

"He's still got things to accomplish."

Our panel picked Duncan No. 4, but we put an asterisk by his name. We counted on the 6-10 senior winning a third straight first-team All-ACC spot. We counted on him being a consensus All-American. We counted on him earning 1997 ACC and national player of the year honors.

If he does nothing else, the Wake Forest star is our No. 4 all-time ACC player.

But Duncan could move up if he could lead the Deacons to a third consecutive ACC Tournament title -- something two other teams in ACC history have accomplished -- then leads Wake Forest to the Final Four or maybe even to its first NCAA Championship.

The panel agreed those factors should count toward the ultimate evaluation of Duncan's career -- or any player's career, for that matter. Individual achievements are significant, but those achievements have to be considered in the context of a player's impact on his team, on the conference and on the national scene.

"That's how you measure the great ones," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "How much can they lift a team?"

Each of the players selected by The Herald-Sun as the ACC's 50 greatest met those criteria. We honored three players from Duke's back-to-back NCAA champions in 1991 and '92. We honored three members of the N.C. State team that compiled a 57-1 record over the 1972-73 and '73-74 seasons. We honored three members from UNC's 1982 NCAA Championship team and the star of the Tar Heels' 1957 NCAA champs.

But we couldn't honor every great player from every great team -- not with 50 picks.

In fact, a survey of the players who just missed our list reads like a Who's Who of college basketball.

It includes seven players who earned ACC player of the year honors (UNC's Pete Brennan, Lee Shaffer and Mitch Kupchak; Duke's Steve Vacendak; Maryland's Albert King; Wake Forest's Rod Griffin and Clemson's Horace Grant), a three-time first team All-ACC choice (UNC's York Larese), two consensus All-Americans (UNC's Bob McAdoo and J.R. Reid) and 59 -- that's right, 59! -- first-round NBA draft picks.

But the NBA was irrelevant to the discussion. We weren't picking the best professionals who played in the ACC. If that was the goal, Michael Jordan would be the easy No. 1 pick.

Instead, we voted Jordan No. 11, based on a college career that includes one ACC and one national championship, one ACC and one national player of the year award, and two selections as first team All-ACC.

Compare those accomplishments to the player picked just ahead of him -- Duke's Danny Ferry.

The Blue Devil big man was, like Jordan, a national player of the year and a two-time All-American. But he also was two-time ACC player of the year and the 1988 ACC Tournament MVP (an award Jordan never won). Ferry led the league in scoring twice, Jordan once.

By staying four years, Ferry ended up high on the ACC career list for points (15th) and rebounds (21st). He's the only player in league history with 2,000-plus points, 1,000-plus rebounds and 500-plus assists.

Jordan, who left after his junior year, doesn't show up on any of the ACC's statistical lists.

True, Jordan hit the winning shot in the 1982 NCAA title game, but don't forget that James Worthy was the Tar Heels' MVP that year and the MVP of the '82 Final Four. As a freshman in 1986, Ferry filled much the same role as Jordan did for UNC in '82 -- he was a key supporting player on Duke's 37-3 NCAA runners-up.

The difference is that when Ferry became Duke's main man in '88 and '89, he led the Blue Devils to an ACC title and two Final Fours. After Jordan became UNC's leader in 1983 and 1984, the Tar Heels won nothing in postseason -- despite a lineup that surrounded Jordan with Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty and (in '84) Kenny Smith.

So Ferry had the better college career. The fact that Jordan's pro career has eclipsed Ferry's by a wide margin doesn't change that.

Putting Jordan at No. 11 wasn't the only pick that provoked debate among our panelists. Among the other more provocative selections:

* Christian Laettner, No. 2 -- We thought the Duke All-American was far and away the greatest NCAA Tournament performer the ACC has ever produced. He is the only player in NCAA history to start for Four Final teams. As a freshman, he outplayed Georgetown's Alonzo Mourning in the East Regional title game. As a sophomore, he hit a dramatic last-second shot to beat Connecticut in the East Regional title game. As a junior, he was the Final Four MVP after hitting the game-winning free throws to upset UNLV and bring Duke its first NCAA title. As a senior, his turn-around jumper at the buzzer against Kentucky gave Duke a victory in the East Regional title game that was picked by ESPN as the greatest college game ever played.

His regular-season play wasn't bad either, as evidenced by his ranking as the No. 5 scorer in ACC history. His 55.7 percent 3-point percentage in 1992 is an ACC record that no other player has approached.

* Len Chappell, No. 3 -- Quite simply, a forgotten superstar. But Chappell's three-year reign at Wake Forest produced a better ACC record (42-8) than the three best years of Tim Duncan (41-12) or Ralph Sampson (42-11).

He also led the Deacons to two league titles, winning the ACC Tournament MVP award twice, and to the 1962 Final Four -- Wake Forest's only Final Four appearance.

Statistically, neither Duncan nor Sampson can compare. Chappell averaged 24.9 points and 13.9 rebounds, including 26.6 points and 14 rebounds as a junior and 30.1 points and 15.2 rebounds as a senior.

Chappell never was the national player of the year, as Duncan probably will be this season and Sampson was three times. But when you look at individual achievement and team success, there's no escaping the conclusion that Chappell, not Sampson or Duncan, was the greatest center in ACC history.

* Larry Miller, No. 5; Charlie Scott, No. 7; Phil Ford, No. 8 -- Was Miller the best North Carolina player in the ACC era?

Our panel had a hard time picking the greatest Tar Heel. No ACC team has had as much success as UNC, but Dean Smith's Tar Heels have tended to be team oriented, not superstar dominated.

Miller, Scott and Ford all drew strong support. Was it coincidence that the voting put them in chronological order?

Miller, a powerful, sweet-shooting wing player, certainly deserves credit for helping launch the Dean Smith dynasty at UNC. The Tar Heel coach always cites Miller as the first player he recruited that Duke coach Vic Bubas wanted.

That recruiting victory paid off in 1967, when Miller led UNC to three head-to-head victories over Duke to give Smith his first ACC title. Miller earned ACC player of the year honors and was voted tournament MVP after hitting 13 of 14 field goals in a 32-point effort against Duke.

Miller repeated as player of the year and ACC Tournament MVP in 1968, adding the McKevlin Award as the league's top athlete. He finished his career with an average of 21.8 points a game and 9.2 rebounds -- the latter figure pretty good for a 6-4 player.

Scott shared the spotlight with Miller in 1968, then became the Tar Heels' big gun in 1969. He averaged 22.3 and 27.1 points in his last two seasons. Like Miller, he destroyed Duke in ACC Tournament finals, earning MVP honors in 1969 with a 40-point performance (with the 3-point shot, it might have been 50). A week later, he hit a last-second bomb from beyond the top of the key to beat Davidson in the East Regional finals and send UNC to its third straight Final Four.

Scott was the ACC's first great black athlete, and he had to break barriers that cleared the way for so many of the great ACC players who followed. He never was voted ACC player of the year -- a circumstance some observers have long believed smelled of racism. But two months after his career ended in 1970, the same group of voters who picked South Carolina's John Roche as player of the year, voted Scott as the ACC athlete of the year.

Ford was, quite simply, the greatest point guard in ACC history.

Smith's teams first used the Four Corners delay when Larry Brown was the point guard in the early 1960s. But with Ford in the middle, the Four Corners became a nearly invincible weapon.

Ford first unleashed his skills during the 1975 ACC Tournament, when he became the first freshman to win tournament MVP honors. He quarterbacked the '76 U.S. Olympic team to the gold medal and finished his career in 1978 as the ACC and national player of the year.

Injuries spoiled his postseason record, but he did lead a crippled UNC team to the 1977 NCAA title game, when, for once, the Four Corners didn't work -- but only because another player missed a layup that Ford set up.

So how do you rank Carolina's best? We went Miller-Scott-Ford, but I don't think anyone would complain too loudly if the order was reversed.

* Ralph Sampson, No. 6 -- Easily the most controversial player on our list.

Many listed the Virginia big man as the No. 2 player in ACC history. Some didn't have him in their top 20. That's ridiculous for the ACC's only three-time national player of the year, but it's the kind of emotion Sampson generated in his career.

Nothing about Sampson ever was simple. His teams won big -- in the regular season. But he never won an ACC Tournament and two of his best Virginia teams were eliminated by other ACC teams.

Apologists claimed that he was surrounded by mediocre talent, but the year after he failed to take Virginia to the '83 Final Four, the players he left behind made it to the '84 Final Four.

Perhaps Sampson's career was symbolized by a trip the Cavs took early in his senior season. Virginia went to Japan, and with Sampson sidelined with a minor injury, the Cavs beat Houston (the same Phi Slama Jama team that would lose to N.C. State in the title game) and Top-20 Utah.

On the way home, Virginia stopped in Hawaii for a game. With Sampson back in the lineup, the Cavs lost to Chaminade in one of the most celebrated upsets in NCAA history.

Where does Ralph Sampson rate? He was the focal point of each of his 132 games. Because of his stature, he was blamed for every Virginia failure -- whether or not it was his fault.

Picking Sampson No. 6 was a compromise. We never really agreed on his rankings -- just as we never reached agreement on so many players who barely made our list or barely missed it.

There isn't a clear-cut top 50 ACC players. We did the best we could after research and soul-searching (and not a little politicking).

In the end, the only choice we'd all agree was right is the guy at the top of the list.

THE HERALD-SUN'S TOP 50 IN THE ACC

1. David Thompson/ N.C. State
2. Christian Laettner/ Duke
3. Len Chappell/ Wake Forest
4. Tim Duncan/ Wake Forest
5. Larry Miller/ UNC
6. Ralph Sampson/ Virginia
7. Charlie Scott/ UNC
8. Phil Ford/ UNC
9. Grant Hill/ Duke
10. Danny Ferry/ Duke
11. Michael Jordan/ UNC
12. Len Rosenbluth/ UNC
13. Art Heyman/ Duke
14. James Worthy/ UNC
15. Tommy Burleson/ N.C. State
16. Dickie Hemric/ Wake Forest
17. John Roche/ S.Carolina
18. Bobby Hurley/ Duke
19. Len Bias/ Maryland
20. Billy Cunningham/ UNC
21. John Lucas/ Maryland
22. Ron Shavlik/ N.C. State
23. Charlie Davis/ Wake Forest
24. Johnny Dawkins/ Duke
25. Mark Price/ Ga. Tech
26. Mike Gminski/ Duke
27. Sam Perkins/ UNC
28. Jeff Mullins/ Duke
29. Randolph Childress/ Wake Forest
30. Sidney Lowe/ N.C. State
31. Barry Parkhill/ Virginia
32. Bob Verga/ Duke
33. Rodney Rogers/ Wake Forest
34. Bryant Stith/ Virginia
35. Bobby Jones/ UNC
36. Dale Davis/Clemson
37. Joe Smith/Maryland
38. Jerry Stackhouse/UNC
39. Kenny Anderson/Ga. Tech
40. Bob Lewis/UNC
41. Jeff Lamp/Virginia
42. Kenny Smith/UNC
43. Rodney Monroe/N.C. State
44. Tom McMillen/Maryland
45. Tree Rollins/Clemson
46. Lou Pucillo/N.C. State
47. Monte Towe/N.C. State
48. Gene Banks/Duke
49. Dennis Scott/Ga. Tech
50. Muggsy Bogues/Wake Forest