Favorite 5 TU basketball players

[TU_BLA]

Just realizing how hard it is to come up with 5 even just between 1992 and 2003. I put Eric Coley, Michael Ruffin, Shea Seals, Gary Collier, and Kevin Johnson

(mind you, favorite 5, not best 5). This leaves players like Harrington, Cordell Love, Dante Swanson, Marcus Hill, Shelton,etc. off the list

(BTW, someone asked on Twitter which prompted this)

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

Eric Coley (duh), Paul Pressey, Rickey Ross, Dante Swanson, Shea Seals. Honorable mention goes to Jason Ludwig for having to endure JD Barnett.

 

[TU_BLA]

Eric Coley (duh), Paul Pressey, Rickey Ross, Dante Swanson, Shea Seals. Honorable mention goes to Jason Ludwig for having to endure JD Barnett.

I stuck to players I personally saw in a TU uniform. I remember Paul Pressey, but only as a Milwaukee Buck

 

[astonmartin708]

Coley, Harrison, Seals, Harris, Harrington

If I stick to ones I've seen...

Harrison, Woodard, Uzoh, Hurtt, Jordan. (Honorable mentions to Idlet and the Rashad Ray / Smith)

 

[nevadanatural]

I’m going to go with LEC’s list although it’s tough to leave Harrison and Steve Harris off.

 

[astonmartin708]

Surprised no one's mentioned a former top scorer and future NBA player...Jordan Clarkson! HAHAHA

 

[I.I.]

Favorites: My dozen all time favorites!

Pooh, Rod Thompson, Shea Seals, Shawn Williams, Marcus Hill, Zac Bennett, John Cornwell, Dante Swanson, Jeff and Jay Malham, Jodie Huffman ,and Eric Coley,

 

[Bill Lowery]

Paul Pressey, Shea Seals, Bingo Smith, Willie Biles and Eric Coley.

HM to Jordan Clarkson, Yusuf Baker, Oswaldo Gonzales, Adrian Hernandez and Doug Wojcik—and don’t tell me Mr. Beach Boy wasn’t a playa.

 

[4tu2]

Rondie Turner! Don't think we ever lost a game he played in.

 

[el duran]

Seals, Coley, Swanson, KJ and Pooh. Honorable mention to Jarius Glenn for having the 2nd half of his time here wasted and also Shaq and Juice for bringing us back to quasi relevance.

 

[ba11game]

Paul Pressey, Vince Williams, Charlie Davis, Eric Coley, Greg Harrington.

 

[Original TULSAFAN]

Coley may have been the best.
Harrington is my all time favorite.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

K Johnson, S Harris, E Coley, D Swanson, P Pressey, & 6th man M Ruffin

 

[Tulsafanzz]

It is very hard to pick only 5 favorite TU basketball players. There are so many favorites over all the years.

My list would be : Willie Biles, Paul Pressey, Pooh Williamson, Dante Swanson & Shea Seals.

Eric Coley, Kevin Johnson, Steve Bracey, Vince Williams & Steve Harris would be my next 5.

 

[TU1NNJ]

Team 1: Harrington, Harris, Biles, Pressy and David Brown
Team A: Pooh, Ross, Bingo Smith, Coley and Kurtz
HM: Heard, Spradling, Seals, Hill, Ruffin, King, Bracey, K. Johnson, Grasshopper Smith, Woodard, Harrison, D. Lewis, Stewart, Rahilly, Collier, Swanson, Moss and Parker

 

[Larry Lewis]

I'll go with Ty Nilsson, Rondie Turner, David Otto, Chuck North, and Herb Suggs.

Honorable mention to Paul Pressey, Steve Harris, Shea Seals, Gary Collier and Greg Stewart.

Special mention to Melvin Conway, Kevin Ritter, James B-Bop West, Rod Parker, and John Buckwalter.

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

Great thread!

 

[Gmoney4WW]

Ooh, ooh, I forgot one of my faves, especially considering his longevity. Ain't seen nobody mention Herb Johnson. Now I gotta take somebody off, dammit.

Just popped into ma head as I was waking up way too early on a Saturday morning. Has he had his 5 yr retirement anniversary yet?

 

[astonmartin708]

Kurtz is a good one. Forgot about him.

 

[nevadanatural]

Ooh, ooh, I forgot one of my faves, especially considering his longevity. Ain't seen nobody mention Herb Johnson. Now I gotta take somebody off, dammit.

Just popped into ma head as I was waking up way too early on a Saturday morning. Has he had his 5 yr retirement anniversary yet?

I had forgotten about Herb also, he would be top 10 for me. The main reason I like him is he was a prime cog in the thumpin’ that made Billy Tubbs say he would never bring a team back to Tulsa.

 

[TU Sepp]

Jim "Country" King, Bobby "Bingo" Smith, Paul "Rubberband Man" Pressey, Steve "Silk" Harris, Greg Harrington... Honorable Mention: Shea Seals, Steve Bracey, Ricky Ross, Eldridge Webb, Kevin Johnson and Brandon Kurtz...

 

[seniorgolfer]

Coley may have been the best. Harrington is my all time favorite.

Good choices....From just the shear joy of watching them play, I have to
go back in menory lane a ways....Eldridge Webb, Steve Bracey, and Paul
Pressey.....Harrington was/is right up there.....

 

[TU 1978]

Pooh, Eldridge Webb, Paul Pressey, Eric Coley, Kevin Johnson

 

[old.guy]

These are supposed to be favorite players, not necessarily the best.

Eldridge Webb: He was a ball-handling wizard, the like of which we haven't seen before or since.
Paul Pressey: He was on defense what Webb was on offense.
David Brown: His fire and emotion were contagious.
Herb Johnson: Played with attitude. I'll never forget him trash talking Waymon Tisdale during that great Hurricane victory.
Ben Uzoh: A quiet warrior.

I also loved Steve Bracey, Bingo Smith, Steve Harris, Kevin Johnson Pooh, and many others.

 

[Mgotutu]

Pressey. Coley. KJ. Harrington. Harris

 

[t-townpod]

wow hard to stick to 5!

Eldridge Webb- sorry for all that never got to see him play
Willie Biles- remember the ORU game
Paul Pressy- the best player ever to wear blue & gold
Bingo Smith - greatest name and can you imagine him with a 3 point line
Kevin Johnson vs David Brown- just can’t decide

Oops. Have to include Ruffin. One of the smartest and nicest guys to play

 

[TU-Ken]

Pressey, Coley, Harrington, Swanson, KJ/Ruffin. And many more! Most exciting team was Richardson’s first year team.

 

[cmullinsTU]

Ruffin is my all time favorite. I don’t have a favorite 5 though.

 

[seniorgolfer]

These are supposed to be favorite players, not necessarily the best.

Eldridge Webb: He was a ball-handling wizard, the like of which we haven't seen
before or since.
Paul Pressey: He was on defense what Webb was on offense.
David Brown: His fire and emotion were contagious.
Herb Johnson: Played with attitude. I'll never forget him trash talking Waymon
Tisdale during that great Hurricane victory.
Ben Uzoh: A quiet warrior.

I also loved Steve Bracey, Bingo Smith, Steve Harris, Kevin Johnson Pooh,
and many others.

Great picks and well stated.....Several have selected him, but K.J. was so
incredibily smooth in all of the things he did, we sometimes forget him being
probably 'the star' (if you had to pick one) on that Harrington, Swanson, Davis
team.....It was like watching sports ballet......

 

[alchemy]

Two things about Pressey impress. First, he is on almost everyone's list, and secondly he was the 5th leading scorer on his first year at Tulsa team. Great all around game. I'm going with players I saw in person.

Steve Bracey
Willie Biles
Paul Pressey
Dana Lewis
Steve Harris

Lace them up and let's go!

 

[TU_BLA]

Rondie Turner! Don't think we ever lost a game he played in.

Ronde is a great guy. We go to church with him and his wife. He always has the biggest smile on his face and he is always good to buy a bunch of popcorn or cookies that my kids are selling for various fundraisers

 

[TU_BLA]

Great picks and well stated.....Several have selected him, but K.J. was so
incredibily smooth in all of the things he did, we sometimes forget him being
probably 'the star' (if you had to pick one) on that Harrington, Swanson, Davis
team.....It was like watching sports ballet......

KJ just played the game the way it is supposed to be played. Hard, with great effort, and a great teammate. If he was 2 inches taller, he would have had a long NBA career. I still remember the block against Minnesota where he palmed the ball out of mid-air...it is still one of the all-time greatest highlight (IMO) in TU basketball history.

 

[quincy101]

I like Bla's first five at top of this thread but would add Pooh W. Gary Collier would amble down the court after an inbounds, stop at the top of key, get the ball & bam! automatic 3! No opponent seemed to figure that out, including UCLA.

 

[TUBballJunkie]

Whoa, II has John Cornwell on a list too?

Mine are Swanson, David Shelton, Shaq Harrison, Shea and Cornwell. Honorable mentions probably Swannegan and Harralson.

 

[I.I.]

Yes a lot of difference between favorites and best players. My favorites are all local players who played for TU and supported the community. Just happened that a few were also among the very best.

 

[Larry Lewis]

With Collier, the 4 man would catch the ball at the top of the key on a secondary break. A 4 man would usually not be a three point shooter back then.

Tubby's teams his first 3 years at Tulsa played a very fast tempo. Think about a 112-102 score against UCLA in the NCAA tourney. Unheard of today.

 

[TUcandoit]

Favorite player by far was Jarius Glenn. Then there was something about the Tulsa team hitting the Ncaa tournament with it's two guards rocking a fro!!! Dante Swanson and Reed! Then from there I would add Ben Uzoh and just because I worked with him, I would also add Rod Earls.

 

[quincy101]

Not mentioned yet but a guy who will always be remembered for one shot in one huge game that cooked OSU's goose in the 2nd round in '94: thas rite - Sweet Lou Dawkins corner 3.

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

Sweet Lou Dawkins got a mention last week in Sports Illustrated. Of course the story was about his son's arrest, so it wasn't the greatest mention in the world.

 

[Mgotutu]

Old School.......Leon Avoid