Best Basketball Player from State of CT (played HS in state)

[Husky Dad]

Was pondering this earlier today. Then I thought who would know such answers. It could only be found in the boneyard. Andre Drummond? Michael Adams, Marcus Camby? I hope no one mentions Ryan Gomes.

 

[CallMeBruce]

This should help:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/high_schools.cgi?country=US&state=CT

 

[hardcorehusky]

Calvin Murphy was always regarded as the best player from his era. 13 years in the league is a long time.

 

[Ewekon]

Was pondering this earlier today. Then I thought who would know such answers. It could only be found in the boneyard. Andre Drummond? Michael Adams, Marcus Camby? I hope no one mentions Ryan Gomes.

As a player while in high school my vote would be Walter Luckett. Not even an NBA cup of coffee though. Maybe the SI Cover jinx got him.

 

[Waquoit]

Calvin Murphy was always regarded as the best player from his era. 13 years in the league is a long time.

That's what I was going to say. Best baton twirler too.

 

[Uconnrick]

Super John at 45! I don't think so.

 

[8893]

Super John at 45! I don't think so.

The list is in alphabetical order.

 

[Catsailor]

Calvin Murphy=best player from CT!

 

[uconngb]

I understand that the criteria seems to be NBA success, but Earl Kelley for my money was the best player the state ever produced. He AVERAGED close to 50 points his senior year in high school, in the most competitive league the state had.

 

[RichZ]

What are we looking at here? The ones who were best in HS? (Calvin Murphy, Earl Kelly, corny, Walt Luckett, Mike Gminski, John Garris, John Williamson, Sly Williams, AD, heck EJ Harrison was no slouch in HS. Which reminds me, whatever happened to Anthony Harris from Danbury who ended up going to Hawaii and disappearing from the face of the earth? In HS, that kid could score from anywhere on the floor. )

The ones who were best in College? (Murphy was fantastic, but he went to Niagara, so does that even count*? -- Gminski** dominated the center for Duke. I know it was before Duke was Duke, but it was still the ACC when the ACC mattered, and he graduated as the Duke career leader in points, boards and blocks -- Bagley was the BE POY as a Soph. )

The best pro? Gotta be close between Vin Baker and Calvin Murphy.

Only one name appears on all three of those lists, so overall, I guess it's Murphy.

*Frank Leyden and Hubie Brown are both Niagara grads as well, so maybe their basketball pedigree is higher than I imagine.

** I used to play rec league against Gminski's father. He desperately wanted the kid to play baseball.

 

[Northbound]

Calvin Murphy - seriously the list has to start and stop with that guy.

 

[superjohn]

Super John is #1. Next I would go with Calvin Murphy, Camby, Michael Adams, Charles Smith, Drummond, Baker, Mahorn, Bagley and Kris Dunn.

 

[DOZE860]

my vote is Tyson Wheeler.. watched him single handedly take down my high school alma mater on multiple occasions.. went on to have a decent career at URI, and made it to the league, although it wasn't a long career..
and i am a bit bias since i live in NL

 

[Catsailor]

I played with and against my friend Murph. He was awesome!
He was HS high scorer (ppg) in New England.
Scored 63 HS all star game with players from all over US.
He averaged 33 ppg in college career, second to Rick Mount. (Averaged 38ppg his first varsity season).
Played 13yrs in NBA averaging 17.9 for his career, all star, FT record. And I watched him drop over 40 pts on the "show time" Magic-led Lakers knocking them out of the playoffs in the mid '80s

He was 5'9" 165lbs featured in SI Issue in article Tuffest Guys In NBA
3-PT basket did not exist

He was da bomb

 

[superjohn]

I played with and against my friend Murph. He was awesome!
He was HS high scorer (ppg) in New England.
Scored 63 HS all star game with players from all over US.
He averaged 33 ppg in college career, second to Rick Mount. (Averaged 38ppg his first varsity season).
Played 13yrs in NBA averaging 17.9 for his career, all star, FT record. And I watched him drop over 40 pts on the "show time" Magic-led Lakers knocking them out of the playoffs in the mid '80s

He was 5'9" 165lbs featured in SI Issue in article Tuffest Guys In NBA
3-PT basket did not exist

He was da bomb

He also was nicknamed "pocket rocket" and is the greatest all-time athlete at getting women pregnant, 14 children from 9 different women. The man has lived a full life.

 

[Catsailor]

You just made up the pocket rocket thingy
Yet a mere drop in the ocean compared to Wilt the Stilt who evidently had some pretty deep pockets himself.

Those were some pretty fast and loose times......pre-epidemic.

 

[Kitaman]

Scotty Burrell shout out!

Not the best at basketball (perhaps athlete though), but I had to say his name for conversational purposes .. . . . . . . . . . .

 

[UCweCONN]

What are we looking at here? The ones who were best in HS? (Calvin Murphy, Earl Kelly, corny, Walt Luckett, Mike Gminski, John Garris, John Williamson, Sly Williams, AD, heck EJ Harrison was no slouch in HS. Which reminds me, whatever happened to Anthony Harris from Danbury who ended up going to Hawaii and disappearing from the face of the earth? In HS, that kid could score from anywhere on the floor. )

The ones who were best in College? (Murphy was fantastic, but he went to Niagara, so does that even count*? -- Gminski** dominated the center for Duke. I know it was before Duke was Duke, but it was still the ACC when the ACC mattered, and he graduated as the Duke career leader in points, boards and blocks -- Bagley was the BE POY as a Soph. )

The best pro? Gotta be close between Vin Baker and Calvin Murphy.

Only one name appears on all three of those lists, so overall, I guess it's Murphy.

*Frank Leyden and Hubie Brown are both Niagara grads as well, so maybe their basketball pedigree is higher than I imagine.

** I used to play rec league against Gminski's father. He desperately wanted the kid to play baseball.

Anthony Harris was the best high school player I ever saw. I think he scored 2,800 points or thereabouts. I was at a game that Rick Pitino was there to recruit him to Kentucky. I'm not sure if he ever considered UCONN or UCONN went hard after him but I always felt JC would've gotten the most out of him. He made a bad decision to go to Syracuse, got out if shape, got in trouble with some other teammates including a bar fight, went to Juco then Hawaii. I will always say it was the greatest waste of talent I've seen. The kid could handle the rock, was deadly from three and beat anyone to to rim (great hops too). My school also played against Hartford Public in the state semis a couple years later. He put on the best single exhibition in warm-ups I've ever seen. He literally made every shot including all his threes. It was a shame that he went to UMASS and got pigeonholed as an inside shot blocker and rebounder and his true game could never be displayed. He could've been so much more than he became.

 

[Stinger92860]

If the required metrics are high school only then I vote for Walter Luckett.

 

[superjohn]

Anthony Harris was the best high school player I ever saw. I think he scored 2,800 points or thereabouts. I was at a game that Rick Pitino was there to recruit him to Kentucky. I'm not sure if he ever considered UCONN or UCONN went hard after him but I always felt JC would've gotten the most out of him. He made a bad decision to go to Syracuse, got out if shape, got in trouble with some other teammates including a bar fight, went to Juco then Hawaii. I will always say it was the greatest waste of talent I've seen. The kid could handle the rock, was deadly from three and beat anyone to to rim (great hops too). My school also played against Hartford Public in the state semis a couple years later. He put on the best single exhibition in warm-ups I've ever seen. He literally made every shot including all his threes. It was a shame that he went to UMASS and got pigeonholed as an inside shot blocker and rebounder and his true game could never be displayed. He could've been so much more than he became.

I'm guessing you're talking about Camby in your last few sentences. Not sure why you are blaming UMass, Camby was the best player in college basketball. His role in the NBA was shot blocking and defense and he was one of the best in the league at it for a long time. Another great Hartford Public UMass player was Mike Williams, kid had so much swag and always hit the big shots but off the court he was a little wild.

 

[filthy beast]

Calvin Murphy. No one else is even close. Yet.

 

[UCweCONN]

I'm guessing you're talking about Camby in your last few sentences. Not sure why you are blaming UMass, Camby was the best player in college basketball. His role in the NBA was shot blocking and defense and he was one of the best in the league at it for a long time. Another great Hartford Public UMass player was Mike Williams, kid had so much swag and always hit the big shots but off the court he was a little wild.

Sorry, yes, Camby. Typing on my Android leaves something to be desires and too late to edit my post.

 

[UCweCONN]

I'm blaming UMASS because they made him into a defense first player. He could've been a Garnett-type player. We never saw his full game.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

.Just want to throw out there names of some other great players that haven't been mentioned yet. I agree with a lot of others on this board that Calvin Murphy was the best ever from CT.

• "Rocket" Rod Foster - fastest guard in college. Went to UCLA.
• Sly Williams - bit of a head case but great player
• Corny Thompson. Coming out of HS he was a top 5 player in the country. UNC wanted him but went to UConn. Without him UConn doesn't get into the Big East, JC doesn't come to coach, and we'd be playing Maine and Vermont.
• "Soup" Campbell. - in HS he was Batman to Super John Williamson's Robin. Hillhouse was the top ranked HS in the entire country when they were seniors together.
• Wes Matthews. Starred at Wisconsin, and his kid ended up being a star at Marquette.

 

[superjohn]

I'm blaming UMASS because they made him into a defense first player. He could've been a Garnett-type player. We never saw his full game.

I kind of agree with you but it just shows how talented he was that he still was the best player in all of college hoops.