Favorite MU player

[wyoMUfan]

Steve Novak 4 Life.

[MUMac]

I saw Smith at the Kohl Center for the UW/MU game this past December.  As opposed to the guy in the nice suit for the FSN Buck's broadcasts, he had baggy jeans, an oversized Marquette hoodie, and a Marquette hat on his head.  I don't think he was with anyone...just walked in and sat in his seat in the front row and cheered on the Warriors all game with UW fans all around him.  I honestly have no idea if people even knew who he was.  Pretty cool.

I knew who he was.     As did the camera guy on the baseline.  He called him over at halftime.

As for my favorite player, it would have to be Alfred Lee.  I always had a warm spot for lucky Lloyd and Dean the Dream, but Alfred was by far my most favorite.

[StillWarriors]

What a great thread topic. Nice to read a bunch of positive commentary about MU hoops, and thinking about my favorites brought back some good memories. Hard to break it down to just one. Among the favorites:

Tony Smith was awesome.  Absolutely carried the team to the NIT his senior year. Always a very nice guy too; a great represenative for MU in the days when NBA talent at MU was unusual and our profile couldn't have been much lower. Kevin O'Neil told me when MU was struggling the year after Smith left that no one had any idea how much Smith did for that team the year before: guard the best player, break the press, rebound, handle the ball, score....Pretty much did it all.

Hard to separate the 3 amigos. Loved the fighting spirit and leadership those guys brought. Such a shame the way it went down their senior year with DJ breaking his foot. Some of DJ's comments after he got hurt are among my all time favorite MU memories.

Wade, Novak, Lazar and JFB are also personal favorites for elevating MU to the big time, and sustaining the program as one known for toughness, hustle and character.  

[Tulsa Warrior]

Different eras:

Hickey Era -- Don Kojis

Al MCGuire Era -- Dean Meminger, Gary Brell...just a character

Hank Raymonds Era -- Doc Rivers...classic talent and person

Majerus Era -- Benny Moore...underrated talent.....Walter Downing...David Boone

Dukiet Era -- Trevor Powell and Tony Smith (Marquette's dark ages)

O'Neill....Damon Keys...blue collar all the way, Big Mac

Deane Era -- Tony Miller and Brian Wardle

Crean -- Wade, Diener and Novak

Williams Era -- Butler, Gardner, DJO, Jae Crowder

[Goose]

Tulsa---Love the Sir Walter, Benny and Boone picks. Loved them all and Dwayne Johnson.

[jefffla01]

I think my all time MU favorite player was George Thompson.

He was Als first big get at MU from New York----with his arrival you sensed that MU, as Al would say, would be going uptown.

Thompson was fun to watch---glided with ease---fierce competitor and rebounder for a guy only 6-4.


One of my other favorites was Brian Brunkhorst----another guy without the best athletic ability who got the most out of his talent.

One last favorite is Butch Lee-----just a lot of fun to watch play------I thought he might have a better pro career than he wound up having.

[Aughnanure]

This needs a poll. Is this everyone?

Doc Rivers, Brian Wardle, Dean Meminger, Bo Ellis, Maurice Lucas, Steve Novak, Travis Diener, Dwyane Wade, Tony Smith, Jim Mcilvaine, Jimmy Butler, Lazar Hayward, Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, Todd Townsend, Robert Jackson, Artie Green, Sam Worthern, Butch Lee, Wesley Matthews, George Thompson, Aaron Hutchins, Dwight Buycks, Damon key, Bernard Toone, Artie Green, Tony Miller, Cordell Henry, Alfred Lee, Ousmane Barro, Faisal Abraham, Ron Curry, Jim Chones, Bob Lackey, Larry McNeil, Earl Tatum, Jerome Whitehead, Bernard Toone

[MUMac]

This needs a poll. Is this everyone?

Doc Rivers, Brian Wardle, Dean Meminger, Bo Ellis, Maurice Lucas, Steve Novak, Travis Diener, Dwyane Wade, Tony Smith, Jim Mcilvaine, Jimmy Butler, Lazar Hayward, Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, Todd Townsend, Robert Jackson, Artie Green, Sam Worthern, Butch Lee, Wesley Matthews, George Thompson, Aaron Hutchins, Dwight Buycks, Damon key, Bernard Toone, Artie Green, Tony Miller, Cordell Henry, Alfred Lee, Ousmane Barro, Faisal Abraham, Ron Curry, Jim Chones, Bob Lackey, Larry McNeil, Earl Tatum, Jerome Whitehead, Bernard Toone

It's Alfred "Butch" Lee, Alfred Lee and Butch Lee are the same.  As a kid, I always remember when they would introduce him  on TV and call him Alfred "Butch" Lee, so I used the formal Alfred.  Sorry for the confusion I created.

[JWags85]

Diener

Prior to Travis it was Anthony Pieper.  Played with a seperated shoulder.  That kid was tough.

Pieper was my first favorite.  I remember gleefully reading box scores in the paper the season that he lead us in scoring pretty much every game.

Diener is probably my favorite of all time.  Loved his grit, his attitude, his cold-blooded shooting, just awesome to watch.  Met his family at the FF in NO when I was a senior in HS.  I was wearing his jersey and his mom joked with me about our resemblance.  We saw them a bunch more over the weekend and his sisters kept calling me Little Travis.  Really good people.

Wes Matthews was my favorite out of the 3 Amigos cause he flew under the radar initially.  I remember the only joy out of that horrible Alabama NCAA game was Wes getting to the lane at will.  Showing signs of what he would turn into.

And I think by the time he finished Jimmy Butler was one of everyone's favorite.  He was just such a positive force and when he started hitting game winners and clutch jumpers, just fantastic.  He had such fantastic body control.

[wadesworld]

This needs a poll. Is this everyone?

Doc Rivers, Brian Wardle, Dean Meminger, Bo Ellis, Maurice Lucas, Steve Novak, Travis Diener, Dwyane Wade, Tony Smith, Jim Mcilvaine, Jimmy Butler, Lazar Hayward, Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, Todd Townsend, Robert Jackson, Artie Green, Sam Worthern, Butch Lee, Wesley Matthews, George Thompson, Aaron Hutchins, Dwight Buycks, Damon key, Bernard Toone, Artie Green, Tony Miller, Cordell Henry, Alfred Lee, Ousmane Barro, Faisal Abraham, Ron Curry, Jim Chones, Bob Lackey, Larry McNeil, Earl Tatum, Jerome Whitehead, Bernard Toone

Junior, Doogie, Cadougan

[BrewCity83]

This needs a poll. Is this everyone?

Doc Rivers, Brian Wardle, Dean Meminger, Bo Ellis, Maurice Lucas, Steve Novak, Travis Diener, Dwyane Wade, Tony Smith, Jim Mcilvaine, Jimmy Butler, Lazar Hayward, Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, Todd Townsend, Robert Jackson, Artie Green, Sam Worthern, Butch Lee, Wesley Matthews, George Thompson, Aaron Hutchins, Dwight Buycks, Damon key, Bernard Toone, Artie Green, Tony Miller, Cordell Henry, Alfred Lee, Ousmane Barro, Faisal Abraham, Ron Curry, Jim Chones, Bob Lackey, Larry McNeil, Earl Tatum, Jerome Whitehead, Bernard Toone

You're leaving out Terry Reason.  And Lloyd Walton.

[Dr. Blackheart]

The Admiral, Robert Byrd

[Goose]

I'll second the Brian Brunkhorst mention. Was best single season free throw shooter for many years. Plus he owned my favorite bar.

[JD]

I was trying to modify the thread, i'm not showing an option to add a poll.  Is this possible?

[Lennys Tap]

Also - Terry Rand, Ron Glaser, Don Kojis, Bob Wolf, Allie McGuire, Gary Brell, Jim Boylan, Marcus Washington, Mandy Johnson, Chris Crawford, Anthony Pieper, Ron Curry, Rony Eford, Amal McCaskill and our very own Murf, aka John Glaser.

[MU82]

Echo earlier poster who said "great thread." Lots of fun, and reading the posts stirred up lots of memories!

I have lots of favorites, each for different reasons. I attended MU from 78-82 (hence my MU82 tag), started watching MU a few years before I arrived and have been a loyal fan since. So ...

MO LUCAS: A man among boys. His ability to intimidate shouldn't take away from the fact that he also was very skilled at the game. He helped make Marquette a team nobody wanted to mess with.

SAM WORTHEN: Arrived my freshman year and played with such panache. Just fun to watch, and pretty darn good, too.

STEVE NOVAK: It was reassuring to have one guy who we KNEW the shot was going in whenever he released the ball. (Of course, he didn't make them all; just seemed that way.)

TERRY REASON: We called him "Pharaoh." He was a trip to watch.

JIMMY BUTLER: Everybody loves a good underdog story, and Butler was a great underdog story. Through hard work and resilience, he came out of nowhere to turn himself into a first-round draft pick. Helped us win lots of games we maybe shouldn't have won, too.

TRAVIS DIENER: Pound for pound maybe the toughest $hit ever to hoop at MU. For all the credit Wade deserves for what he did at MU, nobody should forget that we don't get past Holy Cross and Mizzou without Diener coming through huge in the clutch.

DWYANE WADE: Of course. I saw him in high school put up 35 on Eddy Curry's much higher-ranked team. He had already committed to MU and I couldn't believe we were getting a player so talented. He ushered in the new era of Marquette basketball -- our best stretch of sustained excellence since Al retired.

And my all-timer ...

GLENN RIVERS.

He was a freshman when I was a junior and I was sitting at press row when he beat ND with that shot -- my all-time favorite Marquette moment. I still remember Michael Wilson celebrating by climbing up to the basket and sitting on the rim.

In addition, I was in two classes with him and he was just a great kid. He went on to be a classy ambassador for the game as an NBA player, announcer and coach. Almost always smiling. Very insightful when talking about the game.

I have had the opportunity to chat with him many, many times over the years and continue to find him easy to approach and likable even though he now is a multimillionaire. I was thrilled for him when he coached the Celtics to the title.

Truly one of the good guys in sports.

[frozena pizza]

Fun to read these.  A few of my favorites:

Pieper - Great player in a bad era.  I knew him a bit in school and always found to him to be a nice, down to earth guy.
Wade - Obviously.  Changed the program.
Novak - The game he had against UConn was one of my all-time favorite Warrior moments.  Showed that we belonged in the BE.
Jerel - The most consistent, most clutch of the 3 amigos.
Butler - Loved his story and he had so many clutch shots for us.

[Aughnanure]

It's Alfred "Butch" Lee, Alfred Lee and Butch Lee are the same.  As a kid, I always remember when they would introduce him  on TV and call him Alfred "Butch" Lee, so I used the formal Alfred.  Sorry for the confusion I created.

No my bad, i knew that - but was copying and pasting people who had been mentioned.

[wadesworld]

Also Scott Christopherson.

[Aughnanure]

Just added the poll. Fun conversation, hope it continues.

[jefffla01]

I think the conversation is more fun than the poll.

MU has had a great history-----a much better tradition than most people who do not live in the midwest realize. There have some great players to play at MU----a proud history indeed.

One player who doesnt get mention is Pat Smith----back in Al era---I think about 1970. He was fun to watch, played hard----good defensive player and rebounder but couldnt shoot.

The media was on him for his foul shooting and Al took him down to the lakefront and pointed to Lake Michigan and Pat had a basketball in his hand------the reporters were all over this and it made the front page of the Journal sports section with a caption something to the effect that Smith can throw it in the lake.

[Lennys Tap]

I think the conversation is more fun than the poll.

MU has had a great history-----a much better tradition than most people who do not live in the midwest realize. There have some great players to play at MU----a proud history indeed.

One player who doesnt get mention is Pat Smith----back in Al era---I think about 1970. He was fun to watch, played hard----good defensive player and rebounder but couldnt shoot.

The media was on him for his foul shooting and Al took him down to the lakefront and pointed to Lake Michigan and Pat had a basketball in his hand------the reporters were all over this and it made the front page of the Journal sports section with a caption something to the effect that Smith can throw it in the lake.

Hey Jeff - the story behind the photo shoot is a good one. Marquette was playing DePaul in Chicago and Pat Smith got in a fight with DePaul's center. I can't recall his name but IIRC he was the Demons best player. Both get kicked out, we win and Ray Meyer says in his postgame presser "We lose our best guy and they lose a guy who couldn't throw a basketball in the ocean if he was standing on the beach". Next day Al has Pat and a photographer on the beach at Lake Michigan taking pictures for SI. Classic Ray, classic Al - fun days.

[brandx]

I had forgotten all about Artie Green til I saw his name here - still think he was the greatest leaper ever at MU.

[mugrack]

Lloyd Moore

[Gato78]

This topic is so tough. I like dividing by era. My first favorite was George Thompson. I also really liked Bob Wolf when I was a kid. Then Dean Meminger was my favorite--and probably still is but there are so many others. Loved Earl Tatum. Butch. Rosenberger. DWade, Travis (tough SOB) Steve Novak (for many, many reasons), Dominic. Love Ousmane because of who he is. Having said that, I hate not to include Maurice, Maurice Herbert, Lloyd Walton etc. Tough topic.