Wow. In case you hadn't kept up, ACC Today has been running a list of the
greatest athletes, coaches, and teams in ACC history. Keep in mind this
ranks all athletes, so you'll have to save space for Arnold Palmer, Marion
Jones, and Choo Choo Justice, among others. But still. Laettner's
accomplishments rank him, one would think, higher than that. Basketball
wise, and this only counts the ACC, not NBA, the only player who had a bigger
career, we'd argue, is David Thompson, who only lost eight games in college, and
only one in his first two years, and of course ended the UCLA dynasty.
In terms of athleticism, there are a lot of people who would rank
higher. We assume, for instance, that Grant Hill would be higher than
Laettner in their list, and maybe that's fair. And maybe John Lucas, who
was, after all, as good a tennis player as he was a basketball player. But
unless we missed somewhere, it also ranks him behind Ralph Sampson, who as three time national Player Of The Year will surely be rated. Given their
careers, who would you rather have on your side?
It'll also be interesting to see where they rank people like Stephon Marbury,
who was brilliant, albeit briefly, and obviously Mia Hamm has to be ranked
highly. Equally interesting is when they get down to the coaches.Â
The Dean-K question lingers, but there may be an upset there, as Anson Dorrance
is hard to discount, and Frank McGuire did it at two schools. And Vic
Bubas was a revolutionary, and overlooking Case would be a crime...it's a fun
project, but it's impossible to please everyone. But still...Four Final Fours...three championship games...one of the great upsets in college history...the most dramatic moment possibly in tournament history...14th?