Making the Case: Did Corbin Creeper win the All-Time UK Basketball Draft?
Cats Illustrated member Corbin Creeper makes the case for his team as the winner of the CI All-Time UK Basketball Draft below.
Corbin Creeper's case...
"Good day, friends. It is a difficult and trying time for all of us, so I would like to take an extra moment to thank Jeff Drummond and the staff of House of B...wait, that's not right. I would like to thank the Cats Illustrated staff for coming up with the idea of a fantasy UK basketball draft. I would also like to thank Drummond personally for giving me the overall #1 selection. He will deny this, but the extra BTC in his Kraken account will keep him financially secure for many moons.
First, some general draft observations:
- The recency bias was even more pronounced than I would've thought. Guys like WCS and De'Aaron Fox and Nerlens Noel going before the likes of Ralph Beard and Alex Groza just blows my mind. I know that it's tough to compare skills and stats between generations, but I think that overall the "better equipment, better conditioning, better training" line of thought in regards to more recent players is WAY, WAY overvalued.
- Even as we were debating the "ground rules" during the thread, I thought future NBA performance (other than the player's NBA Draft spot) should've had NO bearing on selection. It seemed obvious we were discussing performance and results only as it related to a player's time at Kentucky.
- Mobilecat2 did a BEYOND phenomenal job keeping track of things and prompting some of our slower GMs to get their heads out of their rectums. That said, brownie points only count for Central Florida football fans. Don't make me quote Sean Connery's winners/losers line from "The Rock."
Second, I will discuss the Corbin_Creeper Cats All-Titan Eternal Victory Fantasy Team:
PG - Kyle Macy
SG - Louie Dampier
SF - Tayshaun Prince
PF - Wah Wah Jones
C - Anthony Davis
Bench - Ed Davender, Winston Bennett, Johnny Cox
Anthony Davis (C - 1st Round)
Easily the greatest post player in the history of Kentucky basketball. Only one season, but he mopped up the awards with National Player of the Year, Final Four MOP, National Freshman OTY, All-American, SEC POY, SEC Defensive POY, etc. #1 overall NBA Draft pick. 567 points, 415 rebounds, and 186 blocked shots....in one season AND while sharing the court with the likes of Terrence Jones, MKG, Doron Lamb and Darius Miller. He had all the intangibles. Opposing defenses had to focus 80% of their time and effort on him and he still ran 'em over like fools. God loves me. I win.
Tayshaun Prince (SF - 2nd Round)
Two-time All-American, SEC POY, #23 overall NBA Draft pick. #8 all-time UK scoring, #19 all-time UK rebounds. God, those long arms. He was Basketball Slender Man. Without the murder. Or the tentacles. Maybe that's a bad analogy. But he was so long....so many timely blocked shots, so many lock-down defensive possessions, so many game winners. The guy was clutch and will be an eternal fan favorite. Pretty sure he and Anthony Davis could hold hands and stretch their off-arms around the Earth and be double hand-holding. That would be awesome.
Kyle Macy (PG - 3rd Round)
Three-time All-American, SEC POY, a national title. #6 in assists and #21 in points in UK history. #22 overall NBA Draft pick. How many PGs has UK had over the years that could also shoot lights-out? Yeah, he's a whiny old person now who does not hold any correct opinions about today's college basketball game or John Calipari (he's Rex Lite!), but who cares? He has a hot UK women's basketball player named after him. There are probably 20,000+ 35-year-old men in Kentucky named after him. Can you imagine if he DIDN'T lay that egg against Duke (Really? Duke?) in the 1980 Sweet 16? He would've been named Sole Donor in Perpetuity for all Kentucky sperm banks. Does Kentucky have more than one sperm bank? I honestly don't know how all that works.
Louie Dampier (SG - 4th Round)
Here's where my picking skills excel, especially against the collection of turkeys that pass for GMs around here. Sure, it APPEARS I was wishing eternal damnation upon Justwar and JSgorocks, but that was all part of the plan. How about two-time All-American Louie, fools? The greatest of "Rupp's Runts." #12 on the all-time UK points list and he only played in 80 games! That's 19.7ppg, chodes. Just pure scoring prowess. I really wish they had won that 1966 title game against Texas Western. Damn you, Josh Lucas.
Wallace Jones (PF - 5th Round)
Here I am making my fifth pick and still getting a 3-time All-American with over a thousand points and two national titles while others are drafting IQ, SGA, and PJ Washington. I could probably stop this writeup with that last sentence. Anyway, Jon Scott says Wallace Jones was "often regarded as the best all-around UK athlete of all time," and that guy knows everything. Jones was one of the Fabulous Five. Also, he was nicknamed "Wah Wah." WAH WAH. How about that, King James? Do girls go to basketball games just to swoon while gazing upon King James' referee-directed scowl? Hell no. Wah Wah Jones made girls squeal in the stands. Squeal! Look at this quote...."We had these long warmup jackets and pants. When we got ready to play, we were taking them off and the girls started squealing up in the stands." This pick was as easy as it gets.
Yeah, so that rounds out my starting 5. Two best all-time positional players, two potential post-apocalypse civilization-rebooting alpha males, and Louie Dampier's exceedingly distracting moustache (yes, it came later on in life. Whatever.)
Now let's talk about the bench. If you are still reading this, then Quarantine Life is hitting you harder than I would've thought.
Ed Davender (SG - 6th Round)
Ed "MobileCat2 Spells It Like Spero Dedes Calls It" Devender. The single most under-appreciated player in UK history. Two-time All-SEC. #60 in the third round of the NBA Draft. #8 all-time UK assist leader and #11 all-time UK points leader....while sharing the floor with Kenny Walker, Rex Chapman, and Winston Bennett. He played with more heart than Chuck Hayes and MKG combined. Ed Davender is the backcourt piece of my "Damage Dealing Duo" bench. Such a physical specimen and he was never afraid to weild that physicality.
Winston Bennett (F - 7th Round)
It's stuff like this that make me want to travel back in time 35 years and throat punch Eddie Sutton. He packed 20 years worth of talent-wasting ability into 4 years, making him a god-man in the eyes of future UT coach Jerry Green. Are there two coaches who have squandered more talent? Winston Bennett, Ed Davender, Rex Chapman, James Blackmon, and yes, even Rob Lock and we got to watch LSU, Ohio State, and Villanova make 'em look like window-lickers in the post-season. Winston Bennett finished #11 on the rebound list and #22 on the points list while playing with those dudes. He was far and away the best pick of the 7th round (although I did really like Jeff's pickup of Eric Bledsoe).
Johnny Cox (F - 8th Round)
Does someone on the opposing team need his [expletive] kicked? Because that's why Johnny is here. He will leave his footprint on your face on the way up for a rebound. All your rebounds are belong to Johnny Cox. #4 on the rebounds list, #19 on the scoring list. Are we seeing a pattern of excellence in my drafting? We are. Another two-time All-American and All-SEC player, and an All-Final Four Team to go along with his national title in 1958, he is probably the only one of Rupp's "Fiddlin' Five" any of my fellow GMs could name off the top of their diminutive heads. Bonus UK Legend Points: He was on the first UK team that would embarrass an opponent on a national stage (Seattle, led by Elgin Baylor, in the NCAA Title game) in UofL's new arena, Freedom Hall (a.k.a. Rupp Arena West). If Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeece Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaines had walked through that door in 1958, Johnny Cox would've severed his spine on his first box-out.
So there you have it. I will let the rest of you argue over who gets to lose to my #1 team in the fantasy title game. Instead of breaking down the other teams, though, I will just list my Fantasy Draft Final Four with a quick blurb:
#2 - panther voice (I love this team. The front court power is stunning. It also has a great pure shooter, a fantastic ball-handler, and an all-around clutch winner.)
#3 - CI Staff (Perhaps the most balanced team in the draft. Dick Vitale would've ranked this team #11 due to Keith Bogans' leprosy his sophomore year.)
#4 - Justwar (Awesome ball handling & shooting, lots of heart and guts, anchored by a true beast down low)
So there you have it! I can't tell you what a great time I had in such a great thread. Hopefully I'll be able to join everyone again for something like this the next time we have a potential civilization-ending pandemic. Nobody let Gov. Andy see this just in case the CI Staff forgot to get State Approval for such an undertaking."