As the Top 50 Players in UK History Fan Poll soldiers on, there’s still a bit of debate over the placement of some of the players, namely some being too high (or not worthy of inclusion) while others are too low.
Positions 21-30 were no different by comparison. They were marked by a common theme thus far in the balloting: recent players showing up over past Kentucky legends.
To refresh your memory, here were positions 21-30 in the fan balloting.
21. Darius Miller
22. Pat Riley
23. Jodie Meeks
24. Cotton Nash
25. Brandon Knight
26. Doron Lamb
27. Louie Dampier
28. Ralph Beard
29. Cliff Hagan
30. Rick Robey
As you can see, there were a lot of Kentucky legends on this portion of the list. With the way the votes have skewed so far, we’re lucky they’re even on the list. Right off the bat, you can see three names that stick out at you, those being Miller, Knight and Lamb.
Miller, I can be a lot more lenient on. After all, he’s the last of a dying breed at Kentucky: The four-year senior contributor. In this age of One-and-done players, finding a player who’s not only exceptionally good, but willing to stay in school for the length of his eligibility? Why, we may never see that again under John Calipari’s tenure! Position 21 may be a little bit on the high side, but hey, we’ll let that one go. It’s only fair.
Knight and Lamb over Dampier, Beard, Hagan and Robey isn’t as easy to dismiss, however. As I mentioned on the Big Blue Breakdown on Friday, a lot of us have never gotten to see some of these guys play. I’ve been watching UK basketball for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing tapes or videos of these legends. For whatever reason, a lot of that footage isn’t available commercially, so all we have to go by are statistics, newspaper clippings and word of mouth. So in a way, it’s easy to give guys like Bandon or Doron a nod over these guys. After all, we’ve seen just about every game these guys have played. We’ve seen their shots, their drives, their defense, we know them!
That’s not to say we shouldn’t at least try to educate ourselves on the past. There’s a saying, “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.” We may be fond of our more recent players (Lord knows I love ‘em too), but knowing more about our history, about the giants of the game who came before us, is paramount.
