Easy, you go on youtube and you start learning. I did with the BigE days.
Easy to see why Guy V. called the Big E the best player he ever coached. He AVERAGED 37 points and 19 rebounds his senior year. 
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Maybe, but started for two final four teams, drafted by the Celtics and started for the champion Celtics.
Chaney was a legit 6-5 and very quick and had those long arms that pick pocketed so many opponents for steals and easy layups.
That said, I am not going to argue that Shead was special also.
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Shead was the best ball stopper I have seen, period. He r have been blessed with some great ones with Sampson having GRob, Sasser and Corey Davis.
Would have loved to had seen Oliver Lafayette and Brian Latham with this staff.
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Going strictly by performance at UH, the Big E is easily #1. Birdsong is #2 and Olajuwon #3.
As others have mentioned, Birdsong was the real deal. He could flat out score and he did it efficiently. I was there in Hofheinz for the '78 NIT game when Birdsong and Larry Bird had the epic shootout in the UH win. Birdsong was also a great NBA player.
Rob Williams is the 2nd best guard in UH history. Phi Slama Jama came about because Rob committed to Houston. That’s why Drexler, Young and Micheaux committed. Rob was electric on offense. He had deep range and averaged 25 per game with no 3 point line. Rob was a first round pick but his NBA career got cut short due to drug problems.
Drexler and Olajuwon were both great at UH but the both improved a lot in the NBA.
Michael Young was also great during the Phi Slama Jamma years. After Rob went pro Young was the leading scorer on each of the two back to back finals teams. Young was also a first round pick but he was a bit of a tweener for the NBA.
When you’re comparing across generations, you have to keep in mind that teams back in the 60’s, 70’s and '80s were much deeper because you didn’t have all the studs leaving after 1 year.
I do realize that it’s hard to fully appreciate a player who you haven’t watched play.
BTW UH did name an all-time team in '22.
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Reid Gettys was an outstanding PG. He was not the equal of Rob Williams, Louis Dunban or Jamal Shead. To say so, indicates a level of obsfucation that hasn’t existed since Mike Tyson was considered a loser in a Match before he was 50.
This is a great, informed, epic post
CKS’s teams are just as deep… he’s literally known for keeping teams together during the portal era…
Agreed. However are you sure you would rather try to score on a long defender like Deeky rather than Shead?
Shead’s stay in front of you D is more impressive to watch.
Both guys were great defenders but I think you gotta go with the guy who earned DPOY for the whole country. Shead was at 2.2 stls per game and led the B12 in defensive win shares. Thats elite even among the elite.
If we’re talking basketball and not accolades, it’s Deeky. Deeky shut down elite offensive players. I legit went into every game with the scouting report saying we were taking out their best scorer.
People forget there were games we had to switch Shead out for Sasser because Shead was getting lit up. And after Sasser left, there were games where Shead was just scored on (Wade Taylor in that first game that year).
I get that Shead has more accolades—we were the #1 team and #1 defense with Shead as our best defender. But give DeJon older Francis and Tugler as backside help instead of Breaon and Reggie, and that’s a scary thought.
Random is that sasser doesnt get enough mentions in these convos. IMO him and shead were similar level defenders, even if you want to argue shead was better by his senior year, the gap was inconsequential
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So you are saying Shead was a great 3 point shooter? If you wanted a hot shooting guard on our best five then Rob Williams gets the call over Shead or Grimes…but IMO Birdsong was the essence of a great guard with his finesse and yes he played very good defense also.
But I wasn’t trying make the perfect blend when I wrote my five best players. I simply picked the five best in UH history…
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I mean Shead also had a higher DWS, DBPM, and a STL% so I wouldn’t say its just the accolades that he has in his favor.
DWS, DBPM are impacted by team… “DeJon with older Francis and Tugler as backside help instead of Breaon and Reggie” point
stl% is not a good basis for judging defense, just a good guide for who’s getting steals … steals often could mean bad defense as you are taking lots of risks trying to steal (ie harden back in the day) . ie milos is a very very good defender with a terrible stl%
Okay but was the team Shead was on that much better than the one Dejon was on relative to the level of competition they were playing? Also do you think Sheads high steal rate was the result of bad defense?
Again, just talking basketball . I went into every game during DeJon’s senior year with full confidence that we were taking out the opponent’s best player, even in the tournament. Buddy Boeheim came into our game as the hottest scorer in the nation. DeJon was injured, and I still didn’t think Buddy was going to score on us — and he didn’t.
I remember making tournament scouting reports here and regularly noting that teams had to have secondary scorers, because no team with a single scorer was going to beat us. they were being taken out
With Shead’s senior year, I said: if you’re not a great scorer, we’re shutting you down. And if you are a great scorer, you might get yours, but the rest of your team won’t score enough to win. A few great scorers did torch us, though.
Also, I wasn’t saying Shead’s steal rate meant bad defense, just that steal rate isn’t a good measure of defense overall. we were a elite amazing great defense last year and our guards didnt have notable steal rates
but accolades/stats aside, if i had to pick a defender to guard an elite offensive player for the national title im picking Dejon… i watched tyler harris score at will on shead, that we had to switch sasser on him his junior year (who did a far better job)… and Wade Taylor scoring at will on shead as a senior
PSJ- they played above the rim. Having said that, Sampson’s team accomplished a lot.
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I mean I think a piece of that was the competition level. Pretty big gap between what Dejon and Shead saw their senior years. Obviously both guys were great defenders though, so not trying to take anything from the Dejon.
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Different era but IMO Phi Slama Jama was in a class by itself. This does not take away anything from CKS. I love CKS and he surely is our best chance to win our first ncaa title. Full disclosure IMO the NBA today is almost unwatchable. Moving the three points line was a major mistake and has changed the sport altogether. It is almost a different sport. This is just my opinion. CKS defensive teams have been outstanding to watch.
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I myself have a hard time with picking “A player” above “B player” or teams like that. Each player/team/era is different. UH has had a hell of a lot of great basketball players. Btw, I don’t watch that other league either.
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