No, my blog is not daily. Deal with it.
So Lipscomb has been in Division 1 for 10 years now. Mostly. It's been 10 years since they quit playing post-season tournaments in Kansas City/Tulsa/Olathe or wherever they had the NAIA tournaments back in the day.
I thought it might be fun to compose an all-decade team for the NCAA era and compare them to the greats of the Don Meyer-coached NAIA teams.
So I went to the Lipscomb Athletics website. Guess what? There is NOTHING about the NAIA era there. Sure, the Lipscomb Hall of Fame lists come key names, but stats? Records? History? Nope. Nada.
So going from memory, here is my All-Decade team for the last ten years of the NAIA era:
PG -- Kenyatta Perry
SG -- Andy McQueen
SF -- Darren Henrie
PF -- Philip Hutchenson
C -- John Pierce
Off the bench -- Wade Sandrell, Jerry Meyer
The first ten years of the NCAA era:
Lorenzo Withrite, James Poindexter, Eddie Ard, Brian Fisk, Shaun Durant
Off the bench -- Ryan Roller, Chad Hartman
Now I admit on the front end that this is not an apples-to-apples comparision. Meyer and Sanderson play different styles -- Meyer coaches an inside-out game while Sanderson plays a Dutch soccer style "interchangeable parts" offense. Sanderson also places a much higher premium on defense than Meyer did.
Not to mention the differences in opposition. As Coach Meyer once said, "I'd rather play a cupcake than be a cupcake."
That said, my suspicion is that any of the best players from a Don Meyer-coached team could have started on Scott Sanderson's best team (05-06). OK, Kenyatta was 3 inches shorter and a step slower than Ard, and Durant and Poindexter more than held their own against Boomer Herndon (the closest approximation the A-Sun has to Pierce and Hutchenson), but Meyer's best against Sanderson's best is a pretty close contest.
The question for Lispcomb fans -- how much better is Lipscomb as a D-1 program? And it is worth the cost?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I was searching for Lipscomb basketball stuff and ran across this old blog entry. I was a student assistant coach for Lipscomb during the 90s. I was working the game that John Pierce broke the scoring record at. In comparing the teams of Meyer vs. Sanderson I would say they would be very close. Even though Lipscomb were NAIA the quality of players they got were mid-major division 1 just like Lipscomb is now. Kenyatta Perry was amazing and I would say he was quicker than Ard. Andy McQueen was offered scholarships from major SEC schools and is one of the best shooters in the history of college basketball. In comparing post players, I have to mention that Pierce scored 43 points one night against Tennessee State being guarded by Carlos Rogers who was about to be named conderence player of the year that season and drafted in the NBA lottery. Rogers only scored 15 in that game played in Vanderbilt's arena. So I think Pierce would have still been dominant againt whoever Sanderson threw at him. Jerry Meyer is very humble and he wouldn't tell you that he was a 2-time Mr. Basketball in Tennessee and was heavily recruited by Duke among others before he had personal problems. And Don Meyer just recently moved into 2nd place in all-time collegiate wins. So I may be partial, but Meyers teams probably would have beaten Sanderson's.
Eric,
Welcome!
I think you're probably right about the quality of players Meyer was able to get, especially Andy McQueen. I also agree that over the course of a season, Meyer would coach circles around Sanderson.
But in one game, I suspect Meyer's best against Sanderson's best would be closer that a lot of Lipscomb people might think. Consider:
-- Eddie Ard has a way of rising to an occasion.
-- Meyer's teams have never been known for dominating the boards anyway, and Sanderson's players are bigger.
-- Sanderson's teams make their living -- and it's a pretty good one -- on the defensive end.
-- That said, Meyer's teams could shoot the lights out, have no conditioning issues like Sanderson's teams sometimes do, and in an endgame Meyer is the best, period.
If i had to pick, and the game is as close as I suspect it would be, I would take Meyer. But not by much.
I only have one problem with your top five. I played against kenyattta Perry while he was at Lipscomb. I also used to watch Jerry Meyer play while he was there. Jerry Meyer is a way better point guard than Kenyatta. Most of Kenyatta playmaking skills came off the fast break and he didn't really set up his other teammates. That is the job of the point guard, and actually if you look back he didn't even play point he played the 2. All the other players are correct and I also agree that John Pierce would dominate in the A-Sun just like he did in the NAIA.
I assume you meant Wade Tomlinson, not Wade Sandrell ? And yes, Jerry Meyer played circles around Perry and Kenyatta would probably agree. Marcus Bodie should even be ahead of K Perry.
Post a Comment