Yup I remember when he brought it into the Dogwood. no one was ready for it, hell we were running a 5-2 before that with an occasional 3-4 everyone else ran 4-4. I graduated from Nelson in 01, so got out just as WC and Gretna were taking off.
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That’s awesome man, definitely know a lot of Guthries, lol…anybody still around Bneal or surrounding areas that you’re are related to?..good chance I know them…
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So I don’t have a full top 10 or anything, but I do have a kind of fun story. When I was a second year, I played on an IM basketball team with a bunch of guys who were on the football team (one of my fraternity brothers was good friends with Matt Schaub). We made it to the university finals on the main court at U-Hall and lost to a grad student team that had a bunch of former D2 and D3 guys on it. The three things I still remember about playing on that team were:
- Matt Schaub had legit NBA 3 point range. He could take a couple steps over half court and just bomb away
- Ahmad Brooks is probably the most athletic person I’ve ever been around in my life. One game he literally jumped over a kid (luckily the kid ducked and covered otherwise he might have gotten his head kicked off) and threw down a reverse dunk during the run of play.
- Brandon Isaiah was an absolute tank. I think he had been hurt that year because I remember he wasn’t moving very fast and had a huge brace on his knee, but people would just bounce off him as he dribbled up court. I couldn’t imagine trying to tackle him in pads running full speed.
Bonus memory for me - I threw down a dunk in warm up lines for the University finals at U-Hall . It’s probably the only thing I actually did on that team, but it’s something I’ll never forget.
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How big was Mark Dixon?
A lot of folks don’t know I can hoop lol.
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Will Brice is the one that surprised me on the list. Don’t sleep on those punters.
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Baber was my year. He was an animal in football and hoops. WAHS has a strong squad back then. Baber, Jared Woodson, Marcus Martin, who went to Clemson and Will Quayle who played lax at UVA.
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Yup Marcus Martin… that’s a name I forgot he was a beast. I remember those western teams. That class is 4 yrs ahead of me. So to an 8th grader Baber was big ish
One that stands out from my time and might come as a surprise: Sam Hayward (former soccer player/kicker on the football team) gave guys fits at the AFC. Shot the lights out and super fast/athletic
Obviously Charles Snowden and Juan Thornhill as well
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He was pro offensive lineman big but agile af. he had crazy hoop skills somehow and was a prolific HS hoop player. Aflete
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dude was a crazy athlete
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I knew he was very big. I would have hated to guard him
not possible to guard. crazy athletic
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I’m not sure he’d be on the list, but we need some names for the old-timers - how about John Naponick from the 1960s. Played defensive tackle in football and center in basketball. He was about 6-10/300. As a kid in Charlottesville at the time, he seemed to me like the biggest human on the planet. He played on the BB team that opened UHall against UK in 1965 (had 12 pts in the losing effort) and became a doctor after UVa.
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Jake McGee could ball too. All metro in Richmond and a freaky athlete with high skill level
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I remember playing an intramural game (massacre) where the other team had Mark Dixon, Mike Frederick and Ryan Kuehl on the back line of their zone defense. Nobody on my team wanted to go near the paint! But I was totally amazed at their athleticism. Pretty much goes for all D1 athletes!
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Total monsters and great dudes. Freddie was a beast
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Another nominee–Chris Warren. I’ll never forget a couple of my friends who came sprinting up to me during the first summer session of 1985. They had been in a pickup game at the Dell, one court over from a game that involved some incoming first-year football players and some guys on the hoops team. They were out-of-their-minds excited because they had just watched Warren rise up and yoke on Olden. They acted like they had just seen the face of God. Mind you, we had all seen Jordan live and up close in UHall in '84. They were more excited by Warren’s dunk than anything we saw Jordan do that night. Warren was probably the best athlete at U.Va. during my time there. And he could ball too.
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