Top 10 Sycamores: Point Guard Edition

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Jason Svoboda

Jason Svoboda

The Bird Level
Administrator
With there being no sports in action and nothing really on the horizon, figured it may be a good time to revisit this. I think we last did something similar quite a few years ago and I'd say quite a bit has changed since. Post your personal Top 3, 5, 10, 20 or however many players you want. If you can, help sell why you've listed them the way you did. Once we have at least 10 or so lists submitted, we'll try to come up with a consensus Top 10 from everyone based on the submissions and we'll run a poll later on.

If a player you have in mind played both PG and SG while at State, I'd lean on where you think their primary position was or you can just include them in both categories if it floats your boat.
 

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In my opinion, the clear #1 is Nate Green. Conference Player of the Year leading ISU to an MVC Regular Season Championship. With his length, size, leaping ability and quickness he could penetrate, score or assist. He also was the key defensive stopper on the other team's main offensive threat from 5'10" point guards to 6'8" forwards. A great student and team leader, he elevated the Sycamores to a new level of success.

#2: Michael Menser. A terrific all around threat as both a scorer and as an assist leader. His understanding of the flow of the game and ability to break down the other team within the flow of the offense was very good. An adequate defender, his small stature did necessitate some special defensive adjustments. Played the scorer's role much of his first three season's but with Nate Green gone became even more of a play maker his senior season.

#3: Jake Odom: Similar in size to Nate Green and neither was an excellent outside shooter. Racked up a lot of stats for teams that went to post-season play at some level all four seasons.

#4: Gabe Moore: PLayed in a challenging time for the Sycamores. The league was very strong. He was always going full speed and was a steadying influence.

#5: Steve Reed by a nose over Greg Thomas: Reed played with far better talent and his job was to get the ball to Bird or Nicks or possibly Gilber or Miley at the rim. A reluctant shooter despite great shooting skills, he never fully blossomed as an offensive threat. Greg Thomas played in a downer period without that great complement of shooters. I just remember I was impressed with his overall game.
 
Best PG would be Michael Menser. Scoring threat, rarely turned it over, had something like a 5-1 assist to TO ratio his senior year. Only limitation was his height. Smart, steady player who could also hit some big shots.

Best guard would be Nate Green. Tall, slasher, good defender, tough matchup.

Odum would be next. Great defender, great passer, tough player.

Gabe Moore and Harry Marshall round out my list.
 
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1) Steve Reed - watch the ISU-DePaul game and take note of what happens when he is taken out versus what happens when he was in. No amount of pressure rattled him, ever. Sure he had great talent to play with, but the ball was in his hands by himself to get the ball into the offensive half. Nobody even comes close.
2) Menser
3) Odum
 

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Green was great, but for some reason I don't think of him as a point guard. Thought that was Menser's role on those teams.
 
Green's SR year he had 141 assists and Menser had 83.
Then Menser's SR year he had 184 assists.
I think they both had time at the PG.
 
They were both great Sycamores, whatever their position. Maybe Menser's senior year left such an imprint on me that I just thought of him as always a PG for ISU.
 

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Just for a walk down memory lane, these are the top 10 rankings for Nate in conference games for 2000:
PPG #8
REB 10
Assists 4
steals 1 (2.7/g)
blocks 4
A/TO 6
 
Please save your debate for the actual vote. I'm trying to compile lists here so I can setup the head-to-head debates.
 
My top four in chronological order...

Steve Reed (ISU assists leader)
Nate Green (how many MVC POYs has ISU produced since)
Menser (let's not forget he was a Mr. Basketball runner-up)
Jake Odum (600+ assists, and he didn't even have Bird and co. to dish to)
 
(my rankings)

Jake Odum (1)

Jimmy Smith (2)

Nate Green (3)

Mike Mensser (5)

Steve Reed (4)

Gabe Moore (7)

Nick Hargrove (6)

Everett Clemons (8)

Harry Marshall (10)

Rick Fields (9)

The debate needs to be descirbed clearly - are we looking for the best PG or the best all around player. Nate Green was probably the best all around player on this list - that doesn't make him the best PG. In fact - he's not the best PG on this list. Best player doesn't have to = best PG when you're talking about the top 10 in program history.

Jake Odum, Jimmy Smith, Steve Reed and Menser - you could make a pretty easy argument all 4 were better PG than Nate Green. I will save that per what Jason asked above - but the poll question isn't top 10 players...
 
I think I've come up with a better way to rank these -- so people feel free to define them however you wish. What I'm looking for here is just any Sycamore you'd consider a PG. I just need lists so I can make sure everyone worthy is added to the initial list to be ranked.
 

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Waiting for this to actually amount to anything is like waiting for the site to switch over to a new platform (which is nice btw)... I expect we will have about 5 or 6 other PG's to add to the list by the time you do anything with this...

Click

Bait.
 
SycamoreStateofMind said:
Waiting for this to actually amount to anything is like waiting for the site to switch over to a new platform (which is nice btw)... I expect we will have about 5 or 6 other PG's to add to the list by the time you do anything with this...

Click

Bait.
Click to expand...

Could never get enough responses to do anything meaningful with it.

Just that Sycamore life.
 
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