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Post by nctitan on Jul 2, 2020 21:02:54 GMT -5
#60. Chase Simon, 6-6 G, 2010-12.I’ll confess that I was never a big Chase Simon fan. His shooting percentages were low, and he doesn’t do especially well in the modern stats that have appeared over the past 20 years (For example, he actually has a negative Box Plus/Minus, a stat that purports to say how many points above an average player he contributed). But he scored a lot of points (1386) for the Titans over three years, and was a second team all-conference selection and the team’s leading scorer in 2010 as the Titans went from 7 to 20 wins. Post-Titan days, Chase has played in Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Israel, and France. I woulda put Lamarcus Lowe ahead of Simon. My main recollection of Simon is getting the ball at clutch time and driving into three defenders and losing the ball. There were too many good players on that team (Eli Holman, Woody Payne, Thomas Kennedy) to credit Simon with the increased win total.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 3, 2020 5:26:09 GMT -5
#62. Michael Lovelace, 6-6 F, 1990-1993
Mike Lovelace is sort of a poor man’s Terrell Riggs. For four years, he gave the Titans unspectacular but steady, solid work at forward. His basic top line numbers (points/rebounds/FG%) were 9.6, 5.6, 49.6%; 8.8, 5.9, 41.4%; 13.7, 5.3, 58.2%; and 12.8, 6.5, 62.4%. Those junior and senior shooting percentages are the 10th and 3rd best, respectively, in the Titan record books, giving him a #10 career rank in that category. Lovelace had a small forward’s ball handling skills, but a solid build that allowed him to score, rebound, and defend in the paint.
His sister, Stacey, was a two-time All-American at Purdue, played 8 years in the WNBA, and now works for the NBA in Player Development.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 3, 2020 21:12:08 GMT -5
Here you go Larry Titan...
#63. Jerry Swartzfager, 6-6 F, 1967-1969
Freshmen weren’t eligible for varsity ball when Jerry Swartzfager arrived at Six and Livernois, so Swartzager set Titan record for points on the freshman team, eclipsing Dave DeBusschere, among others. As a soph in 1967, Jerry averaged a team best 17.0 points (plus 6.5 rebounds), but wasn’t able to build on that success. He slipped a bit to 14.6 points and 6.6 rebounds as a junior, but led the team in shooting percentage at 46.9 percent, and was named team captain for his senior season.
But Swartzfager’s senior year was a disappointment. As Spencer Haywood took charge of the offense, Swartzfager, the team captain, fell to just 8.2 points per game, with his shooting percentage dropping to 37.7 percent. His free throw percentage also dropped over the years, from 76.9% as a sophomore to 71.5% to 67.6% as a senior. He closed out his career, however, with a 1969 season-high 17 points in a win over Canisius, giving him exactly 1000 points for his career, the 13th Titan to reach that plateau.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 3, 2020 22:14:37 GMT -5
#64. Paris Bass, 6-8 F, 2015-16
The difficulty in ranking Paris Bass is to weigh the on-court performance against the off-court, and, well, on-court disruption he created. I’m not big on team “chemistry,” at least not at the cost of talent. When I hear "team chemistry," I think “team alchemy.” Superstitious malarky. In my view, you generally win with good players who want to win. They don’t have to like one another. Team "chemistry" is rarely any more meaningful than how the team did in Chemistry class. But players who don't seem to care about winning, and who are simply disruptive on and off the court? That's another story. That's Paris Bass.
Paris's on and off-court shenanigans make it easy to forget, however, what a very good player he was. The Bass tragedy is that Paris may have been as talented a player as the Titans have had since Smokey Gaines left town. Remember that Ray McCallum stole a march on Connecticut and other hoops nobility to sign Paris before the blue bloods were fully cognizant of his potential. By they time they came around--and recall, they did--it was too late. He signed with Detroit. In 2015 he was Horizon League Freshman of the Year, averaging 12.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.1 blocks and 1.2 steals. As a sophomore, he was a first team All-Conference selection, despite missing 7 games completely and starting another 5 on the bench due to various disciplinary problems. He averaged 18.4 points, 8 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals. He had smooth moves inside; he could hit the three; his long arms and frame made him an excellent rebounder and, when he wanted to be, an excellent defender. And it all ended sitting on the bench that sophomore year, sassing the coach and pouting in his last game, then booted from the club by new coach Bacari Alexander.
So Paris was off to play professionally overseas, but still couldn't be bothered to put in the work. He signed with a team in Austria, and left after one week. Since then he has played in lower level leagues in the Caribbean rather than the best leagues in Europe and Asia.
On pure talent and on-the-court performance, Bass should be ranked higher. If we were relying on the vaunted "eye test," we could push Paris up about 40 spots. Unfortunately, he was just too much trouble. Maybe he shouldn't even be ranked this high. But when he was good, he was very, very good.
Addendum, 4/16/24: Paris got a cup of coffee in the NBA during the 2021-22 season, appearing in 2 games for the Phoenix Suns.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jul 4, 2020 14:36:35 GMT -5
#64. Paris Bass, 6-8 F, 2015-16The difficulty in ranking Paris Bass is to weigh the on-court performance against the off-court, and, well, on-court disruption he created. I’m not big on team “chemistry,” at least not at the cost of talent. When I hear "team chemistry," I think “team alchemy.” Superstitious malarky. In my view, you generally win with good players who want to win. They don’t have to like one another. Team "chemistry" is rarely any more meaningful than how the team did in Chemistry class. But players who don't seem to care about winning, and who are simply disruptive on and off the court? That's another story. That's Paris Bass. Paris's on and off-court shenanigans make it easy to forget, however, what a very good player he was. The Bass tragedy is that Paris may have been as talented a player as the Titans have had since Smokey Gaines left town. Remember that Ray McCallum stole a march on Connecticut and other hoops nobility to sign Paris before the blue bloods were fully cognizant of his potential. By they time they came around--and recall, they did--it was too late. He signed with Detroit. In 2015 he was Horizon League Freshman of the Year, averaging 12.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.1 blocks and 1.2 steals. As a sophomore, he was a first team All-Conference selection, despite missing 7 games completely and starting another 5 on the bench due to various disciplinary problems. He averaged 18.4 points, 8 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals. He had smooth moves inside; he could hit the three; his long arms and frame made him an excellent rebounder and, when he wanted to be, an excellent defender. And it all ended sitting on the bench that sophomore year, sassing the coach and pouting in his last game, then booted from the club by new coach Bacari Alexander. So Paris was off to play professionally overseas, but still couldn't be bothered to put in the work. He signed with a team in Austria, and left after one week. Since then he has played in lower level leagues in the Caribbean rather than the best leagues in Europe and Asia. On pure talent and on-the-court performance, Bass should be ranked higher. If we were relying on the vaunted "eye test," we could push Paris up about 40 spots. Unfortunately, he was just too much trouble. Maybe he shouldn't even be ranked this high. But when he was good, he was very, very good. On talent alone, you probably could put him up in the 20s without much debate. Overall, I think you have him in just about the right spot. I thought it was the right decision for the Titans to pursue, Paris, and I still think it was the right move. I think part of the problem with Paris is that from high school on he had a bunch of people telling him he was going to the NBA and just never got focused on anything beyond that. Too bad, because he certainly had the talent.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jul 4, 2020 14:39:25 GMT -5
#60. Chase Simon, 6-6 G, 2010-12.I’ll confess that I was never a big Chase Simon fan. His shooting percentages were low, and he doesn’t do especially well in the modern stats that have appeared over the past 20 years (For example, he actually has a negative Box Plus/Minus, a stat that purports to say how many points above an average player he contributed). But he scored a lot of points (1386) for the Titans over three years, and was a second team all-conference selection and the team’s leading scorer in 2010 as the Titans went from 7 to 20 wins. Post-Titan days, Chase has played in Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Israel, and France. Talented guy who I always felt should be playing better than he was. And that thought goes back to his high school days.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 4, 2020 14:53:49 GMT -5
#64. Paris Bass, 6-8 F, 2015-16The difficulty in ranking Paris Bass is to weigh the on-court performance against the off-court, and, well, on-court disruption he created. I’m not big on team “chemistry,” at least not at the cost of talent. When I hear "team chemistry," I think “team alchemy.” Superstitious malarky. In my view, you generally win with good players who want to win. They don’t have to like one another. Team "chemistry" is rarely any more meaningful than how the team did in Chemistry class. But players who don't seem to care about winning, and who are simply disruptive on and off the court? That's another story. That's Paris Bass. Paris's on and off-court shenanigans make it easy to forget, however, what a very good player he was. The Bass tragedy is that Paris may have been as talented a player as the Titans have had since Smokey Gaines left town. Remember that Ray McCallum stole a march on Connecticut and other hoops nobility to sign Paris before the blue bloods were fully cognizant of his potential. By they time they came around--and recall, they did--it was too late. He signed with Detroit. In 2015 he was Horizon League Freshman of the Year, averaging 12.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.1 blocks and 1.2 steals. As a sophomore, he was a first team All-Conference selection, despite missing 7 games completely and starting another 5 on the bench due to various disciplinary problems. He averaged 18.4 points, 8 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals. He had smooth moves inside; he could hit the three; his long arms and frame made him an excellent rebounder and, when he wanted to be, an excellent defender. And it all ended sitting on the bench that sophomore year, sassing the coach and pouting in his last game, then booted from the club by new coach Bacari Alexander. So Paris was off to play professionally overseas, but still couldn't be bothered to put in the work. He signed with a team in Austria, and left after one week. Since then he has played in lower level leagues in the Caribbean rather than the best leagues in Europe and Asia. On pure talent and on-the-court performance, Bass should be ranked higher. If we were relying on the vaunted "eye test," we could push Paris up about 40 spots. Unfortunately, he was just too much trouble. Maybe he shouldn't even be ranked this high. But when he was good, he was very, very good. On talent alone, you probably could put him up in the 20s without much debate. Overall, I think you have him in just about the right spot. I thought it was the right decision for the Titans to pursue, Paris, and I still think it was the right move. I think part of the problem with Paris is that from high school on he had a bunch of people telling him he was going to the NBA and just never got focused on anything beyond that. Too bad, because he certainly had the talent. If Paris had been able to keep himself together enough to play one more season, I think there's a good chance he'd have been HL Player of the Year, and a realistic early draft entrant.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 4, 2020 21:25:26 GMT -5
#65. Tom Richardson, 6-7 C, 1967-68.
Coming to Detroit from Detroit Southeastern High and Alpena CC, Richardson averaged a double-double for two straight seasons: 11.4 points and 12.8 rebounds in 1967, and 12.6 points and 13.7 rebounds in 1968. He also shot a pretty solid 47.3 percent in 1968. But while these are very good numbers, in the context of their time they are not eye-popping as averaging a double-double for two straight years would be today. Richardson was also said not to have good hands, resulting in too many turnovers. Still, double-doubles are double-doubles. He was a good player and one of the nation’s better rebounders.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 5, 2020 10:33:38 GMT -5
#66. Greg Grays, 6-0 G, 2001-2002
A transfer from Penn State, Greg Grays was a first team All-Horizon selection in 2002, when he averaged 17.8 points and shot 37.7% from three. As a redshirt junior in 2001 he averaged 9.0 ppg and was selected to the conference All-Newcomer team.
This list covers 75 years, from 1946 through 2020. For 48 of those years, the Titans were members of either the Missouri Valley (8 seasons) or MCC/Horizon (40 seasons). During that time, 36 players have been named first or second team All-Conference a total of 57 times; 18 players have been named first team all-conference a total of 26 times. Greg Grays is the lowest ranked of any of those 18 players to be a first-team all-conference selection. The reasons for that are:
• he only played two seasons with the Titans, and his first, while solid, was hardly exceptional; • While throughout these rankings I’ve placed considerable emphasis on such contemporaneous recognition, Grays always struck me as a relatively weak first-team choice. He scored a lot, and was a good free throw and three point shooter, but he still shot just 40.9% overall from the floor, hitting just 44.7% from two point range. Other than scoring, there wasn't a lot exceptional about his game. • His Win Share total for those two Titan seasons is not as good as the last two seasons for players such as Jason Calliste and Anton Wilson, who played more seasons to boot. Of the 10 players to gain 1st team recognition since Win Share date is available (1996), only Paris Bass has fewer win shares for his two best seasons
But Grays was a very good player and an exciting player when he was on his game. You can rank him higher if you want, and I won't much quarrel.
After his Titan days, Grays played professionally in the CBA and overseas in Venezuela, Turkey, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Belgium.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 5, 2020 17:07:05 GMT -5
And the man Titan Larry has been waiting for, the final starter on the 1966 squad:
#67. Jim Boyce, 6-5 F, 1965-1966.
Jim Boyce was an All-State player for Detroit Northwestern in 1954, then spent nearly a decade in the army before returning to college. A two-time juco All-American at Burlington CC (now Southeastern Iowa), he joined the Titans in 1965. Thus, he was nearly 30 years old when he began his Titan career. Boyce averaged 9.5 points and 9.6 rebounds for the Titans’ 1965 NIT team, and the next year put up 15.5 points and 8.2 rebounds as the Titans went 17-9.
Boyce later served as a Titan assistant under Dick Vitale, coached his alma mater Northwestern High, and then was head coach for six-plus years at Eastern Michigan, coaching the Hurons to their first winning record as a D-1 school in 1982. Boyce died in 2001. He was elected to the Juco College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.
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Post by rbj on Jul 5, 2020 19:46:43 GMT -5
#54. Carl Pickett, 6-5 F, 1994-1997Strong at attacking the basket, and capable enough from behind the arc to keep defenders honest (a career 36%), Pickett scored 1075 points in a 4 year Titan career. His best season was his junior campaign, 1996, when he averaged a team best 14.3 points, and was selected to the All-Conference second team and the All-MCC Tournament team. He also led the Titans in scoring in 1995 at 12.4 points per game. Like most Perry Watson players, he was also a hard-nosed defender. Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard kid. I was pleasantly surprised by how good a career he had as a Titan. He was a good player, Pickett was going to walk on at Michigan, instead he followed coach Watson to Detroit.
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Post by rbj on Jul 5, 2020 19:58:45 GMT -5
#64. Paris Bass, 6-8 F, 2015-16The difficulty in ranking Paris Bass is to weigh the on-court performance against the off-court, and, well, on-court disruption he created. I’m not big on team “chemistry,” at least not at the cost of talent. When I hear "team chemistry," I think “team alchemy.” Superstitious malarky. In my view, you generally win with good players who want to win. They don’t have to like one another. Team "chemistry" is rarely any more meaningful than how the team did in Chemistry class. But players who don't seem to care about winning, and who are simply disruptive on and off the court? That's another story. That's Paris Bass. Paris's on and off-court shenanigans make it easy to forget, however, what a very good player he was. The Bass tragedy is that Paris may have been as talented a player as the Titans have had since Smokey Gaines left town. Remember that Ray McCallum stole a march on Connecticut and other hoops nobility to sign Paris before the blue bloods were fully cognizant of his potential. By they time they came around--and recall, they did--it was too late. He signed with Detroit. In 2015 he was Horizon League Freshman of the Year, averaging 12.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.1 blocks and 1.2 steals. As a sophomore, he was a first team All-Conference selection, despite missing 7 games completely and starting another 5 on the bench due to various disciplinary problems. He averaged 18.4 points, 8 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals. He had smooth moves inside; he could hit the three; his long arms and frame made him an excellent rebounder and, when he wanted to be, an excellent defender. And it all ended sitting on the bench that sophomore year, sassing the coach and pouting in his last game, then booted from the club by new coach Bacari Alexander. So Paris was off to play professionally overseas, but still couldn't be bothered to put in the work. He signed with a team in Austria, and left after one week. Since then he has played in lower level leagues in the Caribbean rather than the best leagues in Europe and Asia. On pure talent and on-the-court performance, Bass should be ranked higher. If we were relying on the vaunted "eye test," we could push Paris up about 40 spots. Unfortunately, he was just too much trouble. Maybe he shouldn't even be ranked this high. But when he was good, he was very, very good. On talent alone, you probably could put him up in the 20s without much debate. Overall, I think you have him in just about the right spot. I thought it was the right decision for the Titans to pursue, Paris, and I still think it was the right move. I think part of the problem with Paris is that from high school on he had a bunch of people telling him he was going to the NBA and just never got focused on anything beyond that. Too bad, because he certainly had the talent. I remember watching the clip of him scoring on James Harden the summer before his sophomore season and thinking that he was going to be the next great Titan.
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Post by rbj on Jul 5, 2020 20:09:11 GMT -5
#57. Terry Page, 6-4 F, 1963-1965Page averaged 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds as a three-year starter, peaking at 15.8 and 9.3 as senior captain on the 1965 NIT team. He was drafted by St. Louis late in the 1965 draft, but didn’t play in the NBA. Instead, he took over as Titan freshman coach. Page was inducted into the Titan Hall of Fame in 1985. The Titans have had a surprising number of good players named Terry: in addition to Page, Tyler, Duerod, and Thomas come quickly to mind. I'm looking forward to seeing where former Piston Terry Thomas will rank...if he makes the list.
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Post by Larytitan on Jul 5, 2020 20:46:20 GMT -5
Were you able to find any post career info on Tom Richardson and Jerrt Swartzfager?
The next players I await are Ralph Brisker and Larry Moore.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 5, 2020 21:13:37 GMT -5
Were you able to find any post career info on Tom Richardson and Jerrt Swartzfager? The next players I await are Ralph Brisker and Larry Moore. Surprisingly, at least in the case of Swartzfager (an easy name to research), no.
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