10 best college basketball players of all time

I saw the other thread for the 10 best basketball players of all time. Here's my list of 10 best college basketball players of all time, trying to ignore NBA greatness (or lack thereof) as much as possible.

1. Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), UCLA
2. Bill Walton, UCLA
3. Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati
4. Bill Russell, USF
5. David Thompson, NC State
6. Pete Maravich, LSU
7. Larry Bird, Indiana State
8. Bill Bradley, Princeton
9. Christian Laettner, Duke
10. Jerry Lucas, Ohio State

Because you hail from the left coast, I will accept your bias puttting Alcidor and Walton ahead of The Big O.

Lew Alcindor played 3 seasons, his teams went 88-2, and he won 3 NCAA titles and 3 NCAA tournament most outstanding player awards.

Bill Walton played 3 seasons, including two 30-0 seasons and won 2 NCAA titles and 2 Most Outstanding Player awards.

The Big O played 3 seasons, and while he led the nation in scoring 3 times, his team never won the championship. In fact, his Cincinnati team won back-to-back titles as soon as he graduated.

I am definitely not biased against the Big O. In fact, I put him ahead of Bill Russell (who went to college on the left coast as well) who won 2 titles, had career averages of over 20 points and 20 boards per game, and led USF to a then-record 60 game winning streak.

I was just busting your balls. I think they are all worthy of teh Label best college player of all-time. My one arguement against Walton and Alcindor is that they were part of championship teams but they were not the only great players on those teams. UCLA was just a dominant force in those days and it took more than one player to make UCLA that. I think you have to compare numbers not titles.

If you compare numbers, then you have to place Pete Maravich as the greatest of all time. 44.2 points per game over his career, including over 45 a game as a senior.

I think you put Alcindor on any team and they are a threat for the title. He was a career 26 ppg/15 rpg player. He definitely had the numbers too, and could have scored much more if he wanted to. He had 56 points in his first varsity game, but both he and Coach Wooden decided that a more balanced attack would work just as well.

If you compare numbers and not titles in the NBA, you would have to say that Wilt Chamberlain was miles ahead of Bill Russell.

I'd put Walton at #1 over Alcindor. I would also include Danny Manning, who single handedly won a championship for Kansas in '88. I'd also consider Len Bias, Wilt Chamberlain and Patrick Ewing.

A lot of people would agree with you on the Walton vs. Alcindor debate. I think if UCLA had won the title during Walton's senior year there would be very little debate that he was the better of the two. I think Alcindor was the most dominant player but perhaps Walton was better in terms of all the things he could do well.

Manning also deserves recognition, leading the underdog Jayhawks to the title. Coach K called Len Bias one of the two best players he's ever coached against in the ACC (Michael Jordan being the other). Wilt was also a great one, narrowly losing to UNC in the 1957 title game in triple overtime. Ewing was probably the best player of the 1980s, and he led Georgetown to the NCAA title game 3 times, winning it all in 1984.

Chamberlin has to make the list, and if you're gonna have Larry Bird there, you also have to include Magic Johnson.

I'd bounce Thompson and Laettner, as good as they were, to make room for those two.

I'd also unquestionably rank Pistol Pete as #1.