Ranking The Guards – 6-10

Photo Attribution: LJWorld

Welcome to day 2 and part 3 of me, Carson Cunningham, and OKC Dave ranking the top 20 guards in the Ford/Sutton era. A lot of good banter yesterday, we expect more of the same today…especially when we ge to the top 5.

Let’s jump in…

OKC Dave
6. Mo Baker – no player has had a better single season at OSU than Mo Baker in his junior year. 52% from the floor, 81% from the stripe, 41% from three. 20 points, 7 boards. 37 minutes/game. You might argue that he should be lower because he only gave us one good year, but so did Barry Sanders.
7. Randy Rutherford – 11 threes and 45 points in Lawrence. Dropping threes from the Pistol Pete at GIA. 279 for 668. Also, I love that he was from Broken Bow.
8. John Lucas – Would definitely be higher if he had played for us longer. Cezar needs to practice the JL3 floater about 300 times per day. Oh yeah, and The Shot.
9. Doug Gottlieb – Averaged 12 assists per 40 minutes in his last two years at OSU. This year’s OSU team averages 11 assists per game.
10. JamesOn Curry – so smooth.

@CarsonC5
6. James Anderson – Evolved from timid Freshman to virtually unguardable his final season. Complete player.
7. John Lucas III – The Shot. Plus, his floater in the lane was perhaps the surest thing in GIA history. Bonus points for being “The Cooler” to ice games with his 89.5 career free throw percentage (school record).
8. Victor Williams – I’m very adament Victor belongs in the Top 10. His pull-up jumper at the key was unstoppable. No player cared more, or fired up GIA more, than Vic. And he did it all through the aftermath of the plane crash. That cannot be underestimated.
9. Doug Gottlieb – The best passer I have seen, and ever will see. No two players have ever connected on the floor like Doug & Desmond did. A magician with the basketball. He would be higher if all of GIA didn’t scream “NOOOOO!” when he thought about shooting in a tight game.
10. Mo Baker – The best all-around player. Had Baker played 4 years, he would’ve challenged for the top spot.

PistolsGuy
6. Mo Baker – He might be the best player OSU has ever had. Probably the second most fun to watch too (behind Desmond)
7. Brooks Thompson – Top 10 in OSU history in PPG, was the best guard on the ’92 team that lost to the Fab 5 in the regional semis.
8. Doug Gottlieb – I’d rank “Gottlieb passing the ball” up there with “Dez catching the fade” as the best skill by a single athlete in OSU history. (also: Ventura going the other way, Inky hitting bombs, and Weeden running QB sneaks). No, not the last one.
9. John Lucas – he had an embarrassment of riches to distribute to, still his junior year (15-3-5-1) is in the pantheon.
10. Joe Adkins – By far the most underrated guy on those Desmond/Gottlieb teams. When he was on, it was the stuff of Keiton’s dreams.

In case you missed them here is Part 1 (16-20) and Part 2 (11-15).