concordtom;842835947 said:
No, I did not.
But I am disrespecting his era, sorry to say.
The pool of players these days is much bigger, includes all races, and have played way more games before getting to college than anyone did way back then, not to mention the amount of ball played DURING college in the offseason and such. Therefore, guys today are usually taller, better athletes, and more experienced.
As usual, Tom, you’re blowing smoke out your rear. Let me try and help you with one aspect of this, Darrall Imhoff.
Cal’s All-American center, Darrall Imhoff, was a complete center. In 1959 and in 1960, he was probably the dominant center in college basketball, certainly the most dominant center on defense. To any poster here on the BI who says that players of that era could not play today, has to look no farther than Darrall Imhoff.
Last season, both Kingsley Okoroh and Kameron Rooks played a very credible center for Cal, wouldn’t you agree? In his day, Imhoff had better stats than either one, and better stats than both combined. But I’d agree that stats are not meaningful because the game was different in the two eras. So let’s look at athleticism and basketball skills:
Based on sheer athleticism alone, Imhoff could jump higher, run faster, was quicker, had better reflexes, a better eye, and was more aggressive than either Rooks or Okoroh. I’d bet the farm that Darrall had a higher vertical standing jump, and a faster 40 yard dash time than either Rooks or Okoroh. In terms of stamina, Imhoff went 35 minutes every game, always in back-to-back games, and often went 40 minutes in a game. Neither Rooks or Okoroh has shown they can go 35 minutes (in a game with what, 20 timeouts?), let alone do it every night.
In terms of basketball skills, as a junior and as a senior, compared to Rooks and Okoroh, Imhoff had much better footwork, could shoot much better, had more of a variety of shots, anticipated rebounds much better, could pass much better, could catch a pass much better, and dribble a basketball much better. Defensively, he could shut down his opposing center, night after night. He was as good or better shot blocker than Okoroh, and a better shot blocker than Rooks, and Imhoff stole a lot more passes than Rooks and Okoroh combined.
Nearly all the Cal teams and Cal coaches since 1960, if they had Darrall Imhoff on the roster, would have started him at center for Cal. The only teams who had centers in Imhoff’s class were the Ansley Truitt teams of the 1970’s, and the Mark McNamara teams of the 1980’s. Both Truitt and McNamara were a little better scorers than Imhoff, but neither was anywhere near as good as Darrall on defense. One might be able to make a case for the 2004 team with Leon Powe and Amit Tamir up front, but even then, I think Imhoff starts at center, Powe moves to PF and Tamir moves to SF or to the bench. One could also make a case for the Bob Presley teams of the 1960’s, but Presley was not the offensive center Imhoff was, and sadly had too many personal problems to reach his potential. Cal got some fine center play from Brian Hendricks and Leonard Taylor, but both were a little undersized, and I think Imhoff would start at center on their teams, freeing either of them up to play a power forward position. Imhoff was the best we ever had at the center position, would have started on all or nearly all Cal teams since his day, and he would have made all of those teams better, IMO.