Carmelo was the most dominant college player I have ever seen

[Trueblue25]

Uhh

How is Paul Harris not in this conversation?

 

[OrangeDW]

In the NCAA finals his freshman year against North Carolina, he committed goal tending on their first FIVE shots from the field. John Thompson wanted Ewing to get into their heads, and they damn near won the game, but for the turnover by Freddy Brown at the end.

The morons might've won if they didn't hand UNC 10 points with their fake tough guy garbage.

 

[Briancuse]

I wouldn't call melo dominant, I would call him very good. When I think dominant on the college level I think of Waton,Jabar,Ewing,Marovich.

 

[OrangeCrush22]

Anthony Davis was incredible. Of course it's blasphemous to say but I think he was better than Melo in college. And is looking like he'll be a better pro as well

Don't agree with this. Carmelo is single-handedly keeping the Knicks in playoff contention.

Month of march...
.461 fg% / .872 ft% / 6.6 reb / 3.4 ast / 1.4 stl / 27.6 pts

Davis is doing extremely well, and this is partly because they play different positions, but he can't carry a team like Melo.

 

[Topgun11]

Not that he was more dominant than Alcindor, Oscar, or Pistol Pete but...

Ralph Sampson deserves a mention. Dominant college player.

 

[rrlbees]

I wouldn't call melo dominant, I would call him very good. When I think dominant on the college level I think of Waton,Jabar,Ewing,Marovich.

He was dominant. And you're listing 4 year guys.

 

[stone567]

In terms of dominating college players, the most dominating player I ever saw in college was Pearl. He could take on a whole team by himself, and he was pretty much unstoppable.

 

[Knicks411]

Don't agree with this. Carmelo is single-handedly keeping the Knicks in playoff contention.

Month of march...
.461 fg% / .872 ft% / 6.6 reb / 3.4 ast / 1.4 stl / 27.6 pts

Davis is doing extremely well, and this is partly because they play different positions, but he can't carry a team like Melo.

Yeah Melo has been awesome the last 2 years. No question. I'm not sure Davis is the better player right now. But he also just turned 21 last month. I think in a few years Davis will be better than Melo at his peak.

Also for the playoff contention thing; might be worth pointing out that the Knicks are in the East which is terrible. New Orleans actually has a better record than the Knicks (by % points). And for whatever it's worth, the Knicks are 21-24 vs the East and 11-19 vs the West, while New Orleans is 13-31 vs the West and 21-11 vs the East. So if the Pelicans were in the east they'd probably be 4 or 5 games better than the knicks.

 

[manleyzoo]

He was dominant. And you're listing 4 year guys.

What difference does that make? Dominant is dominant.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Anthony Davis was unreal in college. He dominates the game in a completely different way than Melo though, so I think the comparisons over who is better are a little tough.

It always irks me a little bit how loosely the comparisons of the very good freshmen to the absolutely elite freshmen get thrown around in the media.

Right after Melo left it was Luol Deng who was the next Melo, then Marvin Williams, all the way up through Jabari and Wiggins this year.

If you are going to look at the truly elite freshman in the past 15 years or so, it's Anthony, Durant, Davis (in no particular order), then everybody else.

Good points. The argument also saying Durant, for instance, didn't have as good a supporting cast or got bounced early from the Tourney doesn't have any merit, imo. The attention was focused on him and he produced big numbers. He had a pretty good PG, though.

 

[rrlbees]

What difference does that make? Dominant is dominant.

The guys listed as frosh weren't as dominant as they were as seniors. Melo was a dominant player yet was only a frosh.

 

[manleyzoo]

The guys listed as frosh weren't as dominant as they were as seniors. Melo was a dominant player yet was only a frosh.

The OP was about dominant college players, didn't confine it to frosh only. That's a whole different topic. If you want to compare first-year to first-year, then compare the first years of Alcindor, Walton, Oscar, etal (when they were sophs) to Melo's first year and then you have an apples-to-apples comparison. Technically, as someone else has said, the discussion could be confined to dominant players the OP has seen play but considering their admitted age that's a pretty limited field of candidates.

 

[igor]

Not even close to Alcindor/Jabbar, Walton, Oscar, Jerry Lucas and maybe even West. Not close.

first off, they were all before espn. secondly su's talent level wasn't even close

 

[manleyzoo]

first off, they were all before espn. secondly su's talent level wasn't even close

You're saying Melo was more dominant than Alcindor, Walton, what, because of ESPN? Or, he was more dominant because those earlier guys had better players around them? So I'm going to see if I can follow this...Melo was more dominant because he got more TV exposure, or, his dominance was an illusion because of TV...help me out here.

 

[MikeSU02]

You're saying Melo was more dominant than Alcindor, Walton, what, because of ESPN? Or, he was more dominant because those earlier guys had better players around them? So I'm going to see if I can follow this...Melo was more dominant because he got more TV exposure, or, his dominance was an illusion because of TV...help me out here.

I think igor is saying that since the ESPN timeline (1979 on), Melo is the best true frosh.

I don't think anyone would say that Melo > Alcindor.

 

[Knicks411]

I think igor is saying that since the ESPN timeline (1979 on), Melo is the best true frosh.

I don't think anyone would say that Melo > Alcindor.

You might be surprised.

Was looking at Kareem's college stats btw, it's tough to tell for sure cause they don't have minutes played, but it seems like he didn't really get much better from soph-sr year. His best shooting% year was his soph. I wonder if you could make the argument he stagnated a bit playing in college since he was so much better than everyone else. The counter to that is probably how much better could he really have been.

 

[MCC]

He was dominant. And you're listing 4 year guys.

Abdul Jabbar was beyond dominant. First game as a frosh was against the existing UCLA varsity champs - the frosh blew them out with Alcindor posting ridiculous numbers. Of course, they couldn't really "play" as frosh then...

 

[manleyzoo]

You might be surprised.

Was looking at Kareem's college stats btw, it's tough to tell for sure cause they don't have minutes played, but it seems like he didn't really get much better from soph-sr year. His best shooting% year was his soph. I wonder if you could make the argument he stagnated a bit playing in college since he was so much better than everyone else. The counter to that is probably how much better could he really have been.

In 1966-67, Alcindor scored 56 pts in his college debut, led the country in scoring at nearly 30 points a game and in fg percentage at 68 percent, and was named player of the year. He also averaged 15 boards a game and was the first sophomore to win POY since Oscar did it in 1958, the first of three years in a row the Big O won it. That's a pretty high standard to beat in his junior and senior years.

 

[realorange]

Oscar was unlike any player I'd seen when he was in college. He was the first player that could totally take over a game. His stats will show how well rounded he was in college and later, the pros. As Manleyzoo said, it's a pretty high standard to be POY the whole time you were in college.