SWC75
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He was ambitious with the ball in his hands as a freshman (when Etan and Otis spent a bit of time playing together). And Etan perfected a baby hook and achieved a terrific field goal percentage. So maybe "little offensive skill" assessed him too harshly.
But he didn't have the greatest touch and he could only score from a couple spots in a couple ways (and mainly, as you note, with his back to the hoop). I'd categorize him in the bottom half of offensive SU centers in the Boeheim era, which would put him far below what everyone claims Coleman's skill level to be.
[**EDIT: in the spirit of wasting a little time on a Wednesday evening, I threw together a somewhat arbitrary and subjective ranking and learned that Etan is in fact in the top half of the 20 centers who logged serious minutes in the Boeheim era - 9th, behind Hill, Onuaku, Seikaly, Ellis, Schayes, Bouie, Jackson, and Manning. Better offensive skills than Hawkins, Melo, Reafsnyder, Watkins, McRae, Ovcina, Keita, Siock, McNeil, Forth, and Celuck, in my estimation. This would be a fun thread by itself, by the way.]
(I'm not as bullish on Coleman as some, but he does seem to have better touch [when he's calm] and much better hands than Etan.)
The SU website has numbers back to the 1982-83 season. Here is what i have for SU's starting centers in that time in points per 40 minutes:
1982-83 Andre Hawkins 11.0
1983-84 Andre Hawkins 14.7
1984-85 Rony Seikaly 12.9
1985-86 Rony Seikaly 14.8
1986-87 Rony Seikaly 22.2
1987-88 Rony Seikaly 21.0
1988-89 Derrick Coleman 20.4
1989-90 LeRon Ellis 11.3
1990-91 LeRon Ellis 15.3
1991-92 Conrad MacRae 11.8
1992-93 Conrad MacRae 16.4
1993-94 Otis Hill 13.2
1994-95 Otis Hill 12.8
1995-96 Otis Hill 20.8
1996-97 Otis Hill 21.3
1997-98 Etan Thomas 15.7
1998-99 Etan Thomas 17.7
1999-00 Etan Thomas 16.8
2000-01 Bill Celuck 10.0
2001-02 Craig Forth 9.1
2002-03 Craig Forth 8.5
2003-04 Craig Forth 9.8
2004-05 Craig Forth 9.5
2005-06 Darryl Watkins 9.6
2006-07 Darryl Watkins 11.1
2007-08 Arinze Onuaku 16.6
2008-09 Arinze Onuaku 15.5
2009-10 Arinze Onuaku 18.5
2010-11 Fab Melo 9.4
2011-12 Fab Melo 12.3
2012-13 DuJuan Coleman 15.0
I'd rate Etan behind Seikaly, Derrick Coleman, (who was a forward playing center for one year), Hill and (slightly) Onuaku. I recall Bouie as a defensive center whose offensive game was all dunks and lay-ups. Thomas was better than Rosie on offense. Schayes would out-rank Etan on offense because of his shooting ability. Rick Jackson was never our starting center although he did back up AO his first couple of years. I would rank him above Etan offensively but moreso in the years when he was playing power forward. Manning might have been better when he played for Washington but not here. Ellis was not comperable to Etan offensively.