With Gates, for me, it's not about what he achieved. It's about what he should have achieved and what he could have achieved. If you just look at the numbers, it looks like he was one of our better players. But, all I saw was the body he was blessed with, the skills he was blessed with, and the effort he put out. He should have been in the NBA after the first year here. But, his effort resulted in him never setting foot in the NBA. That's sad....and disappointing.
SK on the other hand, was not blessed with great skills, was not overly athletic, was not blessed with great speed, but with great effort, turned an average college career into a 1st Team All American, and has earned a 3 year contract in the league after continuing to work hard for years after he left here. On top of that, he is one of the classiest individuals I've ever seen and is a player we can all be proud of. Gates doesn't deserve to be in the same conversation with SK.
For most of Lance's season, I found myself somewhat disappointed with him. He came highly touted, didn't wow me, had an attitude, seemed to mess up the team chemistry, and then he left. I almost don't view him as a Bearcat. But, since he is almost all we've had in the NBA in the Cronin era, I guess we'll claim him. He's rated highly in the Cronin era more because of what he did after he left, than what he did while he was here in my opinion.
I'll say it again, this is a pretty weak list of greats for a ten year period. The current roster certainly has a good chance of pushing half this list out of the top 10 pretty quickly.
