Best/Worst UF PGs

[Double Gator Dad]

I love this thread as well, I like nearly any basketball thread.
We could debate this over and over without a clear winner which is fine with me.

Most talented - Jason Williams (Didn't play enough for me to call him the best)
Best shooter - Roberson/Green
Best passer - Colathes
Best floor general - Wilbekin
Most improved - Chiozza
Best defender - Hamilton/Wilbekin

Worst Point Guard - Nabe Palmer (He tried but he was not a D1 player)
Most disappointing - Kasey Hill
Most frustrating/enraging - Erving Walker
Most underappreciated - Andrew Moten
Best back up - Ronnie Montgomery (Very good player that played behind Moten for several years)

Okay, I will stop. I get carried away sometimes

 

[stephenPE]

I love this thread as well, I like nearly any basketball thread.
We could debate this over and over without a clear winner which is fine with me.

Most talented - Jason Williams (Didn't play enough for me to call him the best)
Best shooter - Roberson/Green
Best passer - Colathes
Best floor general - Wilbekin
Most improved - Chiozza
Best defender - Hamilton/Wilbekin

Worst Point Guard - Nabe Palmer (He tried but he was not a D1 player)
Most disappointing - Kasey Hill
Most frustrating/enraging - Erving Walker
Most underappreciated - Andrew Moten
Best back up - Ronnie Montgomery (Very good player that played behind Moten for several years)

Okay, I will stop. I get carried away sometimes

Cross and Brown (Kruger's final four guards ) have to be in the convo for you Dad.

 

[Circle City Gator]

Ronnie Montgomery and Andrew Moten were two of the first Gator PG's that I remember as a teenager, when UF - finally (in my early lifetime) - had a good basketball team. Those two, along and Maxwell were fun to watch.

Thank you for mentioning Moten. He was a great ball player and a pretty decent person, too.

 

[Circle City Gator]

I played pick up ball with Moten and Montgomery at Ft Clark one day. Moten would take 2-3 steps inside half court and bomb. I bet he hit about 75% of them. 2nd team All SEC three years in a row, he's gotta be up there.

1. Wilbekin
2. Green
3. Hamilton
4. Cross
5. Moten

They used to show up at a local school, I think it was a middle school, with a regular pick up game. One day they brought Maxwell and Schintzius with them. Schintzius obviously could have had his way with all of us inside, but he never got closer than 15' and hit everything. And Mad Max, well, he was amazing. With weekend warriors defending against him his jump shot range was unlimited and his shot effortless.

 

[Wuerffel4Pres]

I too have a real soft spot for Jason Hamilton, but somehow it never came completely together for him at UF. Perhaps his coach was too young and did not yet have an appreciation for a steady PG who was a solid defender. I am not sure. I thought at the time Hamilton had the chance to be the type of player Wilbekin later was.

I think you mean Justin.

But yeah, Justin was one of the best on-the-ball perimeter defenders I've ever seen play. He reminded me of Ricky Moore for UConn back in their first national championship season (1998-99). Both incredibly underrated point guards who were crucial to their team's success.

20 games or not, Jason Williams is the best point guard UF ever had and it's not even close. The eye test says it all. I still remember him single-handedly winning at Kentucky in 1998 (you know? That Kentucky team that ended up winning a national championship that year.)

We've actually had quite a quartet of floor generals: Cross, Green, Wilbekin, & Chiozza. All of them saw the floor well and distributed the ball with ease.

But it's all subjective and to each their own.

But all Gators and for that I am glad.

 

[Great White Buffalo]

They used to show up at a local school, I think it was a middle school, with a regular pick up game. One day they brought Maxwell and Schintzius with them. Schintzius obviously could have had his way with all of us inside, but he never got closer than 15' and hit everything. And Mad Max, well, he was amazing. With weekend warriors defending against him his jump shot range was unlimited and his shot effortless.

Yeah, there were some major league mismatches out there. Even Montgomery, never known as a great shooter, drained just about everything. Vernon was one of the best pure athletes, in any sport, to ever play at UF. He was 1st team all state in hoops and football as a senior and, if I'm not mistaken, didn't even play football as a junior. He played safety and I have no doubt would've played in the NFL if he had chosen football instead of hoops.

 

[Jbossgator8]

Who in the heck is Nabe Palmer and what year did he/she play?!

 

[InstiGATOR1]

Who in the heck is Nabe Palmer and what year did he/she play?!

Search engines are your friend:

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/nabe-palmer-1.html

 

[LeeForThree]

Best PG is clearly Nembhard. A bit early but trust me he is a gem

 

[VAGator]

wilbie and cheese

 

[Egor's Assistant]

Best PG is clearly Nembhard. A bit early but trust me he is a gem

That's what I think. I think our best PG is gonna be some guy in the future. Hopefully from the Mike White era.

As for our past Gator PGs, I agree with so much of what has been posted. Irving Walker was a recruiting safety net, and too short to lead us to the promised land. Kasey Hill was a puzzling head case, a good defender but the worst free-throw shooter for a point guard ever! Cheese has been so fun to watch over the years. He owns the assist record because he was better than Kasey Hill and contributed all four years. If we ever do have another super star point guard like a Jason Williams or a Nick Calathes, they'll probably go Pro after only one or two season also.

So if we're talking best GATOR PG ever, I'll go
1.)Tauren Green. Obvious.
2.)Scotty Wilbekin. Home town kid with amazing tourney record over four years.
3.)Cheese --- counting on another good run in the tourney
4.)Dan Cross - our first final four.
5.)Player to be named later.

 

[LeeForThree]

I'd have to go with Taurean Green, but Calathes and Wilbekin are 1B and 1C, no order

 

[Bernardo de la Paz]

To me Jason Williams is the clear #1.

Yeah, he only played 20 games and like Wilbekin tested positive for pot twice.

But he was simply amazing, and in my opinion did a lot for our program. We were awful in Billy's first year and then white chocolate came in and showed us what Billy ball could be. If he wasn't willing to sit out a year to come play for us, we probably would have been just as awful in Billy's second year as his first. If that had happened, maybe we never sign Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem...

 

[GatorJ]

Seems to me that Teddy Dupay isn't getting much love. That guy was money.

He was mainly a 2. One of my favorite players ever. One of my favorite moments ever is when he jumped on the scoring table.

 

[78]

The question posed was who was best, not who played longest. How anyone could not recognize Williams is beyond me. He was head and shoulders above the rest regardless how many games he played.

If you were naming an all-time UF team, you would start with him.

 

[MertzJay26]

Best PG is clearly Nembhard. A bit early but trust me he is a gem

 

[Durfish]

The question posed was who was best, not who played longest. How anyone could not recognize Williams is beyond me. He was head and shoulders above the rest regardless how many games he played.

If you were naming an all-time UF team, you would start with him.

Yup. If out of all of the Gator possibilities I were to put one PG on the floor it would be White Chocolate.

 

[Double Gator Dad]

Yeah, there were some major league mismatches out there. Even Montgomery, never known as a great shooter, drained just about everything. Vernon was one of the best pure athletes, in any sport, to ever play at UF. He was 1st team all state in hoops and football as a senior and, if I'm not mistaken, didn't even play football as a junior. He played safety and I have no doubt would've played in the NFL if he had chosen football instead of hoops.

On three occasions in my 36 years as a season ticket holder, I have seen a Gator basketball player for the first time and stated that he was clearly an NBA talent. The first one was Vermin Maxwell. One game watching him and you could see that he was athletically superior to all the other players on the court and possessed a skill set unlike the others.
The other two were Mike Miller and Bradley Beal.

I thought that Al Horford had the potential but he didn't jump out at you like the three I named at the first look.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

I laughed out loud when i read brett nelson listed as one of UF's best PGs. He was an absolutely dreadful PG. Was a good shooting guard b/c he could get hot and drain serious 3's but his ball handling skills were horrific and single handedly lost us quite a few games. Only reason he would take the point was because we had very bad guard play during that early 2000s stint.

 

[Gatorphan]

I gotta go with Scottie. I don't recall JWill playing any defense. That's a huge asset for a PG. As bad as Kasey Hill was, his on-ball defense was key in getting us to an elite 8.