Friday Five: My Five Favorite College Basketball Players

I love watching March Madness. It's not always kind to me, but it's still one of the best sporting events around. This year, I have a few different rooting interests that are floating around in both the men's and women's tournaments. I thought it would be fun to post my favorite college basketball players for this week's Friday Five post.

Unfortunately, not all of these players have cards.  

Honorable Mention - Elissa Cunane - NC State 2018-2022 

The best sports team at NC State over the past decade has been the women's basketball team. They are consistently ranked, play at a high level, and compete for titles at both the conference and national level. Elissa Cunane was their center the last few years and was a big part of the reason the team won three consecutive ACC Championships. She's a skilled big person who scored around the basket, but also shot three pointers and could run the floor. Elissa was drafted by an WNBA team, but ended up playing this past year in Europe. The Wolfpack women's team is playing Princeton in the first round of the NCAA tournament. A bit of a down year without Elissa this year.  

Honorable Mention - Lorenzo Brown - NC State 2010-2013 

NC State was horrible while I was in school there. The team was coached by Sidney Lowe, who was the point guard on the 1983 National Championship team. The biggest problem was that he could not develop a point guard. The last year I was in college and Sidney Lowe coached State, he brought in Lorenzo Brown as the team's star recruit. Too bad Sidney got fired, because he actually got a good point guard with Lorenzo.   

I am not going to go look up his stats, because they don't matter. Lorenzo Brown just played basketball the right way. He was good on defense, great passer, and he scored when the team needed some points. If you made a list of the attributes for the ideal college point guard, Lorenzo Brown would have them all. The team ended up making a Sweet 16 run while he was there. 

Not as flashy as some of the other players on this list, but still ended up playing in the NBA for a few years with the Toronto Raptors.  Lorenzo is also on the Puerto Rican National Team has had some big games in World Cup and Olympic-type events.  

5. Cat Barber - NC State 2013-2016 

Cat deserved better. He was a great player who was at NC State while the team was filled with underachievers and crappy coach. Cat is from the Hampton Roads region in southeast Virginia, same as Allen Iverson. As shifty, quick point guards, the two drew a lot of comparisons. In my opinion, the comparison hurt Cat. He got a bad rep at times and it was not deserved. Cat grew a lot as a player during his years in Raleigh and ended up averaging 23 points per game and almost 5 assists per game their senior year. Cat was a dominant college player who probably could have done a lot of damage in the NCAA Tournament with a better coach who could have utilized the supporting cast a little better.  

Cat was drafted by the 76ers, but never really stuck in the NBA. He played a few games with the Atlanta Hawks, but has been a fixture in the G League and Europe. Panini made a bunch of cards of Cat when he was first drafted, almost all NC State cards. The Panini cards list him as "Anthony Barber", but he signed all of his autographs as just "Cat".  

Mike Krzyzewski heading back to the locker room after his press conference and walks up to Markell Johnson, hugs his and says “you played a great game... not a good game but a great game.” #DUKEvsNCST @ABC11_WTVD pic.twitter.com/TPFyrpXriZ

— Bridget Condon (@BridgetCondon_) February 20, 2020

4. Markell Johnson - NC State - 2016-2020 

Markell does not have a basketball card, which stinks. Of the players who have been at NC State under their current coach, Kevin Keatts, Markell Johnson is my favorite player. He stayed in college all four years, did not transfer, and got better every year he was in college. Best thing about Markell was that he showed up in big ways when State played big games. 

Markell was a great passer. He averaged more than 5 assists per game for his college career and is third all-time in school's history. Markell also has 4 of the 10 highest assist games in the history of the school.  He's not in the NBA or G League, but has spent time playing professionally in Turkey.  

3. William "Bud" Eley - Southeast Missouri State 1995-1999 

The Ohio Valley Conference has Belmont, Murray State, and Austin Peay. It's a tough league. Southeast Missouri is always a step below those schools, which stinks when you're a conference that only sends one team to the NCAA Tournament. While I was in school there, the team had Bud Eley. He was a 6'10 center who was an all-conference player three years, conference player of the year. He led the conference in scoring, rebounds, and block shots. I believe he lead Division I basketball in double-doubles his last two years. If you went to a SEMO basketball game in the late 1990s, Bud was going to score his points, get his rebounds, and block a bunch of shots. Was anyone else going to help him?  

Depends on the night.  

Bud never made the NCAA Tournament.  

Thanks, Murray State. 

Bud Eley never played in the NBA, but had a long career playing in Spain. He even has basketball cards, but I cannot find any of them online. Panini has made several sets for the ACB, Spanish Pro League, and Eley has cards in the set.  

Southeast Missouri did make the tournament this year.  

They did not win their game in the First Four against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and their mascot may or may not have broken a Pitt Panthers sign in the arena.   

2. Anthony Peeler - Missouri - 1988-1992 

Anthony Peeler rolled out of bed in the morning and was good for 20 points. I grew up watching the Norm Stewart era Mizzou teams, there were other good players, but Peeler was the best of the group. Peeler could shoot from the perimeter or drive to the basket. I know Doug Smith was at Mizzou around the same time as Peeler, but he did not have the excitement factor of Peeler. He could do it all and won Big 8 Conference Player of the Year in 1992.  

Anthony Peeler played in the NBA for a long time and has a lot of basketball cards. I like this 1994 Topps cards with Charles Barkley's head in the background. Peeler's crowning achievement as an NBA player was probably punching Kevin Garnett in the face during a playoff series game 6 in 2004. 

Peeler and Garnett were teammates for a few years on the Timberwolves.  

1. T.J. Warren - NC State - 2013-2014

Long ago, when players stayed in school for four years, T.J. Warren would have set every offensive record at NC State. He played two years at State, didn't start his freshman year, and still averaged 12 points per game. In his sophomore year, Warren averaged 25 a game and was the ACC Player of the Year and a consensus All-American. Warren is a bit of a throwback with most of his points coming on runners and mid-range jumpers.

T.J. is still playing in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns. He's been injury-prone as a pro, but still has his good scoring touch. For his career, T.J. is averaging a little over 25 minutes per game while scoring 15 points per game. 

Weekend Countdown: My Favorite College Basketball Cards

This was the weekend that we were supposed to be watching the NCAA Final Four.  I spent my weekend sorting cards, planning some online lessons for my students, and also wrangling my own kids.  Somewhere in there, I had a little bit of time to sort through my basketball cards.  

Here is this week's single rules:  

• Cards have to show the player in their college uniform, no airbrushed out logos, or NBA cards. 
• Multiple universities are represented on my list, it's not just my 10 favorite NC State cards.  

Let's go.  

10. 2009-2010 Upper Deck Brandon Costner 

He played at NC State while I was in college there.  Good player.  He was a power forward who had a nice outside jumper, even shot some threes.  He ended up playing in Spain, China, and the G-League after college.  His claim to fame at NC State was that Tyler Hansbrough once got a technical foul for trying to slap him after grabbing a rebound.  

  

There is an autographed version of this card out there somewhere.  I don't own it.  

9. 2016-2017 NC State Basketball Card Set Dennis Smith 

There is a table at all of the NC State sporting events that is covered in posters, schedules, and all sorts of free stuff.  For a long time they gave away basketball cards, though they have stopped in recent years.  Generally they did one or two players per game, each player was available for a game or two.  

Here is the card.  

Never quite sure how to view Smith.  He was a great player, but State was a terrible team the year he played there.  Plus, he took money on the side from Adidas, and is likely going to get State put on probation here in the next year or two.  

8. 2012-2013 UD Black Lorenzo Brown Autograph 

Lorenzo was a freshman the last year that I was in college.  Great point guard.  Great vision.  He was on a team that ended up in the Sweet 16, and probably did not get the credit he deserved.  Plays like this......

Everyone is looking at the result, which was a dunk over a defender, but miss the fact that the pass was threaded through 3 defenders.  

  

This is a nice card.  

Lorenzo played on the 2018-2019 Toronto Raptors NBA Championship team, but has bounced around the NBA and a few other professional leagues.  I believe he played last season in Europe.  

7. 2009-2010 Upper Deck Courtney Fells Autograph 

The sad part about NC State's basketball team while I was in college was not the fact that they were bad, it was the fact that they were bad and they had talented players.  Courtney Fells only averaged a dozen points or so during his time playing in college, but he was the player on the team that would make plays that would have to watch a few times when you got home to figure out how he made the play.  

I have no idea how he blocked this shot.  

Fancy in game dunks.  Steph Curry bricks the shot that leads to this fast break.  

 

Loved watching Courtney play.  

6. 1995 Classic Rookies Autographs Erwin Claggett 

The last few years I was in high school, Saint Louis University was really good.  SLU played in the Kiel Center with the Blues, so there were always plenty of tickets.  They were coached by Charlie Spoonhour, who played four guards and a forward, and the offense relied heavily on three pointers.  They made the NCAA Tournament a few times, and played a really good game against Wake Forest in the second round while Tim Duncan was in school.  Claggett was one of the better players on the team.  I am not sure if I would classify him as a shooting guard or point guard, but he was a good player. 

I wouldn't watch the whole clip, but he is in here a few times if you watch it for a minute.  

 

I did not even know this card existed until a year or two ago, when I saw someone I follow for Cardinals cards tweeted out a picture of it.  I thought it might be a custom card of some sort.  Nope, it was real.  

5. 2017 Panini Contenders Dennis Smith Autograph 

Again, mixed feelings about Dennis Smith and his time at NC State, but this is the only college basketball card that I have ever really tried to chase down.  The rest of the cards on this list were just sort of there, and I bought them for small amounts of money.  This was an expensive card for a long time, and then he got traded to the Knicks.  

As the only college basketball card I have ever worked hard to add to my collection, I can rank this card in the middle of my list.  If NC State gets a punch of penalties, I will never speak of this card again.  

4. 1992 Classic Anthony Peeler 

I get frustrated talking to people in North Carolina about Anthony Peeler.  What do most people remember Anthony Peeler for?  Punching Kevin Garnett in the face.  

 

I assure people he was a great college player, not just an NBA role player who punched a really good player once during a playoff game.  He was the Big 8 Player of the Year, an All-American, and I believe he is the school's all-time leader in a few different categories, maybe steals and assists.  I think Steve Stipanovich might have scored more.  There is a name for you.  

Long highlight, but here he is dropping 43 on Kansas.  

and here is the card.  

I have no idea how his jersey is not retired, or honored by Mizzou.  

3. 2014-2015 SPX T.J. Warren Autograph 

Easily my favorite player I have watched at NC State. T.J. Warren won the ACC Player of the Year his sophomore year, which was his final year in college.  He scored a ton of points, that was his thing.  Warren was nicknamed "Tony Buckets: in college.  I don't think its stuck in the NBA.  Kind of a throwback player in that he scores a lot of his points on jumpers and runners inside the three point line, but he is not someone who is really aggressive driving at the rim. 

I think this basket kind of exemplifies what he does well.  He is doing this same stuff for the Indiana Pacers, only he's gotten better at shooting 3s since going pro.  Scores just under 20 a game in the NBA.  

This was one of my first cards I got of T.J. Warren 

2. 2016-2017 Panini Black Gold Collegiate Basketball Cat Barber Autograph 

Cat is my second favorite NC State player after T.J. Warren.  He was on a Sweet 16 team while he was at State.  Barber was the point guard on the team that upset Villanova, which led to the crying piccolo player.  

Classic.  

Barber was quick, had a nice jumper, and a good feel for the game.  

I think he is too small and slight for the NBA, but he has played professionally in Europe and the G League since leaving State.  Great college player though, and I am happy that Panini gave him a college basketball card.  

All of his autographed cards are signed "Cat".  

1. Upper Deck Exquisite Collection T.J. Warren Autograph 

I know there has already been a T.J. Warren card on the list, but this one is even nicer.  

Does anyone else collect college basketball cards?  

What are your favorite college basketball players?  

A Post About Cats

I am really not a cat person.  I had pets as a kid, but they were all dogs.  I could handle having a dog as a pet now, but my wife does not do well with pet fur, or dander, so we currently have a pet fish for my seven year old.

This is Ben.  He's a Beta.

So much easier to care for than a cat, or a dog.  

Unfortunately, I still have to deal with cats on a nearly daily basis at work.  You may say, if you are a long time reader, don't you work at a school as a teacher?  How are there cats at a school?  Great question.  I would be happy to answer.  

This is the view from my window of my classroom.  There are at least three cats in this picture.  One is on top of the trash can and two are next to the trash can.  The picture is also a year old, so I can tell you that there are actually more cats that hang out at this picnic shelter.  I do not have any recent pictures though, I shut my blinds when the cats are outside this year.

Last year's class didn't care about the cats.  This year's class cares a lot about the cats.

The school I work at is in the middle of a subdivision on one side.  Pretty cool for the kids who live there and they can just walk down the street and be at school.  The other side of the school has a bunch of random houses.  One of them is a wiener dog breeder.  Another one of the houses has a ton of pets, including outdoor cats that come over to the school during the day.

Regrettably, a co-worker last year decided that feeding the cats would be a good idea.  Now, it seems like we are stuck with the cats.

There is only one kind of cat that I really like.  Not really a cat, just a basketball player who has the nickname "Cat", but he uses it in place of his real first name.  He has basketball cards, which say Anthony Barber, but that's just not right.

He just signs Cat.

This is my newest Cat Barber card.  I have posted two other cards on here over the past few months.  I am slowly building up a small collection of his cards as the slowly get cheaper.  I was never quite sure why they were sort of expensive, $20 or so, in the first place.  The last time I checked Cat was prowling the floor over in Italy for Brindisi.  It's on the heel of the boot.  

He has been out of school for two years, but was a very talented point guard for three years at NC State.  Very quick player, very fast.  He is from the Hampton/Tidewater area of Virginia and spent most of his college career getting compared to Allen Iverson.  

So, a quick review.......

Cat.  

Scratches stuff, smells funny, pees in a box.  Not a good pet, or good to have roaming around work.   

Cat.  

Shifty, elusive, and very quick.  Good basketball player.


Stray Cats.

I like this song, even if it's about the smelly cats.  

Panini's Imaginary Cat Story

Back to basketball tonight and Cat Barber cards.  They have been a little bit on the high side for the past year and half since he left college after his junior season at NC State.  While he was in Raleigh he became one of the best point guards in the ACC.  His main weapon on the basketball court is his extraordinary quickness.  Some would say he's shifty.  If you are unfamiliar with Cat here's a quick look....

I have already picked up one of his cards earlier this summer....

Based strictly on appearance I could understand why some of the sellers on Ebay are looking to get a little bit of money out of these cards, but at this point Cat was a really good all-conference college player who is going to end up having a nice long career playing basketball over in Europe.  I keep a close eye on things over on Ebay, and every once in awhile one of these cards ends up in an auction and they sell for $5 or less.  Sounds like a better price for someone I really liked watching while they were in college.  


Luckily, I was able to recently pick up another Cat Barber autograph.  Who wouldn't want a card that is just simply signed "Cat"?  Plus it features him in an NC State uniform and has a white, red, and black jersey swatch I would guess comes from a home jersey.

I love the design of this Immaculate Collection cards.  I know that Panini also makes college baseball cards with similar designs.  I have a few of guys like Trea Turner and Carlos Rodon, but I did not pull them out for comparison.  The signature is on-card too, which is just the icing on the cake for this card.  Well, that was until I turned the card over to the back......

and we get some suggestion about how Anthony Barber gained his "Cat" nickname due to his agility and quickness on the basketball court.  Please.  It takes about a thirty second internet search to find half a dozen stories explaining the origins of Anthony's "Cat" nickname.....

Apparently the story revolves around a 4 year old Cat Barber's love of Oatmeal Cream Pies, not basketball quickness.  

A box of Little Debbie's has more of a place on the back of these cards than whatever drivel Panini wrote.  From ACC Media Day in 2015:

"When I was little, I used to climb on a lot of stuff to get into cabinets for snacks and stuff,'' Barber said. One day, he was going after some oatmeal cream pies located in a cabinet over the stove. He stepped on the stove, burning his foot.

"My mom was like 'Stop climbing around like a little cat','' he said. "My sister started calling me that and it blew up.''

And there you have it, nothing to do with basketball.  Even Cat's Wikipedia biography has the nickname origins correct.  When you're more inaccurate than Wikipedia, well....I am sure that the back of the Cat Barber card wasn't a huge priority for whatever employee writes the little blurbs on the backs of the cards, but it would be nice to at least make them somewhat accurate.  

Interestingly enough, Cat does have a basketball nickname he picked up from his time at NC State which he uses in his Instagram user name.....

Honest.  Former NC State coach Mark Gottfried explains the origins of that nickname.....

“There’s nothing fake or phony about Cat.  He is who he is. What you get every day is the real Cat.”

Honestly, this is still a very nice looking card even if Panini is unwilling to put in a little leg work to find some interesting facts out about a Cat.   For example, he hates being called Anthony.  He also hates made up stories....

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/nc-state/article46449005.html#storylink=cpy

Just Cat

Venturing outside of baseball cards tonight to pay homage to college basketball.  Easily my second favorite sport outside of baseball.  Like 80% of people who live in the Triangle (figurative statistic, not actual) I am not actually from Raleigh, Durham, nor Chapel Hill, so I picked my ACC school of choice later in life after going through grad school.  If you are not a regular reader, I graduated from the red North Carolina school.  

This one....

We are not Duke, nor Carolina (insert snarky comment about attending class), but State is still a decent basketball program.  In the past few years the Wolfpack have been a regular in the NCAA Tournament and made it into the Sweet Sixteen twice.  One of those appearances resulted in the infamous crying piccolo girl at Villanova.....

The past two years have been disappointing though.  The team has regressed back to their form from when I was in school there.  Bottom half of the league in the standings, poor play from highly recruited players, etc.  I thought we were past things like this.......

which was easily the worst thing I have ever seen at a basketball game.  State hasn't even really had the chance to lose games that dramatically the past two years.  They have just been bad.  Still, there have been some really good players on the team the past two years.  Last year the Wolfpack were led by super freshman Dennis Smith Jr.  The previous year the team had sensational point guard Anthony "Cat" Barber.  

Barber is from Newport News and draws a lot of comparisons to Allen Iverson.  They are from the same area, both are small undersized guards with a lot of speed.  

Cat ended up leaving State after his junior year of college and spent a chunk of last season in the D-League.  I still have hope that he will crack an NBA roster at some point.  He's a great player, hard worker, no doubt he will have a chance.  

In the meantime, I have ventured out looking for a few nice basketball cards of the shifty guard.  I love that you can find cards of players in their college basketball uniforms.  He actually has three or four cards out there, but I liked this Panini card the best....

Just a beautiful card, made way better by the fact that Cat Barber autographed the card with just the word Cat.  The gold pen looks nice on the black background.  The card actually has a fairly glossy finish, but it looks a little bit on the matte side after the scan.....the back of the card.....

The back does seem to have some sort of weird two sided thing going on, if you look at the middle of Cat's face.  Not sure what effect Panini was going for here.  Still I like the black and white picture with the NC State logo down at the bottom of the card.  Happy to start off the Cat Barber collection and hope to add a few more nice autographs in the near future.  Hopefully a few of them will be of Cat in an NBA uniform....