Ed Cota? Really?
The college basketball season is here, and already there’s a surprise: The Daily Tar Heel came out with a list of the top 10 all-time UNC men’s basketball players, and Ed Cota is No. 10 on the list, which looks like this:
1. Phil Ford (1974-1978)
2. James Worthy (1979-1982)
3. Michael Jordan (1981-1984)
4. Tyler Hansborough (2005-2009)
5. Lennie Rosenbluth (1954-1957)
6. Antawn Jamison (1995-1998)
7. George Glamack (1938-1941)
8. Charlie Scott (1967-1970)
9. Sam Perkins (1980-1984)
10. Ed Cota (1996-2000)
I grew up watching those great UNC teams in the late 90s with Cota, Jamison, and Vince Carter. Cota was a terrific passer, but there’s no way he’s one of the 10 best players in UNC history, not by a long shot. His defense was suspect, his quickness questionable, and his shot unreliable. As long as he had Jamison, Carter, and the other pieces of those great UNC teams around, he could hide his flaws and just do what he was so amazing at — pass the ball. When those guys left, however, and the subsequent teams needed more from him than just fancy passing, he just didn’t provide enough. I’m not saying that he wasn’t a good point guard overall, but the guy has no business being among the top 10 best UNC players, not when the likes of Billy Cunningham and Jerry Stackhouse aren’t on the list.
Kenny Smith
Larry Miller
Mitch Kupchak
Cunningham
Stackhouse
Wallace
Carter
Felton
Lawson
And that's just off the top of my head. Cota is a ridiculous choice for Top Ten. Fine player, maybe mid-20s in UNC history.
stackhouse brad dougherty
sam perkins mitch kupchak
worthy phil ford
hansbrough carter
jamison
jordan
To "KRYS", I've deleted your comment. Feel free to disagree with my posts, but keep the profanity to yourself. You're welcome to repost your comment in a more civil manner.
There could always be more added to these lists. Ed is legit. 3rd in NCAA history in assists. The only guy in NCAA history with 1000 points, 1000 assists and 500 rebounds. 1,000+ assists! That's a lot. He also led 3 teams to Final Fours. And Vince Carter was only there one year. He did bookend his career with Joe Forte on the squad. But the other years his boys were Max Owens, Ademola Okulaja, etc. Not that Max was bad! We had some good guys.
I think Cota's abilities were maybe too smooth for some to appreciate. He could spin, make moves at full speed and make passes from any angle. His defense wasn't suspect by the numbers considering he averaged well over 1 steal a game in each of his 4 seasons. Which isn't bad for an ACC guard. I'm sure there was a game once in a while where a good opposing guard lit him up. But he played in a very tough ACC and UNC schedules harder than anyone historically. He was not a terrible scorer when he needed to be. He had a solid floater in the lane and was decent at FT and 3-point shooting. But the bottom line was a 4-year star who has done nothing but win, including his Euro-Basketball career. Which has been stellar, to say the least.
Hi Bennett. Thanks for reading and commenting. To be clear, as I said in the post, I'm not saying Cota wasn't a good point guard or good player (heck, I would've killed to have an Ed Cota at UNC the last year and a half), but rather that if you're talking about the 10 best players of all-time at UNC, there are a number of names, some of which other commenters have listed, that should come before his.
A couple specific things about your comment:
1) Vince Carter actually played two seasons with Cota, both of which resulted in Final Four trips, not one.
2) I think the steals-per-game stat can be a bit deceptive when judging a player's defensive performance. Certainly getting steals is part of playing defense, but averaging 1-plus steals a game only reflects what you did on a couple possessions during the game, and if you're consistently lit up on the other possessions, that number becomes less impressive. It's like assists: Larry Drew II only averaged 0.5 fewer assists per game last season than Ty Lawson did in his final season at UNC, but I think we can agree the two certainly were not that close in terms of their abilities to effectively run an offense. When it comes to steals, unless you're averaging two or three steals, the per-game average is not a very reliable indicator of how effective your defense is.
3) Regarding the "the only NCAA player with 1000 pts, 1000 assists, and 500 rebounds" bit, while that sounds impressive, we should also keep in mind that Cota also played in 138 games, which is A LOT. Certainly, he earned part of that by being good enough to be a 4-year starter and by helping his teams win a lot, but if you break it down over 138 games, he averaged 9 pts, 7.5 assists, and 3.5 rebounds. Those numbers bear out pretty much the player he was: An amazing passer, a slightly better rebounder than the typical point guard, and a mediocre scorer. If we're talking about top-10 point guards at UNC, he's right up there; but not for top-10 players.