re: Who beats LSU's basketball all-time starting five ?

Can you list their potential starting 5s?

North Carolina:

G M. Jordan
G Phil Ford
C Sam Perkins
F J Worthy
F A Jamison

I feel like Purdue and Arkansas can GTFO.

anderson hunt
greg anthony
stacey augmon
larry johnson
david butler
unlv 1990 ncaa champs

I've been treating this whole thing as how the teams would compete if their alumni were magically placed on a team when they were all in their primes.

Using THAT assumption, Duke would absolutely get murdered compared to some of the all-time greats that are being mentioned here (UCLA, UNC, Georgetown, LSU, etc).

People forget how great of a defender and passer Jordan was. He wasn't JUST a scorer.

As for Hakeem vs Shaq, I still take Hakeem. Shaq has always been a liability at the free throw line, whereas Hakeem was historically pretty good. Makes him more effective in the 4th quarter and puts more pressure on opposing defenses. Rebounding wise they're pretty much even. Hakeem was also a superior defender.

None of that is said with any disrespect towards Shaq. I just have more appreciation for Olajuwon's game, which was beautiful IMO.

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Using THAT assumption, Duke would absolutely get murdered compared to some of the all-time greats that are being mentioned here (UCLA, UNC, Georgetown, LSU, etc).

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In essence then you are saying players at the professional peak. Using that standard, Chris Jackson would get murdered because his peak was as a college freshman. Pete Maravich had a good NBA career but clearly peaked in college. Pro players are always greater than college players.

Laetner, Hill and Dawkins were all great college players. Injuries hurt Hill in the NBA, Dawkins was good, not great in the pros. At their college peak, those 3 were all time greats.

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In essence then you are saying players at the professional peak. Using that standard, Chris Jackson would get murdered because his peak was as a college freshman. Pete Maravich had a good NBA career but clearly peaked in college. Pro players are always greater than college players.

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Exactly what I'm saying. College level defenses are a whole different story than the pros. If you can score in college, great. But it's not necessarily going to transfer to the highest level.

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i just think its stupid when people say Olajuwon dominated Shaq.

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No Olajuwon didn't dominate Shaq. That matchup was more like 60-40 to Olajuwon. He did make David "The Admiral" Robinson into his baby-back bitch in the conference finals though!

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both were great, and its not a slight when I say Shaq in his prime was better than Hakeem.

some people will admire Hakeem's gracefulness and defensive prowess and just assume he was better, but i dont think he was.

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Like some mentioned, Hakeem was dominating in the era when there were still legit big men. I love Shaq but he played when there were a bunch of scrubs at center.

The part where you mentioned defensive prowess is what sets them apart for me. The guy is top 10 in steals as a center for God's sake. He's also the top all-time shot blocker. Defensively, he's the best center of all-time.

When you're in the top 10 all-time in blocks, scoring, rebounding and steals you're pretty much the definition of an elite well-rounded player.

Now I'm biased because the Dream is my all-time favorite player but Hakeem can make an argument against almost all players including Shaq.

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Hakeen Olajuwon (owns Shaq)

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When they met in the finals HO was in his prime and Shaq was a rookie and they STILL had nearly identical numbers in the finals. Houston had a much much better team around HO.