Always fun to read top ten lists. DNR has a story about Matt Lewis tieing Kent Culuko in scoring.
I went to school with Sherman, Stielper, and Pat Dosh.
I saw Sherman get 41 one night. He got about 20 inches off the floor when he did his jump shot.
Dosh was a 6'4" forward who was tough and just realy a good player.
Stielper played with Dosh, but not with Sherman...Sherm was hurt during Steve's freshman year. Three top ten scorers playing in Godwin Hall during my years there. Not bad.

William Davis was perhaps the most fun player I ever saw for JMU.
Darren McClinton was fun too.

1. Steve Stielper - 2126 points
2. Sherman Dillard - 2065
3. Matt Lewis - 1701
3. Kent Culuko - 1701
5. Ron Curry - 1550
6. Darren McClinton - 1533
7. William Davis - 1505
8. Pat Dosh - 1458
9. Juwann James - 1456
10. Julius Wells - 1414

BSK correct me if I got it wrong. :)

I think the two best players we ever had are not on the list.

Linton Townes. He missed about 2-3rds of his sophomore year.

Steve Hood, transfer that we only had for two years.

Agree on William Davis. Exciting.

And Davis was so efficient. He is the only person on this list who did not play starter's minutes, averaging barely 20 min per game for his career. I didn't see Stielper or Dillard, but I think he was the best pure scorer out of the rest of the group. There is an old joke about how Dean Smith (MJ's coach) was the only person who could keep Michael Jordan under 20 pts per game. You could probably say the same thing about Lefty and Will.

Also, of the ones I saw, he was probably the best defender on this list (with apologies to Ron Curry)

While Matt Lewis is a nice player, in my opinion it would be a shame for him to pass either Sherm or Steve. Lewis is the recipient of having played in a system where he had free reign to shoot from anywhere at any time. Very undisciplined. The coaches Steve and Sherm played for (Lou Campanelli) ran a very structured offense and defense. They both played within the offenses and only took good shots. They played on really good teams that were always in the hunt. They could have scored a lot more if they jacked up some of the shots Matt does. Don't misunderstand, I like Matt and he is a fine player, just not in the class of the other two.

With around about 20 games to go, give or take cancellations and tournament games, he is right on target for #1.

Loved Davis, but didn't think he scored that much. Hmm did he get four seasons at JMU? I recall he detoured to UNO before returning to JMU.

My gut is the other 9 players in the top Ten were more accomplished, but it's difficult to compare due to the quality of teams (coaching of teams) during Matt's years at JMU.

Matt has always felt to me like an upgraded David Fanning.

I agree with much of he sentiment here, that the points you score do not make you a better player. Recent comparisons - Matt Lewis and Ron Curry. While Lewis was a better player earlier in his career than Curry, as others have mentioned, he had free reign to jack the ball up from anywhere in Lou Rowe's Mickey Mouse offense. His supporting cast has been, generally, a set of rebound collectors. We wil see this year what kind of player Lewis is and can be under a real head coach who understands Xs and Os.

Curry played in a real offense with more accomplished players. He grew into as complete a guard as we have had at JMU in a very very long time. I'm not even sure McLinton was as complete as Curry - he too had the jack up shots from everywhere gene and was an upperclassman on the teams that began JMU's 25 year freefall from more than a decade of sustained success.

The ‘82 NCAA tournament game against UNC was the first JMU game I ever saw. I was a Freshman at VT. During my time of watching JMU basketball, Davis, McClinton and Curry were all guys who were fantastic late in games. McClinton and Curry in particular. IMO they are the two best shooters in crunch time of any JMU player. Looking at Senior season alone, Curry is the best all around player JMU has had during my time as a fan.

I know Pat Dosh real well but never saw he or any of the players BSKB mentioned play. I was playing high school basketball in the Valley at that time but paid JMU sports no attention. I watched ACC basketball every Saturday on TV.

I don’t think JMU was D1 until 1980 so they did not garner much attention in the media. BSKB might feel like his guys were the best but let’s be honest, they were playing against inferior talent. I will say Campanelli coached teams were more enjoyable to watch than any other JMU teams in our schools history. No teams were more tough nosed and fundamentally sound. They also won a lot including in the D1 NCAA tournament.

I believe Steve and Sherm were graduated when JMU made the D1 tournament for the first time in 1981. Townes played on the first two NCAA tournament teams. I transferred to JMU my Sophomore year. I am pretty sure Fisher, Ruland, DuPont and Steele were still at JMU then. I was a Freshman at VT during the ‘81-‘82 season, so I paid zero attention to JMU until their tournament loss to UNC. That season was the second of three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances for JMU. During their run of tournament games, they beat Ohio St., WVU and Georgetown to advance the the second round each year. An amazing accomplishment and one that may never be equaled.

Lewis has been a solid player for JMU but he isn’t even close to being one of the five best players in JMU history. I am not sure he even cracks the top 10. Records are made to be broken. The fact that Steve has held the scoring title this long is amazing but also points out how bad basketball has been at JMU since the early years of the program and a few of Lefty’s years as well.

(12-28-2020 11:40 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  The ‘82 NCAA tournament game against UNC was the first JMU game I ever saw. I was a Freshman at VT. During my time of watching JMU basketball, Davis, McClinton and Curry were all guys who were fantastic late in games. McClinton and Curry in particular. IMO they are the two best shooters in crunch time of any JMU player. Looking at Senior season alone, Curry is the best all around player JMU has had during my time as a fan.

I know Pat Dosh real well but never saw he or any of the players BSKB mentioned play. I was playing high school basketball in the Valley at that time but paid JMU sports no attention. I watched ACC basketball every Saturday on TV.

I don’t think JMU was D1 until 1980 so they did not garner much attention in the media. BSKB might feel like his guys were the best but let’s be honest, they were playing against inferior talent. I will say Campanelli coached teams were more enjoyable to watch than any other JMU teams in our schools history. No teams were more tough nosed and fundamentally sound. They also won a lot including in the D1 NCAA tournament.

I believe Steve and Sherm were graduated when JMU made the D1 tournament for the first time in 1981. Townes played on the first two NCAA tournament teams. I transferred to JMU my Sophomore year. I am pretty sure Fisher, Ruland, DuPont and Steele were still at JMU then. I was a Freshman at VT during the ‘81-‘82 season, so I paid zero attention to JMU until their tournament loss to UNC. That season was the second of three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances for JMU. During their run of tournament games, they beat Ohio St., WVU and Georgetown to advance the the second round each year. An amazing accomplishment and one that may never be equaled.

Lewis has been a solid player for JMU but he isn’t even close to being one of the five best players in JMU history. I am not sure he even cracks the top 10. Records are made to be broken. The fact that Steve has held the scoring title this long is amazing but also points out how bad basketball has been at JMU since the early years of the program and a few of Lefty’s years as well.

I was thinking about this very thing. I came up with the same three, plus Devon Moore as the upper echelon. Bryan Edwards was pretty good, too, even though Davis was the person on that team that you wanted taking the biggest shots.

(12-28-2020 08:56 AM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  While Matt Lewis is a nice player, in my opinion it would be a shame for him to pass either Sherm or Steve. Lewis is the recipient of having played in a system where he had free reign to shoot from anywhere at any time. Very undisciplined. The coaches Steve and Sherm played for (Lou Campanelli) ran a very structured offense and defense. They both played within the offenses and only took good shots. They played on really good teams that were always in the hunt. They could have scored a lot more if they jacked up some of the shots Matt does. Don't misunderstand, I like Matt and he is a fine player, just not in the class of the other two.

I wonder how many more points Sherman would have scored if there was a 3 point shot during his time?

Personally I think Steve Hood was best player we've had come through the men's basketball program. He only played two years so he won't show up on a lot of career stats for JMU. He was second in the ACC for ROY prior to transferring to JMU. Fess Irvin transfer for us from LSU that started in the final four. Those early years under Lefty were amazing, even though we accomplished more under Campanelli.

(12-28-2020 03:17 PM)HMK Wrote:  

(12-28-2020 08:56 AM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  While Matt Lewis is a nice player, in my opinion it would be a shame for him to pass either Sherm or Steve. Lewis is the recipient of having played in a system where he had free reign to shoot from anywhere at any time. Very undisciplined. The coaches Steve and Sherm played for (Lou Campanelli) ran a very structured offense and defense. They both played within the offenses and only took good shots. They played on really good teams that were always in the hunt. They could have scored a lot more if they jacked up some of the shots Matt does. Don't misunderstand, I like Matt and he is a fine player, just not in the class of the other two.

I wonder how many more points Sherman would have scored if there was a 3 point shot during his time?

Actually, this is a very good point and another reason why making comparisons between generations of players is very tough.

(12-28-2020 03:24 PM)Dukester Wrote:  Personally I think Steve Hood was best player we've had come through the men's basketball program. He only played two years so he won't show up on a lot of career stats for JMU. He was second in the ACC for ROY prior to transferring to JMU. Fess Irvin transfer for us from LSU that started in the final four. Those early years under Lefty were amazing, even though we accomplished more under Campanelli.

Definitely the most decorated player to ever play at JMU. He is in my top 5. A true offensive talent, I just don’t think his passing, rebounding and defense were on par with Curry. He was better at taking someone off the dribble and could get his shot whenever he needed to do so.
He was very thin so he didn’t have Curry’s strength. He was a poor man’s Reggie Miller. Same type of game. He probably faced more double teams than any JMU player I have watched play.

Kind of interesting to see Julius Wells as #10. His career was cut short due to a heart issue. He missed FBs last 14 games of his Senior season. I wonder how high in the list he would have been and if his presence that year could have been the key in another Matt Brady team making the NCAAs.

JYD also missed 1/3 of his senior year and was on restricted minutes the other games for a heart problem. He could be higher up too. I think that was the year JMU achieved 20 wins after 8 straight losing years under Dillard and Keener.

(12-29-2020 01:03 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  JYD also missed 1/3 of his senior year and was on restricted minutes the other games for a heart problem. He could be higher up too. I think that was the year JMU achieved 20 wins after 8 straight losing years under Dillard and Keener.

I'd love JYD on this team. I know he was not an up tempo type player, but we could use his muscle on defense, and his inside game on offense. Plus - he was a hell of a competitor.

With more games being cancelled due to COVID protocols (and likely not going to be made up is my guess), Matt's opportunities in terms of number of games to break/set a scoring record is significantly affected.

(12-29-2020 01:17 PM)Dukester Wrote:  

(12-29-2020 01:03 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  JYD also missed 1/3 of his senior year and was on restricted minutes the other games for a heart problem. He could be higher up too. I think that was the year JMU achieved 20 wins after 8 straight losing years under Dillard and Keener.

I'd love JYD on this team. I know he was not an up tempo type player, but we could use his muscle on defense, and his inside game on offense. Plus - he was a hell of a competitor.

We had JYD jr. on the team last year, Dwight Wilson. We could have used DW this year.

Curry's senior year, and Brady's last, Curry was completely dominant. I didnt see Townes, or Sherm play, but I cant remember a player more offensively dominant than Curry his senior year.

The Fuel Davis has always been my favorite. So smooth.

Fanning has to be close to the top ten. He may not have emerged until his junior and senior seasons.

Chancellor Nichols was a wrecking ball.

(12-29-2020 02:58 PM)PGJMU2 Wrote:  

(12-29-2020 01:17 PM)Dukester Wrote:  

(12-29-2020 01:03 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  JYD also missed 1/3 of his senior year and was on restricted minutes the other games for a heart problem. He could be higher up too. I think that was the year JMU achieved 20 wins after 8 straight losing years under Dillard and Keener.

I'd love JYD on this team. I know he was not an up tempo type player, but we could use his muscle on defense, and his inside game on offense. Plus - he was a hell of a competitor.

We had JYD jr. on the team last year, Dwight Wilson. We could have used DW this year.

JYD would have eaten DW's lunch day in an day out. No comparison.

(12-29-2020 03:46 PM)Bawlmer Duke Wrote:  

(12-29-2020 02:58 PM)PGJMU2 Wrote:  

(12-29-2020 01:17 PM)Dukester Wrote:  

(12-29-2020 01:03 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  JYD also missed 1/3 of his senior year and was on restricted minutes the other games for a heart problem. He could be higher up too. I think that was the year JMU achieved 20 wins after 8 straight losing years under Dillard and Keener.

I'd love JYD on this team. I know he was not an up tempo type player, but we could use his muscle on defense, and his inside game on offense. Plus - he was a hell of a competitor.

We had JYD jr. on the team last year, Dwight Wilson. We could have used DW this year.

JYD would have eaten DW's lunch day in an day out. No comparison.

I was thinking the same. Keener did well with that recruit.