Louisville basketball: Ranking the top 100 players of all time
By Alan Thomas
20: Clifford Rozier
Rozier transferred to Louisville from UNC in 1992. He was a 2-time Metro Conference Player of the Year (’93,’94) and was named First-team All-American in 1994.
He averaged a double-double his junior and senior years, is 3rd in highest career field goal percentage and 3rd in highest field goal percentage in a season. Had he played 3 or even 4 years at Louisville, he may have shattered the record books.
19: Mike Grosso
Grosso entered Louisville as the second-highest ranked high school recruit, behind only Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). He averaged 16.2 points and 14.3 rebounds per game in his career.
He ranks 14th all-time in rebounds and 3rd in highest rebound average in his career. Had his knees not failed him, he may have become one of the NBA’s most elite rebounders as well.
18: Junior Bridgeman
Junior played on the 1975 Final Four squad and averaged 15.5 ppg. in his career. He was selected as back-to-back Conference Player of the Year in ’74 and ’75.
He led the team in rebounds in 1974 and steals in 1975. He was selected #8 overall in the 1975 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.
17: Francisco Garcia
Cisco is and was one of the most beloved players in Louisville basketball history. He averaged double figures all three seasons in college and had arguably the purest stroke of all-time from behind the arc.
Garcia was the team captain on the 2005 Final Four team. Even with only playing three seasons, he ranks eighth on the all-time list for three-pointers made in a career.
16: Terrence Williams
TWill was a special talent here at Louisville, maybe even the rawest talent we’ve ever seen. He was the team captain of the 2009 Elite Eight team and was awarded Third-team All-American.
He had 2 triple doubles in his college career, is #19 on Louisville’s all-time scoring list, 7th in rebounds, 7th in three-point field goals, 2nd in assists, and 5th in steals. Williams was an absolute beast.
15: John Turner
Turner averaged 16.9 ppg. and 10.7 rpg. in his time at Louisville. As a senior, he averaged 23.1 ppg. and 11.4 rpg. He was a member of Louisville’s first Final Four team (1959).
His senior year scoring average ranks 2nd all-time for ppg. in a season. He ranks 9th in total rebounds and 8th in rebounding average per game in a career.
14: Butch Beard
Wes Unseld’s college roommate was named First-team All-Conference three times in his Louisville career, averaging over 20 ppg. in two of those seasons. He is second in career scoring average.
Butch ranks 17th on U of L’s all-time scoring list. He played in 83 games in 3 years, and was the team’s leading scorer in two of those years, over the likes of Unseld and Grosso.
13: Charles Jones
Charles was on both the ’82 and ’83 Final Four teams, being named MVP in the Mid-east Regional in ’82. He is 9th in all-time field goal percentage, 10th in dunks, 15th in rebounding, and 2nd in blocked shots.
He started 71 games in his junior and senior seasons and averaged 55.8% from the field and 1.5 blocks/game in his career. At 6’8″, 215 lbs., Jones was an absolutely merciless rim protector…one of, if not the best in Louisville basketball history.
12: Derek Smith
A member of the 1980 NCAA title team and 1982 Final Four team, Derek also earned Co-Conference Player of the Year in 1981. He is #6 all-time in scoring, #10 in rebounds (led the ’80 squad), and is #5 in field goals made.
He was best known for being able to play inside-out, pulling up over defenders for jump shots or driving the lane for easy baskets. Being #6 in scoring and #5 in field goals made makes it all come full circle for how good of a decision maker he really was when looking to score.
11: LaBradford Smith
“L.A” was one of the best Louisville players of the 1990s. He was a nasty penetrator and could dish out a beautiful pass as easily as he could get to the rack. Smith is Louisville’s all-time leader in assists, #2 in steals, and #8 in scoring.
To this day, we haven’t had a true point guard quite like him. LaBradford was as physical as he was suave with the basketball.