UP's greatest players

The Beacon has an article listing one writer's 5 greatest Pilot athletes.


Http://www.upbeacon.net/sports/the-greatest-up-athletes-1.2147202?pagereq=2t

Not surprisingly, there are 4 are soccer players out of five.

Is this your list? And in this order?

Also, what's wrong with the Sinclair piece?

I get that Spoelstra gets a ton of pub because of the high profile coaching gig, but I can think of a lot of other hoops players that might deserve a nod in there and the title is greatest UP "Athletes" not "greatest former up athletes who were successful doing something else" How about some players who actually played (or were drafted by the association) like Anstett, Jeter or Slaughter? Or the elder Raivio? And can you really put them ahead of Tiffeny Milbrett? (The only person who has ever been able to control her is April Heinrichs.... total burn!)

But it is really hard to disagree with the Keller, Sinc, Milbrett trio. And Cherundolo has been a model of consistency as a pro (Well aside from injury bouts keeping him from playing in the 06 cup) and honestly in last summer's cup, he was our most impressive player. Watching him absolutely torch James Milner made me a very very ha.

And as for errors didn't Christine redshirt for what would have been her senior year? The article says junior...

You had the right idea, the piece said:

As a freshman, the Canadian native led all freshmen with 23 goals and eight assists, scoring the game-winning goal in the first of two National Titles. Sinclair left Portland in similar fashion, scoring two more in the 2005 National Championship game as the Pilots went on to beat UCLA 4-0.

She was a freshman in 2001 when UP lost in the semi's, not in the 2002 championship year when she got BOTH of the goals in the final against Santa Clara. She also scored 26 goals and got 3 assists in that, her Sopomore season.

She redshifted Redshirted in 2003.( she's fast, but not THAT fast)

As to her being better than Tiff or not, hard to say. Yeah she got two championships and scored more goals, but sinc had MUCH better players surrounding her, and Tiff got her 103 goals in only 74 games for the Pilots, a production rate that is still unmatched in the NCAA, I think. One player led us to two championships, but the other put UP on the map as a destination school for great players. Tiff also has some gold on the Mantle. Christine might match that this summer.

As to including any basketball player on the list, well, I think it was just an attempt to include some other sport.

Nobody on any other sport had made a game winning score or starred in an Olympics OR world championship of any kind ( or even made one of those teams. Without Shannon, for instance, the Atlanta Olympics would have seen the gold go elsewhere.)

I think the guy picked the right two men's soccer players. Keller was the first American to be a genuine star on Europe, and Steve not only has captained the USA team, but is the captain of a team that had risen from the second division to the first in the Bundeslige and is now in the Champions league( he just got a game winner last week to keep them there)

Hahaha, I knew that... (That's what I get for posting at 3 AM, yeesh!)

But yeah, the Spoelstra inclusion definitely has that "well I guess we can't have ALL soccer players" vibe to it..." I mean if you were going to do that, you might as well pick Trevor Dunbar's mom, who not only competed as a Pilot, but also reared the best running prospect we've ever had!

I cannot access the article so I am at some disadvantage, but any discussion of the Pilot greatest athletes should include Darwin Cook and Ken Dayley; I would even include Rick Ravio and Tom Lampkin in the discussion for different reasons. Spoelstra, for all his success, does not belong on such a list, not close. Cook was outright better, and that may be why he played ten years in the NBA. Dayley was drafted 3rd overall following his Junior year here--I think--Lampkin went on to a nice pro carreer; Ravio was a great, great rebounder--and his son played here. Those names are not quota filling or mere token: they are the real deal, I think.

Bill Krueger? 12 year MLB career, plus he could play a little hoops.

Purplegeezer wrote:

As to her being better than Tiff or not, hard to say. Yeah she got two championships and scored more goals, but sinc had MUCH better players surrounding her, and Tiff got her 103 goals in only 74 games for the Pilots, a production rate that is still unmatched in the NCAA, I think. One player led us to two championships, but the other put UP on the map as a destination school for great players. Tiff also has some gold on the Mantle. Christine might match that this summer.

Like the man said that day down in Texas, "Tiffeny came to Portland when it wasn't cool [to come to Portland], and all of this is because of her."

up7587 wrote:Bill Krueger? 12 year MLB career, plus he could play a little hoops.

AND one of the more annoying analysts FSN, er I mean ROOTNW (stupid stupid name) has to offer!!! (And based on the stable of announcers at that network, being annoying seems to be a pre-requisite...)

DaTruRochin wrote:And can you really put them ahead of Tiffeny Milbrett? (The only person who has ever been able to control her is April Heinrichs.... total burn!)

Hey! Easy on my classmate, DTR. I hope that you're being sarcastic there. I don't think of Tiffeny as a difficult player to coach at all. She's just outspoken, and she played for Clive, so, she has very high standards. Actually, she played some of her best soccer under Tony DiCicco, and her comments of the past indicate that he was one of her favorite coaches outside of Clive. Tiffeny was one of the pioneers of our program, and our string of Final 4 appearances prior to winning the two championships would not have happened without her contributions. Her resume speaks for itself:

* Being nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year Award.
* West Coast Offensive Player of the Year in 1992 (after 30 goals and 12 assists).
* WUSA MVP
* 1990 Soccer America's Freshman of the Year.
* 1999 goal leader for a team that won the freaking World Cup.
* 2000 CONCACAF Offensive Player of the Year.

And the list goes on... What else do you want? She played her sport at the highest possible level...

Kasey Keller and Sinclair also absolutely deserve to make it.

The other 2 players are debatable, but, I would take Spoelstra off of the list. He belongs on our most famous alumni list, but, not the list including our best athletes. I honestly don't think that most Beacon writers would do enough research through the archives to come up with the best list. There should probably be a top 10 list instead of a top 5, and it should also include at least one baseball player and someone from the cross country team and an old timer from the basketball team too...

It was an obvious dig at Heinrichs... She not only led the team to a pretty disappointing cup, but also fundamentally changed US soccer from a skill based enterprise to more of a route one bulldozer strategy. (A strategy that the team is still recovering from developmentally...)

DaTruRochin wrote:It was an obvious dig at Heinrichs... She not only led the team to a pretty disappointing cup, but also fundamentally changed US soccer from a skill based enterprise to more of a route one bulldozer strategy. (A strategy that the team is still recovering from developmentally...)

So what does USSF do? Put her in a position to direct the development of the youth national teams naturally! True story...

Yeah, I'm not a Heinrichs fan either. The team needs to get back to playing a more technical style in my opinion...