brushes with greatness?

[lookincalifornia]

jsut curious, for those who played, who is the best(famous)player you ever faced or played with. i personally don't have one. if i had been better, i would have played against raef lafrenz at a team camp. i was not invited

[lookincalifornia]

had i also been 7 or 8 years younger, i would have palyed against kyle korver. well, i would have been sitting on the bench anyway

[Scott M]

Well, this dates me a little and says what conference I played in, but I played against Matt Spaeth, one of the newest members of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a decent baller but he let himself get pushed around a little too much. He was a little smaller back then too. I also played against another gophers tight end, Jared Posthumous. And against Buffalo's Tyson Swaggert. These guys were all decent in hoops but much better on the gridiron.

I think the best team I ever played against was Litchfield the year they won it all. There were 6-7 guys that went on to play basketball in college...only one of the Carlson boys went D1, and that was for football foremost and hoops second.

As a youth I'm sure I played some good guys before they blew up. We were an outstate team but played a bunch of city tournaments, pacesetter ball, AAU, summer leagues, etc.

Best individual I would have to say Alan Anderson, Johnny Gilbert, and I'll throw Justin Kelley in there. I only say Kelley because I saw him have his biggest outing ever against our team in a state tournament game. Guys from the Pine River-Backus area will remember him.

No NBA players and not much beyond D2 players, but they were all pretty good for the ball I played.

[koonie]

I got invited to a camp in Pennsylvania the same year as Armon Gilliam. I couldn't go due to the expense. Gilliam played in the NBA for a few years. Also I lit up Jeff Nordgaard in high school.

[maros91]

In high school I guarded Joel Pryzbilla of the Portland Trail Blazers. He was playing for Monticello and I was playing for Elk River (1997). He had 25pts and i had 14pts. We had a small team and i was the biggest guy at 6'3 and I had to guard him. I played amateur baseball against Dave Winfield's brother two years ago. I also have played with and against Johnny Lynch from Elk River(Twins drafted him). I also have played baseball against Robb Quinlan of the Anaheim Angels in high school(Hill Murray). I am also buddies with Paul Martin from Elk River(New Jersey Devils).

[maros91]

Also in 7th grade traveling basketball we played against Khalid El-Amin (UCONN and Chicago Bulls)

[mrjigger]

Tannen,

I played on the Monticello B-ball team with Pryzbilla in 1997. He was a junior and I was a senior. It has been a while, but wasn't that the year you guys beat us on a half court buzzer beater? I seem to remember one year you guys beat us on a last second shot, could have been 96 though.

[maros91]

In 1997 Tyler Grupa hit a three from just inside half court to send it to overtime. Then we beat you guys by one or two in overtime. In 1998 I went to watch the game in Monti and Mike Annen hit a lay up towards the buzzer to win. I play with Mike, Chris Stimmler, and Nick Freitag in the Becker league in the winter.

[ozzie]

maros you pig don't you work??

[maros91]

getting my wisdom teeth pulled at 11:00. Who must this be? Must be an Ostmoe of some sort.

[ozzie]

right you are!!! How have you been besides the teeth....fishing for crappies lately?......Dave

[maros91]

No to bad Dave. Got my license to sell insurance over the winter. Having been fishing since the ice went out. I don't get out to much in the summer with baseball and work. Any crappies for you?

[ozzie]

a few hear and there....who ya gonna work for selling insurance????? we should get out and wet a line one of these nights...I have been shore fishing alot on some local lakes and found some real nice crappies but they haven't showed up in numbers yet....still playing in st. francis??? I think i still have your number 2128??

[ozzie]

Sorry lookincalifornia for stealing the thread but I have played against a few that are mentioned like the "vanilla gorilla" in Joe P also played against Darius Lane since 7th grade who played for Seaton Hall....Played against guys that ended up playing for the gophs a little like Shane Shilling and Nate Kaeding I believe....never payed to much attention to who I was playing unless they did something that made you say "WOW" like in 7th grade when Darius Lane was dunking the ball in warm-ups when most of us could barely touch the rim!!! Paul Martin was a year or two under me and people knew he was special since the 5-6th grade!!! I also have played softball against and am friends with Mark Parrish........