Long Suffering Fan wrote:

A friend of mine posted on facebook posted a topic entitled the best two teammates in history.  I thought I would pass it on but limit it to the best 2 GW teammates in history.  I am not thinking necessarily of the best two players who were on the same team, but rather the best two who were most fun to watch.   I had a hard time answering.  My first reaction (for old timers) was Pat Tallent and Keith Morris.  Then I considered  Dirrk Surles and Soni Holland as well as Chris Monroe and SirValiant Brown.   I finally landed on Mike Hall and Pops.  Anyone have any thoughts?   

KevLar and Cavs?

Make each other better

Shawnta and Koul - complete with the photos of the 5’4” guy and the 7’1” guy side by side. 

I think Pops and Mike Hall are up there among most fun duo.  Pops was the athletic marvel who the students lived and Hall was the ultimate glue guy and competitor who could do it all.

In our NiT run, we had so many good players, but Yuta’s D and Cav’s offense and rebounding and leadership complemented each other so well.

All that said, I’m not sure any GW teams have relied on 2 teammates in the last 30 years the way we did with Monroe and SirVal or now with Bishop and Bam.

Played together longest, but not related (e.g., Tallents, Withers,..) 
I recall that Tom Tate and Mike Samson played together all through High School (at Ballard High in Louisville), and then all 4 years at GW. Both were pretty good players for GW.

Last edited by xAC (2/06/2022 8:40 pm)

I think there may be a tendency to favor duos who had a history playing with one another prior to playing at GW.  Mike Brown and Troy Webster were high school teammates, Troy had a prolific career at GW, and Mike is one of the school's all-time greats.  Shawnta and Mike King were high school teammates as well.  Joe and Kethan played on the same AAU team.  SirVal and Chris remind me somewhat of James and Joe today.  I think of all four of them as outstanding scorers who know how to create their own shots more than I think of either pair as terammates who work extremely well together.

There's probably also a tendency to pair a point guard with a big, teammates who work the pick and roll to near perfection.  The Stockton and Malone effect.  Shawnta and Koul are the best I've seen at this at GW.

But if I get one vote, I am going with Pops and Mike.  It's a bit unconventional for many reasons, not the least of which was that you had so many other great players on their teams.   The reason they are my choice is due to how rare it is to see two similarly sized forwards whose skills were so complementary of one another.  Pops could guard the opposing center, block shots in an athletic manner as one can imagine, and play in the post.  Mike could pretty much do everything else but these things.  He wasn't a shot blocker but he could guard leading scorers 6 inches shorter than he was. He buried outside shots.  He had a true feel for passing and for not turning the ball over.  

You could literally create a checklist of skills or attributes you would like in a player and every single box would be checked by at least one of them.  And often, only one of them.  Throw in the fact that they were great teammates who had great fun out there and won games at  a very high percentage over their final three seasons and you have, IMO, GW's greatest duo.