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Better pg at duke: jay Williams or bobby Hurley

Wall2Boogie

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Jan 28, 2010
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hello from the dark side! I know you guys love talking basketball as much as us. Which of the two was better in your opinion? Personally, I'll go with jay Williams. You guys were down 13 with a minute to left against Maryland and some how won? I liked his game and thought he was great. Yes I know your second son behind laettner shouldn't be ignored, but I'm curious as to who you would chose and why.
 
Ok, I'll bite for now. Jay Williams was awesome. He could take over a game and create things for himself as he did in the Md. game which was the greatest stretch by a Duke basketball player I've ever seen. But I will go with Hurley because he created for everyone else and made them better and when need Hurley could make big plays and shots. Williams couldn't do that anywhere near as well as Hurley. I would have loved to see Hurley and Williams together. This is my opinion only. For me I'd would take Hurley as my pure point guard. The man who could score only four points in a game and be a major factor in that game. I hope this thread doesn't turn into one that brings confrontation. we've had enough of those. OFC
 
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I liked Williams fierce competiveness. Yes I know he was more of a 2 than Hurley, but that dude could put the team on his back and when they needed a big shot he had no problem providing it
 
Two different players. As a pure PG it was no comparison, Hurley was the best. Has a record that may never be broken in the most assists record. He also hit one of if not the biggest shot outside of Tyus jones in Duke final 4 history vs UNLV- which propelled us to the win and our first national championship. Jason was as good of a player as we've had- he was explosive and his ability to finish at the rim was better than anyone we've had at the guard position. I think they're two guys that would have played great together, similar to how Tyus and Quinn were able to play together and off each other.
 
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Yeah I think it totally depends on the team that was surrounding them. Jay was a scoring point guard while bobby was a playmaker. I'll go with Jay though as he could just take games over whenever he wanted.
 
JWill may be higher on the list of overall players, but Bobby was the best PG. If I were building a team of Duke greats, I'd go w/ Bobby, as there would be plenty of scoring elsewhere. JWill would be the back-up PG, and in my history as a fan, he'd be 3rd at SG behind JJ and JD.
 
Definitely both guys are the gold standard of Duke PGs. Hurley was a two-time National Champ and still owns the career assist record. Williams is a National Champ and won multiple NPOY awards. Duke legends.
 
Two different players. As a pure PG it was no comparison, Hurley was the best. Has a record that may never be broken in the most assists record. He also hit one of if not the biggest shot outside of Tyus jones in Duke final 4 history vs UNLV- which propelled us to the win and our first national championship. Jason was as good of a player as we've had- he was explosive and his ability to finish at the rim was better than anyone we've had at the guard position. I think they're two guys that would have played great together, similar to how Tyus and Quinn were able to play together and off each other.
Exactly what I was thinking. I think Hurleys shot was even bigger than Tyus due to the fact that Duke had just went down by 5 when he hit that shot and rejuvenated a Duke team that may not have recovered if he had missed. But I will continue to watch all the big shots by Hurley Tyus and Jason until my DVDs will not play no more.
 
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I think the answer will always be who you personally liked better. More than likely everyone's answer to this question will also be who they liked better as a player.
 
Williams was more electrifying and plays well on Sportscenter. Hurley is the last great true point guard in college basketball. I go with Hurley because of 2 rings. Rings trump everything.
 
Williams better player, hurley better PG. If you're starting a team I take Williams all day every day. Williams could beat any team any day almost by himself where Hurley would only be succesful with great players around him. Hurley is a perfect player for a team with a ton of great players, Williams is the perfect player for a team that needs someone to lead them on the court to a championship.
 
No player EVER had the heart Bobby had. Kid did so much with that tiny frame. He burnt many players and many treadmills. Kid never stopped.
 
Depends on the guys playing around them. Hurley thrived facillitating to Laettner, HIll, etc. Jayson was more of a scoring PG.

But I gotta go with Jayson.
 
Key work in this is PG, and for that reason Hurley in my opinion. I don't even have to think twice about it.

If the key work was player, I'd go with Williams.
 
Hurley was the ultimate floor general, best ever at Duke. Bet he's roaming the sidelines one day.
 
Jason gets a weird rap as strictly a scorer, but the guy was a great set up man with good vision and the ability to make his teammates a lot better. He averaged 6 assists and 4 rebounds over his career on top of his 19 points per game. In his three years at Duke his team's averaged 88, 90, and 89 points; respectively all top 10 totals in Duke history. He's fourth on the all time assists list in only three years.

Had Jason stayed four years or even his second team didn't underachieve I think this argument would be unanimously in his favor. Pure PG or not, he was in the top 3 of all time Duke players IMO.
 
Jason gets a weird rap as strictly a scorer, but the guy was a great set up man with good vision and the ability to make his teammates a lot better. He averaged 6 assists and 4 rebounds over his career in top of his 19 points per game. In his three years at Duke his team's averaged 88, 90, and 89 points respectively all top 10 totals in Duke history. He's fourth on the all time assists list in only three years.

Had Jason stayed four years or even his second team didn't underachieve I think this argument would be unanimously on his favor. Pure PG or not, he was in the top 3 of all time Duke players IMO.
Realest s*** said all day.
If I was picking a PG and I already had 4 studs on my team (say JJ, Grant, Laettner, Elton) than I'm taking Hurley strictly as a floor general.
If I'm starting a team and my FIRST PLAYER has to be a Duke PG, than I'm taking Jayson all day and will figure out the rest later.
 
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^ I don't think his full name actually has the "y." He went from Jason to Jay, if I remember correctly, when he got drafted on the advice of his agent to distance himself from the Jason Williams in the NBA who was charged that same year (2002) when his driver was shot and killed in his house.
 
^ I don't think his full name actually has the "y." He went from Jason to Jay, if I remember correctly, when he got drafted on the advice of his agent to distance himself from the Jason Williams in the NBA who was charged that same year (2002) when his driver was shot and killed in his house.
Your correct, the name change made things so confusing. I guess I have just been combining Jay and Jason into one.
 
If I had a team full of studs I'd still take Jason. This is definitely coming across like I don't like Bobby Hurley, and that is not even close to the case. I just think Jason was one of those generational talents that transcended his positional responsibilities.
 
Yeah I get that Hurley helped lead them to back to back titles but keep in mind, he had an nba hof player and one of the best college players ever on his team. Would he be as productive if he had to score more? This is the reason I take Williams. Not taking anything away from bobby but Williams was deadly(no pun intended toward the other one) when it counted the most in winning a game
 
If I had a team full of studs I'd still take Jason. This is definitely coming across like I don't like Bobby Hurley, and that is not even close to the case. I just think Jason was one of those generational talents that transcended his positional responsibilities.
This is like arguing do you want the Lambo or the Ferrari. Your statements a couple posts up are all correct about Jason, and even when I was posting earlier I was like, I know he still averaged like 6 dimes a game. It's pretty incredible. He was as good of a player as we've ever had here. There is no wrong answer.
 
Definitely Bobby Hurley. Won two national championships on one of the best college basketball teams to step on a court.
 
This is like arguing do you want the Lambo or the Ferrari. Your statements a couple posts up are all correct about Jason, and even when I was posting earlier I was like, I know he still averaged like 6 dimes a game. It's pretty incredible. He was as good of a player as we've ever had here. There is no wrong answer.

He's one of those guys that even though he graduated and has been a great ambassador for the university, his early exit hurt his legacy a bit in the eyes of fans. Not in the sense that fans don't appreciate him, just that his numbers would have extremely gawdy had he remained healthy.

We've done this before, but had he stayed for the 2002-2003 season, he would have scored roughly 2800 points, had 950 assists (basically just shy of Bobby) and realistically could have at least contended for another title. He would have finished in the top 5 in steals, had almost 500 rebounds and would have been close to 40% on threes. He had his jersey retired, but I feel like he would have been hands down known as the greatest player at Duke of all time. I don't see how he couldn't have been.

I promise I'm not saying no one likes Jason or that Duke fans don't appreciate him, I just am saying I think it's hard to fathom what his career would have looked like had he stayed one one more year.
 
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Yeah I get that Hurley helped lead them to back to back titles but keep in mind, he had an nba hof player and one of the best college players ever on his team. Would he be as productive if he had to score more? This is the reason I take Williams. Not taking anything away from bobby but Williams was deadly(no pun intended toward the other one) when it counted the most in winning a game
Hurley's numbers steadily increased from his freshman year to his senior year for the most part.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/bobby-hurley-1.html
 
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^ I don't think his full name actually has the "y." He went from Jason to Jay, if I remember correctly, when he got drafted on the advice of his agent to distance himself from the Jason Williams in the NBA who was charged that same year (2002) when his driver was shot and killed in his house.
Correct. THAT other player -- a post player for the Nets -- was Jayson Williams.
 
Both were tougher than elevator cable but Hurley got everyone involved and was probably the only one who could have read Laettner the riot act at halftime in the 92 title game and gotten away with it. He got Laettner involved early and often in the second half and Duke rolled Michigan.
 
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