BasketBuffs History Week: Shaun Vandiver, David Harrison & Alec Burks

[Goose]

Today's installment of BasketBuffs History Week involves three Honorable Mention All-Americans, including two players whose memory is very fresh in Buff fans minds and someone who it may surprise you to find out is second all-time in Buffs history when it comes to points per game over his career. So read on to learn a little bit more.

SHAUN VANDIVER

* 1989-90 Honorable Mention All-American
* 1990-91 All-Big 8 Conference First Team
* 1990-91 NIT All-Tournament Team
* 1989-90 All-Big 8 Conference First Team
* 1989-90 All-Big 8 Conference Tournament Team
* 1988-89 AP & UPI Newcomer of the Year

When you think of the great scorers in CU history, you think of guys like Cory Higgins, Richard Roby, Donnie Boyce and Alec Burks. Athletic guards who can light it up. However, it may surprise you to find out that when you look at the career PPG averages for all of the players to wear the CU jersey, you see that Shaun Vandiver is number 2 on the list. In fact, during the 1989-90 season, Vandiver led the Buffs in scoring, rebounding blocks and field goal percentage on his way to being named Honorable Mention All-American. The transfer from Hutchinson Community College in Kansas was named Big 8 Conference Rookie of the Year in 1988 and then followed that up with First Team All-Big 8 honors the next two seasons.

While he had a great career in Boulder, his junior year is considered his best. Along with being named Honorable Mention All-American, he was named Big 8 Conference Tournament MVP despite not being on the winning team. Vandiver scored 75 points and 41 rebounds over the three games and lead the team to upsets over both Missouri and Oklahoma State as the Buffs became the first eight seed to advance to the title game.

Vandiver is fifth in school history for points scored despite only being here for three years and was a first round draft pick of the Golden State Warriors in the 1991 NBA Draft.

DAVID HARRISON

* 2003-04 Honorable Mention All-American
* 2003-04 All-Big 12 Conference First Team
* 2003-04 All-Big 12 Defensive First Team
* 2002-03 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention
* 2001-02 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention
* 2001-02 Big 12 All-Freshman Team

A highly touted recruit out of Nashville, David Harrison spent three years at Colorado and was named both First Team All-Big 12 and Honorable Mention All-American his junior, and final year, at Colorado. The school’s all-time leading shot blocker led the Buffs with 17.1 points per game and shot 63.1% from the field, which led the conference and was third nationally.

Along with being First Team All-Big 12 his junior year, Harrison was named to the All-Big 12 Honorable Mention two times and the All-Big 12 Defensive team once. He won the Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week award two times and the Phillips 66 Big 12 Rookie of the Week award three times.

Harrison declared for the draft and ended up being a first round pick for the Indiana Pacers where he spent four seasons. After playing overseas for a few seasons, Harrison is back in the NBA Summer League playing with the Dallas Mavericks.

ALEC BURKS

* 2010-11 Honorable Mention All-American
* 2010-11 All-Big 12 Conference First Team
* 2009-10 Big 12 Freshman of the Year
* 2009-10 Big 12 All-Freshman Team
* 2009-10 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention

The Buffs only got two seasons out from Alec Burks, but he made his mark on the Colorado record books during that time. Burks holds the sophomore scoring record for the University of Colorado and that led him to being named Honorable Mention All-American in 2011. Along with the all-time sophomore scoring record, Burks also holds the all-time freshman scoring record for the school and despite only playing two seasons for the Buffs he is fifteenth on the all-time scoring list. His 19.0 points per game mark is third in school history behind only Cliff Meely and Shaun Vandiver.

Burks was named to the Big 12 Conference and NIT All-Tournament teams as well as a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 First Team. He was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and also won both a Phillips 66 Big 12 Newcomer of the Week and Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week in his short time in Boulder.

Burks was drafted 12[SUP]th[/SUP] overall in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz.

 

[RumblinBuff]

Vandiver's lines are ridiculous. He averaged 22/11 in '89-'90, while shooting damn near 60% from the field (.593). Vastly underrated.

Big Dave always struck me as someone who had all the talent in the world, but couldn't find a way to put it all together. Still, if he got the ball on the block, it was a guaranteed two points. (BTW, the running joke in the basketball band at the time was that Dave needed "enticement" to get back on defense, personified in this case by a cheeseburger. If you ever wonder why we played "Cheeseburger in Paradise" so much during that era, it was in his honor.)

Can you imagine the production if we'd even gotten one more season out of Alec? Having set the scoring record for a freshman and sophomore, a typically Alec-esque junior campaign would've chased Cliff Meely around the record books.

 

[Goose]

Alec is one of the hardest players for me to "rank" in school history. His numbers are sick -- just sick. He owns the freshman and sophomore scoring records, plus the record for most points in a season. But he was also only here for 2 years. So are those two great years good enough to put him over guys like Humphries who had 4 good years?

Vandiver is probably the favorite profile I did in this process. I always knew he had ok numbers, but he was dominant. It's a shame he doesn't get more credit, and he's one of the reasons that I'm glad that we're working on this right now.

As for Harrison, I struggle with his legacy. I hate to admit it, but the first thing I always remember about him is the Kansas game where he was too exhausted to pass halfcourt for a good 3 possessions as we had to play 4-on-5 on offense as my best friend is screaming "RUN FATASS! RUN!" and having a meltdown. But, like Rumblin said, dude was automatic down low. While some of his untapped potential is on him, I think a lot of the blame needs to be sent Ricardo's way. I remember talking to a CU beat writer during the CU-UNC Bears game the year after Harrison left. He talked about how he just hated watching practice because Ricardo would have the rest of the team out there working hard, and Harrison would be sitting on an exercise bike pedaling so slowly that he wasn't even sure he was moving. Had Harrison had Tad Boyle (or even Bzzzz), he'd be a lot higher in the record books.

 

[NWD Buff]

Vandiver is my favorite Buff ever. Not only were his numbers great, but he was so much fun to watch.

 

[NashBuff]

I remember Vandiver visiting my elementary school class when I was in 4th or 5th grade. :thumbsup:

 

[Buffnik]

Alec is one of the hardest players for me to "rank" in school history. His numbers are sick -- just sick. He owns the freshman and sophomore scoring records, plus the record for most points in a season. But he was also only here for 2 years. So are those two great years good enough to put him over guys like Humphries who had 4 good years?

Vandiver is probably the favorite profile I did in this process. I always knew he had ok numbers, but he was dominant. It's a shame he doesn't get more credit, and he's one of the reasons that I'm glad that we're working on this right now.

As for Harrison, I struggle with his legacy. I hate to admit it, but the first thing I always remember about him is the Kansas game where he was too exhausted to pass halfcourt for a good 3 possessions as we had to play 4-on-5 on offense as my best friend is screaming "RUN FATASS! RUN!" and having a meltdown. But, like Rumblin said, dude was automatic down low. While some of his untapped potential is on him, I think a lot of the blame needs to be sent Ricardo's way. I remember talking to a CU beat writer during the CU-UNC Bears game the year after Harrison left. He talked about how he just hated watching practice because Ricardo would have the rest of the team out there working hard, and Harrison would be sitting on an exercise bike pedaling so slowly that he wasn't even sure he was moving. Had Harrison had Tad Boyle (or even Bzzzz), he'd be a lot higher in the record books.

Chauncey's 2 years put him at the top or at least in the top 3. But that did include leading us to the NCAAs and beating Bobby Knight's Indiana once he got there. Alec doesn't have something like that to put on his resume.

-but-

When looking back at the 2008-09 season before Alec got here, we had a 9-22 record (1-15 Big12). We beat about no one and even lost to Montana State. With him, we shot up to 15-16 (6-10) to just miss the NIT. And then we got to 21-13 (8-8) on our way to the Big12 semi-finals before getting screwed out of the NCAAs by politics, having to go to the NIT, and then making the semis to finish 24-14. In a lot of ways, I believe that the success we are enjoying (recruiting, transfers like Carlon, wins, etc.) is directly attributable to Alec putting us on the map by turning things around on the court and then getting us a ton of cred by being a lottery pick.

He's a top 5 all-time Buff hoopster right now and that could go up if he becomes an NBA star and if this turnaround he led is the launching pad to being a top 25 national program.

 

[buffgal]

VanDiver accomplished all that while being married and having a baby to care for. I was impressed that he was able to do so much stuff and keep his act together.

 

[tante]

VanDiver accomplished all that while being married and having a baby to care for. I was impressed that he was able to do so much stuff and keep his act together.

Basketball is easy compared to raising kids.

 

[GoBuffs!!]

Some interesting notes about Vandiver from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Vandiver)

- He played for Steve McClain when he was in community college, and then coached under him at Wyoming
- The years dont line up, but he was also briefly at Northern Colorado (just before Tad's time)

Sure is a small world in college basketball

 

[Goose]

Chauncey's 2 years put him at the top or at least in the top 3. But that did include leading us to the NCAAs and beating Bobby Knight's Indiana once he got there. Alec doesn't have something like that to put on his resume.

-but-

When looking back at the 2008-09 season before Alec got here, we had a 9-22 record (1-15 Big12). We beat about no one and even lost to Montana State. With him, we shot up to 15-16 (6-10) to just miss the NIT. And then we got to 21-13 (8-8) on our way to the Big12 semi-finals before getting screwed out of the NCAAs by politics, having to go to the NIT, and then making the semis to finish 24-14. In a lot of ways, I believe that the success we are enjoying (recruiting, transfers like Carlon, wins, etc.) is directly attributable to Alec putting us on the map by turning things around on the court and then getting us a ton of cred by being a lottery pick.

He's a top 5 all-time Buff hoopster right now and that could go up if he becomes an NBA star and if this turnaround he led is the launching pad to being a top 25 national program.

That all makes sense. But while Chauncey only had two years here, he was also a hometown kid. We knew about him in high school. So I think there's a much bigger emotional attachment there than there was with Burks.

Honestly, I'm really excited to see where Burks lands on next week's "All-Time Buffs" vote. I think he's right on the top 5 bubble.

 

[RumblinBuff]

[...]and that could go up if he becomes an NBA star[...]

Side question: When we get around to voting on the top-5, should we be considering pro careers?

 

[Goose]

Side question: When we get around to voting on the top-5, should we be considering pro careers?

Personally, I'm not. But I think it's up to the individual voter.

However, I have made some serious purges to the voter rolls, so some of you are screwed.

 

[buffgal]

Basketball is easy compared to raising kids.

He was doing both at the same time. His daughter played for Wyoming. Think last year was her final year.