2003 Top 50 List: Yes
Dan Collins List: Yes
I found Bobby Hurley to be an extremely difficult player to rank. Which is ironic, because I probably watched him play more than anyone else on this list except for Rodney Monroe and Julius Hodge. Hurley is the perfect example of a player whose national reputation was buoyed by the incredible success of the teams he played on. Now of course, Hurley was a huge contributor to that success – but I think it’s safe to say he had a little help, in the persons of Christian Laettner and Grant Hill.
Hurley’s ACC accolades are good but modest. He made third team All-ACC as a sophomore, second team as a junior, and first team as a senior, losing a close Player of the Year vote to Rodney Rogers. He was first team All-Tournament once. The overall record is comparable to, say, Kenny Smith.
Hurley’s national accolades are way more impressive. As a junior in 1992, Hurley was named third team All-America by both the AP and the UPI, and first team by the NABC, which is absurd. As a point of comparison, Hurley finished seventh in All-ACC balloting that same year, behind Tom Gugliotta, Rodney Rogers, Bryant Stith, and Hubert Davis, none of whom sniffed All-America. As a senior, Hurley was first team All-America across the board. Rogers, who nipped Hurley in ACC POY voting, was second team. The All-America record is comparable to a Len Bias, Antawn Jamison, or Larry Miller.
So the question really is, which do you believe? Is Hurley closer to Kenny Smith, as the ACC voters seemed to think, or is he close to Len Bias, as the national voters seemed to think?
I come down somewhere in the middle. In my heart of hearts, I seriously doubt that Hurley was a better player than Kenny Smith. Had Kenny Smith been the point guard of those Duke teams, I think they would have been just as good, maybe better.
But having said that, I have to give Hurley some credit for what he actually accomplished. While I don’t think he was a better player than Kenny Smith, he accomplished a lot that Kenny Smith did not. He played in 20 NCAA Tournament games. He played on two national championship teams. He was Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament. He’s the all-time assist leader in all of college basketball. Maybe Smith would have the same accomplishments had he been on those teams; I don’t know. But Hurley’s teams made Final Fours and won championships, and Smith’s didn’t, and that’s a fact. We have to apportion some credit for all that winning, and Hurley deserves a generous share, even if less than Laettner.
I also give Hurley credit for his senior year. I’m not sure that he was a first team All-American, but he had a great year. Without Laettner, he had to step up his scoring, and he did, averaging 17 points and 8 assists, and shooting 42% from three, 80% from the free throw line. He wasn’t without help, obviously; Grant Hill, Thomas Hill and Cherokee Parks were all there. But it wasn’t the same overwhelming talent level of the previous two years. He had to do more, and he did it, and while I would have flipped Hurley and Rodney Rogers on my All-America ballot, he was far from the worst first teamer we’ve ever seen.
As an aside, in the past 30 years of college basketball, there have been only ten 17+ point, 8+ assist seasons. Notable ones in addition to Hurley 1993: JJ Barea, Northeastern, 2006; Kay Felder, Oakland, 2016; Trae Young, Oklahoma, 2018; Ja Morant, Murray State, 2019.