2003 Top 50 List: Yes
Dan Collins List: Yes
Sam Perkins is probably the best player in the history of college basketball who was never the best player on his own team. He was overshadowed by James Worthy and Michael Jordan, but he was a great player in his own right – First Team All-ACC three times, Consensus First Team All-American twice. Perkins never came close to winning ACC Player of the Year, as he had the misfortune to play at the same time as Jordan and Ralph Sampson.
Perkins in 1982 and 1983 fell victim to the anti-ACC bias shown by the AP that I have written about elsewhere. Notice how the AP is out of step with the other services:
| Vote | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 |
| AP | Nothing | 3rd team | 1st team |
| USBWA | 2nd team | 1st team | 1st team |
| NABC | 2nd team | 2nd team | 2nd team |
| UPI | 2nd team | 1st team | 1st team |
| Consensus | 2nd team | 1st team | 1st team |
Freshmen to be named Most Outstanding Player of the ACC Tournament:
- Phil Ford, UNC, 1975
- Sam Perkins, UNC, 1981
- Jerry Stackhouse, UNC, 1994
- Jason Williams, Duke, 2000
- Brandan Wright, UNC, 2007
- Zion Williamson, Duke, 2019
Perkins was a forerunner of the modern European-style big man with great perimeter shooting touch. He was one of the first big guys to be a proficient 3-point shooter at the NBA level. He is the only player in ACC history with 2000 points, 1000 rebounds, 200 blocks, and 100 steals.
My friend Todd thinks that Perkins shouldn’t be ahead of Lennie Rosenbluth and Larry Miller. It’s certainly arguable either way, but there are two main reasons I put Perkins ahead, and I’ve already mentioned them. One is, he was a three-time All-American. If you want to devalue that because he didn’t do as well in AP voting, OK, but I go the other way, for reasons I’ve already explained.
The other reason is, Perkins played at the same time as Sampson and Jordan. So that pretty much eliminated any chance to be the best player in the conference. That’s a unique set of circumstances. No other player on this list is blocked behind two Top 10 players. With all due respect to Larry Miller, he was competing with Bob Verga and Mike Lewis for ACC honors. Rosenbluth’s main competition was Grady Wallace. It’s not the same. Think about it this way: if Miller or Rosenbluth had played when Perkins did, what more do you think they would have accomplished than Perkins did? Would they have won ACC Player of the Year over Sampson and Jordan? Would they have done better than Perkins did in All-America or All-ACC voting? I don’t think so.
It is true that Perkins never had that signature moment. He was ACC Tournament MOP as a freshman, but it’s not like he scored 40 points or made a game-winning shot. He was just his normal efficient, excellent self for three games. That was the pattern of his entire career: quiet, efficient excellence for 135 games. There’s a reason his teams went 117-21 and made it to two national finals. Obviously, Worthy and Jordan had a lot to do with that, but Perkins was the constant. Miller and Rosenbluth had brighter moments than Perkins, but if you look at the overall body of work… I just think Perkins is a little bit better.
Is this as simple as peak value vs career value? You put a little more weight into Perkins’ career, while I favor the peak of Rosenbluth/Miller? I would argue that Perkins’ career value may be overvalued by just a bit, for two reasons. One, he played 4 years, which Rosenbluth/Miller couldn’t do because of freshman ineligibility. So Perkins could hit that 2000/1000 number you mentioned, while the other two never had that chance.
Second, we know that all-American voting is influenced by a team’s success. All three of these players made all-American when UNC was having a great season. But Rosenbluth and Miller were the main reasons for UNC’s success during their all-American seasons. Replace either one of them with another ACC player who wasn’t all-American and tell me how good UNC would be. I’ve long thought that Perkins was an example of a very good player who was an all-American because he played for UNC, like Eric Montross (but better, obviously).
Who was a better player in 1983, Perkins or Thurl Bailey? OK, it’s probably Perkins, but it’s closer than you think. Scoring was the same, Perkins averaged a couple more boards, shot slightly better from the field, but Bailey had more blocks. Both made 1st team all-ACC. But Perkins made the all-American teams because UNC was the defending champs and a top 5 team late in the season after a slow start. On the other hand, NC State had under performed relative to pre-season expectations (until March, of course) and Bailey was never going to be named all-American under those circumstances. But if you swap Perkins for Bailey in 1983, does UNC lose anything? Don’t you think Bailey would have a chance to be all-American playing with Jordan, for Dean Smith on the bluest of blue blood college basketball teams? Of course he would.
Maybe this is just my personal bias against UNC. But I think I’d say the same thing about players from Kentucky or Kansas or whoever, if I paid as much attention to them.
I’ll also admit that I’m biased toward older players. I think it’s because it’s easy to pick apart players I’ve actually seen. Rosenbluth, Miller, Len Chappell, David Thompson, Phil Ford, all those guys I never saw or I’m too young to remember; they’re legends, they live only in the pages of books I read, grainy clips on YouTube and in stories told by my dad and older relatives and acquaintances. Sam Perkins? I remember Sam Perkins. I remember good stuff and bad stuff. I remember him being really good. But I don’t remember ever thinking “Carolina’s going to win this game because of Sam Perkins.” Seems like the 15th best player in ACC history should’ve scared me more than he did.
I’d probably have Perkins closer to #25 or #30. Just my 2 cents.
Don’t know if you saw this, but Larry Miller is being inducted into the College Basketball HOF in November.
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-basketball/news/north-carolina-larry-miller-college-basketball-hall-fame/ukit8wjh2ep4edpt5wvfqwro
This HOF just opened in 2006 and they have inducted 17 ACC players, counting Larry Miller, but not counting pre-ACC Dick Groat of Duke. It’s a pretty good list, but when you look at who’s missing….well, I think they’ve still got some work to do. And the biggest example of that is that Sam Perkins is in, but Michael Jordan is not. Seriously? Also NOT in: J.J. Redick, Tyler Hansbrough, Lennie Rosenbluth, Len Chappell, Art Heyman, John Lucas. Honestly shocked at Jordan and Rosenbluth not being inducted yet.
So what ACC players are in? Here you go:
Larry Miller
Antawn Jamison
Len Bias
Shane Battier
Sam Perkins
Jay Williams
Tim Duncan
Charlie Scott
Grant Hill
Tom McMillen
Phil Ford
Ralph Sampson
Christian Laettner
James Worthy
David Thompson
Bob McAdoo
Billy Cunningham
Not trying to use any of this to further any arguments, just thought it was interesting that Larry Miller came up in the news so soon after we had been having this discussion about basketball players that we never saw play, lol.