2003 Top 50 List: No
Dan Collins List: Yes
Dave Odom inherited a Wake Forest program that had been way down under Bob Staak. But Staak did leave him a couple of good young players in Anthony Tucker and Hobbton High School’s own Chris King. Odom promptly went out and recruited Rodney Rogers and Randolph Childress, and he got things turned around quickly.
1991 was Rogers’ and Childress’ freshman year, and the Deacons improved markedly to go 19-11. They made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1984, losing in the second round to a very good Alabama team. They had almost everyone coming back in 1992. It had the makings of a breakthrough year, but it wound up as a “what might have been” year. Childress tore his ACL over the summer and missed the entire season. Wake still had an OK year, but you know it could have been so much more with Childress. Childress was back in 1993, and the Deacons did take a step forward, finishing 10-6 in the ACC and making the Sweet 16 on their way to a final ranking of 16. In 1994, they added Tim Duncan, but Rogers was gone, leaving early for the NBA. I would’ve paid to see a team with Rogers, Childress, and Duncan.
Rogers played three seasons in the ACC, during a time when the ACC was hands down the best conference in college basketball. In fact, an ACC team won the national championship all three of those years. His contemporaries included Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, George Lynch, Eric Montross, Bryant Stith, Walt Williams, Tom Gugliotta, Randolph Childress, and Sam Cassell.
It is my contention that Rogers is underrated. He wasn’t on the 2003 Top 50 list. That to me is an injustice. Here’s a guy who won ACC Player of the Year in 1993 over Bobby Hurley, in Hurley’s senior year (not to mention over Lynch, Montross, and Grant Hill). Think of how easy it would have been for the voters to favor Hurley, not only because Hurley was really good, but also as a kind of lifetime achievement award for all that he and his teams had achieved in his four years. And yet, Rogers won. All-American was different, as Hurley was first team, Rogers second team (he finished sixth in the voting), but we’ve seen that movie before, haven’t we? I mean of course Bobby Hurley was going to be first team All-American, because all the voters had watched him win a couple of national championships. But the ACC sportswriters who watched them closely in 1993 said that Rogers was better. (Admittedly, the POY vote was very close. Rogers won 51-47, with Lynch and Montross getting 2 votes each.)
And it wasn’t just that year; Rogers was ACC Rookie of the Year as a freshman over Grant Hill; in fact he was named National Freshman of the Year by the USBWA. He made first team All-ACC as a sophomore. Rogers and Horace Grant are the only two ACC players in the top 25 in career FG% who also led the league in scoring. Rogers is one of only 10 players to win both ACC Rookie and Player of the Year (Mike Gminski, Ralph Sampson, Michael Jordan, Dennis Scott, Joe Smith, Joseph Forte, Jahlil Okafor, Marvin Bagley, and Zion Williamson are the others). He scored in double figures in 86 of his 89 career games and had nine points the other three times.