Sean Elliott is the only former Arizona basketball player who has been inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Elliott was inducted in the Class of 2018. Who's next? My vote would go to Damon Stoudamire, a consensus All-American point guard in 1994-95 and a Final Four standout a year earlier.
Arizona point guard Damon Stoudamire had 27 points and 10 rebounds in the Cats' 92-72 West Regional final win over No. 1-seed Missouri.
I bring this to your attention because the Hall of Fame's Class of '26 was announced last week. It included BYU point guard Danny Ainge. I have no argument with Ainge being in the Hall of Fame; he was wonderful in 1981, leading BYU to the Elite Eight (its highest finish ever) and averaging 24.4 points. That stacks up well with Stoudamire, who averaged 22.8 as an Arizona senior and was the No. 7 overall NBA Draft pick. Ainge was No. 31 overall in the draft. Damon was on UA teams that won exactly 100 games; Ainge's BYU teams won 81.
Their NBA careers were almost identical. Damon scored 11,763 points in 13 years; Ainge scored 11,964 points in 14 years. But Ainge has had a higher profile in his post-playing days, an executive with the Celtics and the Jazz. Stoudamire is now an assistant coach at LSU. Many times getting elected to a Hall of Fame can be traced to one or two important people advocating for them. It's time for the UA to advocate for Damon, who I consider the second-best player in UA history.
Greg Hansen's picks for Mount Rushmore of Arizona men's basketball | Greg Hansen
