I’m too young to have seen Sellers play, but there seems to be universal acceptance that he was our greatest player ever. Looking at his college stats, I’m surprised to see he was only a 3rd round pick. Was this because he was a forward in a guards buddy and there was fear his game wouldn’t translate to the nba? Looking up his nba stats I was surprised that he only played one season and didn’t have much success. Why wasn’t Phil a better nba player?
Phil Sellers question
- Thread starter ouchmyknee
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You got it right. He was a tweener. Great college player.
He was a 6'4" power forward for us. Even in the 70's, those skills (although he had a pretty good outside shot) were not going to translate to the pros.
He was a great college players whose skills and height didn’t translate into a great pro. His one on one with Beaver Smith of St John’s. Was CLASSIC Sellers. Phil won the duel and Rutgers the game.
Great college player who's game didn't translate to the NBA at the time.
NBA and College Hoops are very different games.
NBA and College Hoops are very different games.
Was there and that game scared the crap out of me
The stage was set for a St John’s upset according to the NY papers
Walking out of the garden, several passerbys asked who won
Loved the disappointed faced upon telling them RU
Sellers was THE man that day
probably one of my top games in memory
Yep, small forward in college, tried to make him more like a guard when trying to play pro
I was at the 70-67 win over the Johnnies at The Garden.9000 red clad fans from each school. Phil told Tom to give him the ball in the last 1:31 and he took over the game. Great win. Rutgers avoided an early game in the tourney against Indiana and ended up in Providence ultimately against Princeton in the Peter Molloy game. Never more tension than those 2 times out by Tom to freeze Molloy and Princeton.
Phil was a very good but not great shooter.
He was a fierce competitor. And a great college basketball player from his freshman year.
First team AA.
He was plenty quick and today might have had a career in the NBA, because the 3 point line with have incentivized him to improve from a very good to a great shooter in college.
He played for Dickie V for the Pistons..
He was a fierce competitor. And a great college basketball player from his freshman year.
First team AA.
He was plenty quick and today might have had a career in the NBA, because the 3 point line with have incentivized him to improve from a very good to a great shooter in college.
He played for Dickie V for the Pistons..
When Manu Ginobili (6'6") came into the league after Euro and South American success, I thought he wouldn't fit. Didn't see how he could defend. He's an unimpressive 37% 3-pt shooter. Fortunately he ended up with Pops who concentrated on what he could do instead of what he couldn't. Feel like that could have been Sellers' path but he wasn't lucky enough to fall in the right spot. Super smart, extremely athletic, and highly competitive should have added up to more in the NBA.
True of Douby too. Sacramento (who has wasted lots of talent over the last 30 years) tried to make him a point guard. He’d be a stud in todays NBA.
Tom Young tried to call a play three times and each time Phil said "give me the ball". finally, Tom said - "ok, give, Phil the ball".
Roy Hinson probably had the best career of the bunch. Assuming you don’t want to include Dahtany Jones…
Hope no one minds me posting all of this, but below is an article about Phil the OP might like, that was published in Sports Illustrated in January 1975. I'll try to post the link, but I am not always successful when I do that ( https://vault.si.com/vault/1975/01/20/one-very-stormy-sellers ) . I thought I had read most everything about Phil, but I had never seen this before. There are probably only a very few people that could count themselves as bigger Phil fans than I am, so I am very biased. This article is pretty good at giving a peek inside Phil Sellers and the times in which he played. Phil was basically a 6-4 power forward. Tom Young was a very smart coach and he knew he didn't want Phil wandering too far from the boards. If Phil had gone to a different school, he might have developed a better handle, been able to work on his outside game. However, I will be forever grateful that Phil (whom I've never met) decided to spend his 4 years at Rutgers at the same time I did. The article:
Press releases cranked out by Rutgers' publicity office invariably describe Phil Sellers, a 6'5" junior forward, as a "does-it-all" player. The literature naturally dwells on such matters as the 23 points and eight rebounds Sellers has averaged in leading the New Jersey school to a surprising 10-2 record. But what the handouts do not mention is of equal note. Why is Sellers always jawing at referees, teammates and opponents? How come anguish so often clouds his features? Why is he forever taking dramatic falls during games? In short, is Sellers doing it all to become an All-America—which he probably will—or is it an Academy Award he wants?
What makes Sellers' histrionics so striking is his relatively mild manner off the court. Admitting to something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, he says, "I get involved when I'm playing. Sometimes I just get carried away." Sellers' involvement has cost him technical fouls—four already this season—as well as a nasty scar on his shoulder from a memorable collision with a press table. It also has led him to complain to the officials virtually every time a call goes against him and, most annoying, to grin gloatingly whenever he gets away with something.
Some of Sellers' reactions are understandable; he is a marked man who usually must fight through double-and triple-team defenses to score. Rugged enough to crash the boards and quick enough for the press Rutgers frequently employs, he is the kind of heavy-duty player unseen in New Jersey since Bill Bradley was putting on his does-it-all act down Highway 27 in Princeton. A deft passer and outside shooter, Sellers also is called upon to play low post, where he must work against bigger opponents. "Phil takes a beating underneath, but he loves contact," says Tom Young, who became Rutgers' coach last year after a winning record at American University. "He takes it right to the other guy."
It is a sign of at least some restraint that Sellers has never been drawn into a real fight on the court. He says, "I'm a lot more help playing than I'd be if I got thrown out." And he acknowledges a desire to curb his passions: "I need to have a little more cool out there. Everybody expected me to play a major role here, and that's put pressure on me. I've still got some growing up to do."
Sellers' involvement with the game began on the playgrounds of Brooklyn, where he spent so much time that "People used to tell me I was going to turn into a basketball. They even asked me if I slept with my basketball." Sellers was a schoolboy All-America at Thomas Jefferson High and was selected MVP of Pittsburgh's prestigious Dapper Dan all-star game at the end of his senior season. After sifting through offers from 200 colleges, he signed a letter of intent to go to Notre Dame. But last-minute jitters about his ability to hack it there academically persuaded him to enroll at Livingston College, a part of Rutgers specially designed to help students from low-income backgrounds. Sellers was a 20-point scorer as a freshman while Rutgers stumbled to a 14-11 record. With Young's arrival last season the Scarlet Knights improved to 18-8, but some reporters concentrated instead on what one of them called Sellers' "unbecoming conduct."
As Rutgers now flirts with an unaccustomed spot in the Top 20, Sellers' efforts at self-modulation are apparent. Called for technicals, he apologizes promptly. He also has become less severe with teammates. "Now I pat them on the rear when I criticize them," he says. "I want them to know I don't mean anything personal." At a team meeting Sellers listened sheepishly as Young pointedly said, "Phil isn't the one who makes out the starting lineup around here." But the coach also says, "One of Phil's problems is that he's such a smart player. He picks on the other guys out of frustration. While they're still trying to understand what I'm talking about, he's already learned it."
Sellers' basketball sense also impresses Southern Cal Coach Bob Boyd, who attributes the Rutgers player's abrasive style partly to "outstanding gamesmanship." Specifically, Boyd has in mind Sellers' success at drawing offensive fouls, an art requiring courage, good floor position and, what can scarcely fail to interest an observer from Los Angeles, inspired acting. During the Holiday Festival games at Madison Square Garden, in which Rutgers took third behind upset winner Fordham and USC, Sellers scored 76 points and, amazingly, drew nine charging fouls in three games. In a subsequent 97-87 win over Long Island University, Sellers drew three more offensive fouls. Early in the game he warned Nate Revels, the LIU forward guarding him, "I'm going to foul you out." Then he proceeded to do exactly that.
The boasting was forgivable. Later Revels admitted that it was he who actually started the verbal sparring. One of Revels' fouls occurred when he slammed into Sellers as Sellers was driving for the basket. Stepping to the free-throw line, Sellers grinned hugely. Significantly, he was looking at Revels, not at the referee. As the Scarlet Knights' does-it-all forward says, "I'm starting to realize it's not smart to make the refs look bad." Maybe he has things more under control than it appears.
Press releases cranked out by Rutgers' publicity office invariably describe Phil Sellers, a 6'5" junior forward, as a "does-it-all" player. The literature naturally dwells on such matters as the 23 points and eight rebounds Sellers has averaged in leading the New Jersey school to a surprising 10-2 record. But what the handouts do not mention is of equal note. Why is Sellers always jawing at referees, teammates and opponents? How come anguish so often clouds his features? Why is he forever taking dramatic falls during games? In short, is Sellers doing it all to become an All-America—which he probably will—or is it an Academy Award he wants?
What makes Sellers' histrionics so striking is his relatively mild manner off the court. Admitting to something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, he says, "I get involved when I'm playing. Sometimes I just get carried away." Sellers' involvement has cost him technical fouls—four already this season—as well as a nasty scar on his shoulder from a memorable collision with a press table. It also has led him to complain to the officials virtually every time a call goes against him and, most annoying, to grin gloatingly whenever he gets away with something.
Some of Sellers' reactions are understandable; he is a marked man who usually must fight through double-and triple-team defenses to score. Rugged enough to crash the boards and quick enough for the press Rutgers frequently employs, he is the kind of heavy-duty player unseen in New Jersey since Bill Bradley was putting on his does-it-all act down Highway 27 in Princeton. A deft passer and outside shooter, Sellers also is called upon to play low post, where he must work against bigger opponents. "Phil takes a beating underneath, but he loves contact," says Tom Young, who became Rutgers' coach last year after a winning record at American University. "He takes it right to the other guy."
It is a sign of at least some restraint that Sellers has never been drawn into a real fight on the court. He says, "I'm a lot more help playing than I'd be if I got thrown out." And he acknowledges a desire to curb his passions: "I need to have a little more cool out there. Everybody expected me to play a major role here, and that's put pressure on me. I've still got some growing up to do."
Sellers' involvement with the game began on the playgrounds of Brooklyn, where he spent so much time that "People used to tell me I was going to turn into a basketball. They even asked me if I slept with my basketball." Sellers was a schoolboy All-America at Thomas Jefferson High and was selected MVP of Pittsburgh's prestigious Dapper Dan all-star game at the end of his senior season. After sifting through offers from 200 colleges, he signed a letter of intent to go to Notre Dame. But last-minute jitters about his ability to hack it there academically persuaded him to enroll at Livingston College, a part of Rutgers specially designed to help students from low-income backgrounds. Sellers was a 20-point scorer as a freshman while Rutgers stumbled to a 14-11 record. With Young's arrival last season the Scarlet Knights improved to 18-8, but some reporters concentrated instead on what one of them called Sellers' "unbecoming conduct."
As Rutgers now flirts with an unaccustomed spot in the Top 20, Sellers' efforts at self-modulation are apparent. Called for technicals, he apologizes promptly. He also has become less severe with teammates. "Now I pat them on the rear when I criticize them," he says. "I want them to know I don't mean anything personal." At a team meeting Sellers listened sheepishly as Young pointedly said, "Phil isn't the one who makes out the starting lineup around here." But the coach also says, "One of Phil's problems is that he's such a smart player. He picks on the other guys out of frustration. While they're still trying to understand what I'm talking about, he's already learned it."
Sellers' basketball sense also impresses Southern Cal Coach Bob Boyd, who attributes the Rutgers player's abrasive style partly to "outstanding gamesmanship." Specifically, Boyd has in mind Sellers' success at drawing offensive fouls, an art requiring courage, good floor position and, what can scarcely fail to interest an observer from Los Angeles, inspired acting. During the Holiday Festival games at Madison Square Garden, in which Rutgers took third behind upset winner Fordham and USC, Sellers scored 76 points and, amazingly, drew nine charging fouls in three games. In a subsequent 97-87 win over Long Island University, Sellers drew three more offensive fouls. Early in the game he warned Nate Revels, the LIU forward guarding him, "I'm going to foul you out." Then he proceeded to do exactly that.
The boasting was forgivable. Later Revels admitted that it was he who actually started the verbal sparring. One of Revels' fouls occurred when he slammed into Sellers as Sellers was driving for the basket. Stepping to the free-throw line, Sellers grinned hugely. Significantly, he was looking at Revels, not at the referee. As the Scarlet Knights' does-it-all forward says, "I'm starting to realize it's not smart to make the refs look bad." Maybe he has things more under control than it appears.
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This was a great find on so many levels! Great feature on Phil to lead that week’s college basketball coverage, but if you click into the original layout, you can read the whole week’s recap with many names that long-time college hoops fans and later NBA fans would recognize. Including NJ’s own Jackie Gilloon who we lost this year. Thank you for this find and for posting!
Hinson was on his way to becoming an all-star in Cleveland, but then was traded to the Sixers for the No. 1 pick (Brad Daugherty). He didn't team up well with Barkley in Philly for a couple seasons, then injuries started taking their toll on him. He did end up playing every game for the Nets one season, but did it on wobbly knees.
Finding the article on Phil above was actually a "Thrill" for me (pun totally intended lol). If I had my druthers, I would have everyone call Phil today to thank him for his role in Rutgers making it into what is now a bi-coastal B1G! He is actually the original mover and shaker that allowed Rutgers to even be considered bigtime in athletics. His coat tails were long enough that we survived (barely) to a point where some people started to actually support RU athletics properly. So, Phil, 50 years later...thanks for starting the ball rolling...thanks for starting everything...thanks again! Go RU!!