the bottom line is cook's teams always seemed to lose..even in the ndbl where he put up some gaudy stats. he's a stat sheet stuffer.
barkley led us to one bump ...a grant injury...and ohio state using paid players away from a final four.
you have to go with the results.
to play devils advocate, Barkley had a team of pros to play with in college, and Cook had a bunch of guys who couldnt catch the ball. barkley was out of the pros in 2 years. cook, if he had stayed two years may have really benefitted from that. they played in the same systems from 1st grade at St. Anne's in Brooklyn, through Christ the King and then St John's. Cook was always considered the better player, and if Barkley didnt go to prep school he woulda never even been a McDonaldsAA. Plus the fact that Cook was an 18 yr old frosh and EB was 21. Barkley always had better players around him, but Cook put up better #'s. Maybe if Cook was on the 99 team we make the Final 4. this is something thats debatable forever. At least O is making good money in Russia now. Cant say the same for EB.
if barkley hadn't left early, we would have compared him favorably with mark jackson. EB is the only st john's player to my knowledge to score 500 points in his freshman year. he was an outstanding quarterback. we won with him. what other criteria is there? walter berry won a wooden award, but wasn't an impact nba player.
Walter never desired to be an NBA impact player, strange as that may seem.
Told me early on how he was envious of Antoine Carr who was playing in Europe at the time , living a great life and owning 2 Mercedes Benz automobiles.
He lived his dream, had a great career in Europe, made a fortune.