YouTube Gold: Jeff Ruland

Jim Valvano’s first great player, Ruland was an immensely skilled big man.

Before he got to NC State, Jim Valvano used to joke that he would introduce himself as “Jim Valvano...Iona College...” to which the imagined party would reply “but you’re so young to own a college!”

Iona at that point was very much unknown outside of the metro area, but Valvano brought it some attention and some reflected attention later when he rose to great fame in Raleigh.

However, Iona got the NCAA Tournament in his last two seasons there and won 28 games in his final year. And there was a big reason why that happened.

His name was Jeff Ruland, and Ruland was 6-11 and topped out at around 280.

When Valvano left Iona for Raleigh, without telling anyone beforehand, Ruland felt betrayed and the two of them were estranged for several years, with some serious NCAA allegations coming up for Valvano (point shaving and cash payments, then illegal), but were never proven.

Ruland had signed with an agent though (also illegal at the time) and had to leave for pro ball after his junior year.

It took a while for him to excel in the NBA and indeed he played in Barcelona for a year before joining the Washington Bullets (now the Wizards), where he developed a unique role as sort of a prototype of what Nikola Jokic would become later. He was shooting long shots way before most big guys and passed brilliantly.

Unfortunately, he had lots of injuries to his legs and feet and that ultimately cut his career short. As you’ll see though, the guy was way ahead of his time.