NCAA tourney time is upon the world of hoops. I won’t use this time to talk about the NBA game versus the NCAA game (I like them both). Nor am I going to give you my predictions for this year’s brackets. Instead, I thought we could look at the programs and the pros they have yielded. With the help of Basketball-Reference.com we’re going to go through the major programs and their best NBA starting five. I did this several years ago but times have changed and this is always fun to revisit.
As for criterion, I am not assessing the best college players but rather the best pros from that program. For examle, Christian Laettner is probably the most valuable forward/center in Duke history but, as a pro, he’s no Elton Brand. If pro careers are close, however, college success will be a tie-breaker. We’re also limiting our inquiry to 1980 and beyond. This is not to denigrate previous eras but the fact is that NCAA tournament became a big deal starting with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in 1979 so it only seems fitting to only look at players stats since that year (if a player’s NBA career started before that time we’ll consider his post-1979 stats only). We also reserve the right to play the best lineup of available players. So, if Georgetown has Alonzo Mourning and Patrick Ewing, one can play power forward and the other can play center but you can’t play Dikembe Mutombo at small forward since that would never work in real life. So let’s jump in and see what we have by conference. Today, we’ll do the Big East ranking them based upon their staring lineups:
THE BIG EAST
16. West Virginia: PG: None, SG: None, SF: Joe Alexander, PF: Devin Ebanks, C: None
15. South Florida: PG: None, SG: Dominique Jones, SF: Curtis Kinchen, PF: Solomon Jones, C: James Grandholm
14. Rutgers: PG: Eddie Jordan, SG: John Battle, SF: Quincy Douby, PF: Roy Hinson, C: James Bailey
13. Seton Hall: PG: John Morton, SG: Terry Dehere, SF: Eddie Griffin, PF: Mark Bryant, C: Samuel Dalembert
12. Pittsburgh: PG: Vonteego Cummings, SG: Sam Young, SF: Charles Smith, PF: DeJuan Blair, C: Mark Blount
11. Providence: PG: God Shamgod, SG: Eric Murdock, SF: Eric Williams, PF: Austin Croshere, C: Otis Thorpe
10. Louisville: PG: Darrell Griffith, SG: Derek Smith, SF: Rodney McCray, PF: Pervis Ellison, C: Felton Spencer
9. Villanova: PG: Kyle Lowry, SG: Kerry Kittles, SF: Doug West, PF: Tim Thomas, C: Ed Pinckney
8. Cincinnati: PG: Nick Van Exel, SG: Ruben Patterson, SF: Pat Cummings, PF: Kenyon Martin, C: Danny Fortson
7. Marquette: PF: Doc Rivers, SG: Dwyane Wade, SF: Chris Crawford, PF: Maurice Lucas, C: Jerome Whitehead
6. St. John’s: PG: Mark Jackson, SG: Malik Sealy, SF: Chris Mullin, PF: Ron Artest, C: Jayson Williams
5. Syracuse: PG: Sherman Douglas, SG: Billy Owens, SF: Carmelo Anthony, PF: Derrick Coleman, C: Rony Seikaly
4. UConn: PG: Ben Gordon, SG: Ray Allen, SF: Caron Butler, PF: Clifford Robinson, C: Emeka Okafor
3. Notre Dame: PG: John Paxson, SG: Kelly Tripucka, SF: Adrian Dantley, PF: Laphonso Ellis, C: Bill Laimbeer
2. DePaul: PG: Rod Strickland, SG: Quentin Richardson, SF: Mark Aguirre, PF: Terry Cummings, C: Dave Corzine
1. Georgetown: PG: Sleepy Floyd, SG: Allen Iverson, SF: Jeff Green, PF: Alonzo Mourning, C: Patrick Ewing
A few observations here:
-It is amazing that West Virginia has produced pretty much no pros since the Jerry West Era. I’d expect this to change as Bob Huggins continues to manage the program.
-There are several levels to the rankings, which I know are far from scientific. After West Virginia and South Florida (who can’t field a full lineup), Rutgers, Seton Hall, Pitt and Providence are rosters without bona fide starters at every position.
-You could make an argument that Notre Dame through Marquette could be shifted around, as they are all close on aggregate talent.
-A good DePaul program feels like a long time ago but they were manufacturing really good pros in the 1980s.
-Georgetown has clearly the best team in the league.
-Like Pitt, Notre Dame has continued to be pretty good in the NCAA without producing many pros in the past decade.
-UConn has a nice team but they seem to have a high concentration of two guards and not so much up front or at the point.
Next time we’ll look at the ACC….