MY STARTING FIVE - NCAA CHAMPIONS
As we are waiting for the Sweet 16 to kick off in a couple of days, I was thinking about who my favorite NCAA champion players are, and I came up with the following. I'm super biased and the criteria is you had to win the NCAA. So, no LeBron James.
Honorable mentions:
Joakim Noah - Florida Gators, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) - UCLA Bruins, Magic Johnson - Michigan State
5. Isiah Thomas - Indiana
Isiah might be most famous to some people for the walk off, but to me he's a true champion. He grinded out that Eastern Conference and won it i three tries. First he got bounced by the Celtics after that huge turnover when Bird stole the ball. Next year he came back and led the Pistons to the Finals and lost to Magic and the third year he got past the Lakers to win it all. But it all started at Indiana when he led the Hoisers to two Conference titles under Bob Knight, and as a sophomore he led them all the way to the NCAA title while being named Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament. Not bad for a Bad Boy.
4. Michael Jordan - UNC
Yeah, I know. He should be higher. But not this time. As a freshman he shouldn't have had the ball at the end, he probably shouldn't even been on the floor. Even tho he was named ACC-Rookie Of the Year, he was still a freshman. But he was that good and that single shot is one of the greatest basketball plays of all time. It's hard to not put MJ at the top. Little did anyone know that that young kid was gonna turn out to be the best player to ever play.
3. Breanna Stewart - UConn
When you're the NCAA Tournament MOP four years in a row, it's not a debate. It's not for no reason she became the first female athlete to have her own signature shoe in over a decade. Shoes are cool, obviously, but Breanna is more than just a signature line. Her resume is long enough for your battery to run out. Let's just wrap it up with her college record of 151-5. Only Kareem come close with 3 NCAA titles, 3 NCAA MOP awards and a winning record of 88-2. But that's still 70 W and one title and award off. That alone is a HOF career. Just sayin.
Breanna Stewart Collection by Puma
2. Carmelo Anthony - Syracuse
So, here it goes. The most biased top 2 picks ever. But I don't care. Melo was HIM back at Syracuse, as he led them to the NCAA title as a freshman. And not just a really good freshman who got enough minutes, he was THE man and named NCAA MOP after a 22.2 and 10 season. In the Final Four against Texas he set a record for most points for a freshman with 33 and finished it off with a 22 and 10 performance in the title game. And if it wasn't Cleveland who won the lottery, Melo could've been the first pick but they chose to go local and it seems like it was the right pick.
1. Larry Johnson - UNLV
Yeah. I told y'all before. There's not one player I hold higher than LJ. Maybe Penny but Memphis never won so LJ is the number 1 on this list. Before he transfered to UNLV, he played JUCO at Odessa. He averaged 22.3 points per game as a freshman and over 29 points per game his sophomore year, becoming the first and, to date, only player ever to win the National Junior College Athletic Association Division 1 Player of the Year award both years played. He was so dominant that the talks was that he would've gotten picked as a lottery pick if he's entered the draft. But then he wouldn't had been on this lis, so he chose to go play at UNLV and as a Junior he led the Runnin' Rebels to the title game, where they set the record for both most points scored and biggest margin as they beat Duke 100-70 and LJ dropped 22 while grabbing 11 boards. The following year UNLV ran past everyone to a perfect season with 27-0 and in the Final Four they lost to the Grant Hill led Duke before he left school to go pro as the 1st pick in the 1991 NBA draft.
Next year, I hope I can put Bobi Klintman or Wille Berg at the number one spot...