NCAA Basketball Blue Bloods are M.I.A. in 2021

[DFWJC]

Although I'm a North Carolina fan and alum, it's pretty refreshing seeing so many teams that have few or no National Titles near the top of the rankings this year.

Here are the latest polls.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

Quick refresher
Here are Top 5 Programs all-time in the 5 Main categories

All-Time Win %

1. Kentucky
2. North Carolina
3. Kansas
4. Duke
5. UCLA

All-Time Total Wins

1. Kentucky
2. Kansas
3. North Carolina
4. Duke
5. Temple

Most NCAA Titles

1. UCLA (11)
2. Kentucky (8)
3. North Carolina (6)
4. Duke (5)
5. Indiana (5)

Most Final Fours

1. North Carolina
2. UCLA
3. Kentucky
4. Duke
5. Kansas

Most NCAA Appearances

1. Kentucky
2. North Carolina
3. Kansas
4. UCLA
5. Duke

Kentucky, Duke, and Indiana all may very well not even make the Tourney this year. Kansas, UNC and UCLA have a chance not to make as well, though they all could.
Can't ever remember a year when more than one or two of these missed the tourney

Maybe we get a new Champion this year!
Gonzaga finally?
Baylor?

The only "power" team that has won recent titles and is really a contender seems to be Villanova.
So...anyone but Nova.
lol

 

[jterrell]

In the last 7 years you've only had 2 championships from these guys. 1 for UNC And 1 for Duke.
Same amount as Villanova by themselves.

It's a tough tough game now where these older, wiser teams tend to do really well.

The real question is has the game passed some of these teams/coaches by.

UCLA hasn't won a title since 1995. They only made the tourney once in Alford's last 4 seasons as coach.
Mick Cronin may turn it around but he's not exactly the master, John Wooden.
I am not sure I'll ever understand how California schools with amazing resources can't win regularly in basketball and football.

Kentucky: My Dad's from Kentucky so this one hurts him but Calipari has fallen off by a lot.
That team is embarrassing right now. They haven't won a title since 2012.
But they've only been bad this one year.

Duke: Not long ago they had the best player in the country so Coach K can still recruit.
But one and done's are tough to re-load yearly.

UNC: Roy is a true legend but he's really up there in age. Is it time for UNC to move on?
Only two bad seasons in a row and we had COVID to deal with but he is over 70.

Kansas: As a B12 guy Kansas was forever the only true basketball school in the conference
But that's hardly the case anymore.
The B12 is nasty and Kansas has to fight just to stay in the top 25.
Baylor, WVU, Texas Tech all have more momentum.

 

[DFWJC]

In the last 7 years you've only had 2 championships from these guys. 1 for UNC And 1 for Duke.
Same amount as Villanova by themselves.

It's a tough tough game now where these older, wiser teams tend to do really well.

The real question is has the game passed some of these teams/coaches by.

UCLA hasn't won a title since 1995. They only made the tourney once in Alford's last 4 seasons as coach.
Mick Cronin may turn it around but he's not exactly the master, John Wooden.
I am not sure I'll ever understand how California schools with amazing resources can't win regularly in basketball and football.

Kentucky: My Dad's from Kentucky so this one hurts him but Calipari has fallen off by a lot.
That team is embarrassing right now. They haven't won a title since 2012.
But they've only been bad this one year.

Duke: Not long ago they had the best player in the country so Coach K can still recruit.
But one and done's are tough to re-load yearly.

UNC: Roy is a true legend but he's really up there in age. Is it time for UNC to move on?
Only two bad seasons in a row and we had COVID to deal with but he is over 70.

Kansas: As a B12 guy Kansas was forever the only true basketball school in the conference
But that's hardly the case anymore.
The B12 is nasty and Kansas has to fight just to stay in the top 25.
Baylor, WVU, Texas Tech all have more momentum.

Agree with pretty much everything you said there.

Also, I know its not realistic to hope for or expect, but I do enjoy watching teams with a little maturity to them.
The 1980s era probably spoiled me with all those teams loaded with superstars/future NBA HOFers that played till their junior or senior years.

Would never blame anyone for leaving early (completely get it) but for selfish reasons as a college basketball fan, it was fun to watch an Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley, Drexler, Worthy, Sampson, Ewing still playing into their junior or senior years

 

[Turk]

Agree with pretty much everything you said there.

Also, I know its not realistic to hope for or expect, but I do enjoy watching teams with a little maturity to them.
The 1980s era probably spoiled me with all those teams loaded with superstars/future NBA HOFers that played till their junior or senior years.

Would never blame anyone for leaving early (completely get it) but for selfish reasons as a college basketball fan, it was fun to watch an Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley, Drexler, Worthy, Sampson, Ewing still playing into their junior or senior years

Can you imagine if Lebron had gone to a college for 2 years what he would have done there?

 

[DFWJC]

Can you imagine if Lebron had gone to a college for 2 years what he would have done there?

No doubt!

Here's an article on where some of the all-time best players to skip college would've gone

https://clutchpoints.com/best-preps-pros-players-wouldve-gone-college/

LeBron James---Ohio State
Dwight Howard---North Carolina
Kobe Bryant---Duke or North Carolina
Amar’e Stoudemire---Memphis
Tracy McGrady--Kentucky
Kevin Garnett--Maryland

 

[jterrell]

Agree with pretty much everything you said there.

Also, I know its not realistic to hope for or expect, but I do enjoy watching teams with a little maturity to them.
The 1980s era probably spoiled me with all those teams loaded with superstars/future NBA HOFers that played till their junior or senior years.

Would never blame anyone for leaving early (completely get it) but for selfish reasons as a college basketball fan, it was fun to watch an Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley, Drexler, Worthy, Sampson, Ewing still playing into their junior or senior years

As a Texas Tech fan we see this as we just recruited our highest EVER recruit.
He didn't even last 20 games before with-drawing.
Great talent but Beard wants to play a tough, hard-nosed game not feature anyone.
I think you'll see a ton of transfers to top schools now.
And those guys will occasionally face elite freshman classes but more often than not it'll be those veteran laden schools making yearly sweet sixteen runs imho.

Will be interesting to see if Kentucky/Duke/UNC start adding vet transfers at much higher rates.

 

[DFWJC]

As a Texas Tech fan we see this as we just recruited our highest EVER recruit.
He didn't even last 20 games before with-drawing.
Great talent but Beard wants to play a tough, hard-nosed game not feature anyone.
I think you'll see a ton of transfers to top schools now.
And those guys will occasionally face elite freshman classes but more often than not it'll be those veteran laden schools making yearly sweet sixteen runs imho.

Will be interesting to see if Kentucky/Duke/UNC start adding vet transfers at much higher rates.

Curious to see how that goes.

As for one and dones, on average, I think in order of most frequent
Kentucky
Duke
.
UNC

UNC has historically almost tried to find mostly guys that will stick around...elite players but they only occasionally chase the for sure one and dones that Kentucky goes for.

Their best teams have almost always been full of non-NBA star-types lately....teams where the star is a junior or senior. Players that may get overdrafted but are not true stars.

They made the title game 2 of the last 4 years and guys like Joel Berry and Luke Maye were their "stars". Transfer Cam Johnson helped too.

Texas Tech has a good recipe right now.
Gonzaga and Virginia have found balance in their own way too.

 

[jterrell]

Curious to see how that goes.

As for one and dones, on average, I think in order of most frequent
Kentucky
Duke
.
UNC

UNC has historically almost tried to find mostly guys that will stick around...elite players but they only occasionally chase the for sure one and dones that Kentucky goes for.

Their best teams have almost always been full of non-NBA star-types lately....teams where the star is a junior or senior. Players that may get overdrafted but are not true stars.

They made the title game 2 of the last 4 years and guys like Joel Berry and Luke Maye were their "stars". Transfer Cam Johnson helped too.

Texas Tech has a good recipe right now.
Gonzaga and Virginia have found balance in their own way too.

I'd argue the two best coaches in college basketball right now preside over Virginia and Texas Tech.
As a Tech fan we continually hold our breath someone will money whip Chris Beard.
He is a West Texas guy but 10M dollars is 10 million dollars, lol.
UNC would likely have their pick of coaches if Roy does retire.

1 and done guys with one eye on the NBA often have outside advisors and such and aren't really great team guys.

 

[DFWJC]

The Brackets come out this evening!

The regular season has been tremendous for the Big 12 and Big Ten and I expect the top 8-12 seeds to be loaded with teams from those conferences.

As for the big names that might be left out, it looks like maybe only 2
Sitting at home will be

• Kentucky
• Duke (first time since 1995)

Mich State looks like they will sneak into the field and keep their consecutive streal (currently 22 years) alive.

For trivia's sake, the longest active streak belongs to Kansas at 30 years. They will make it 31.


Gonzaga, the top overall seed, will have an active streak of 22 years.