3. ESPN's Greatest College Basketball Players of All Time Bracket

ESPN's Greatest College Basketball Players of All Time Bracket

  • Texas Hawk 10

    ESPN has come up with something pretty interesting to pass the time since there’s no NCAA Tournament this season. They have seeded who they consider to be the 64 greatest college basketball players of all time including both men and women.

    Here is the link to the to the 1st round match ups with breakdowns of each player’s accomplishments in college and the link to vote for each match up. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/page/playerbracket/introducing-college-basketball-greatest-all-bracket

    There are two KU players in the bracket and shouldn’t be hard to figure out which two, Wilt and Danny. The four 1 seeds are Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor, Breanna Stewart, and Christian Laettner. The criteria is based on the player’s accomplishments while in college, both individual and team accomplishments.

    West Region

    1. Lew Alcindor (UCLA, 1966-1969) vs. 16. Seimone Augustus (LSU, 2002-2006)

    2. Diana Turasi (UConn, 2000-2004) vs. 15. Chris Jackson (LSU, 1988-1990)

    3. Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati, 1957-1960) vs. 14. Bill Bradley (Princeton. 1962-1965)

    4. Anthony Davis (Kentucky, 2011-2012) vs. 13. Jerry West (West Virginia, 1957-1960)

    5. Tyler Hanbrough (North Carolina, 2005-2009) vs. 12. Lisa Leslie (USC, 1990-1994)

    6. Kemba Walker (UConn, 2008-2011) vs. 11. Marcus Camby (UMass, 1993-1996)

    7. Akeem Olajuwon (Houston, 1981-1984 vs. 10. Dwayne Wade (Marquette, 2001-2003)

    8. Sue Bird (UConn, 1998-2002) vs. 9. Shaquille O’Neal (LSU, 1989-1992)

    East Region

    1. Breanna Stewart (UConn, 2012-2016) vs. 16. Austin Carr (Notre Dame, 1968-1971)

    2. Bill Russell (San Francisco, 1953-1956) vs. 15. Doug McDermott (Creighton, 2010-2014)

    3. Larry Bird (Indiana St., 1976-1979) vs. 14. Dawn Staley (Virginia, 1988-1992)

    4. Ralph Sampson (Virginia, 1979-1983) vs. 13. Pete Maravich (LSU, 1967-1970)

    5. Len Bias (Maryland, 1982-1986) vs. 12. Shane Battier (Duke, 1997-2001)

    6. Sheryl Swoopes (Texas Tech, 1991-1993) vs. 11. JJ Redick (Duke, 2002-2006)

    7. Grant Hill (Duke 1990-1994) vs. 10. Rebecca Lobo (UConn, 1991-1995)

    8. Bobby Hurley (Duke, 1989-1993) vs. 9. Allen Iverson (Georgetown, 1994-1996)

    South Region

    1. Christian Laettner (Duke, 1988-1992) vs. 16. Jimmer Fredette (BYU, 2007-2011)

    2. Patrick Ewing (Georgetown, 1981-1985) vs. 15. Jerry Lucas (Ohio St., 1959-1962)

    3. Magic Johnson (Michigan St., 1977-1979) vs. 14. Glen Rice (Michigan, 1985-1989)

    4. Chamique Holdsclaw (Tennessee, 1995-1999) vs. 13. Trae Young (Oklahoma, 2017-2018)

    5. Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse, 2002-2003 vs. 12. Larry Johnson (UNLV, 1989-1991)

    6. Chris Mullin (St. John’s, 1981-1985) vs. 11. Tamika Catchings (Tennessee, 1997-2001)

    7. Candace Parker (Tennessee, 2005-2008) vs. 10. Kevin Durant (Texas, 2006-2007)

    8. Danny Manning (Kansas, 1984-1988) vs. 9. Zion Williamson (Duke, 2018-2019)

    Midwest Region

    1. Bill Walton (UCLA, 1971-1974) vs. 16. Steve Alford (Indiana, 1983-1987)

    2. Michael Jordan (North Carolina, 1981-1984) vs. 15. Nancy Lieberman (Old Dominion, 1976-1980)

    3. Cheryl Miller (USC, 1982-1986) vs. 14. Chris Webber (Michigan, 1991-1993)

    4. David Thompson (NC State, 1972-1975) vs. 13. Brittney Griner (Baylor, 2009-2013)

    5. Maya Moore (UConn, 2007-2011) vs. 12. Stephen Curry (Davidson, 2006-2009)

    6. Jay Williams (Duke, 1999-2002) vs. 11. David Robinson (Navy, 1983-1987)

    7. Elvin Hayes (Houston, 1965-1968) vs. 10. Tim Duncan (Wake Forest, 1993-1997)

    8. Wilt Chamberlain (Kansas, 1956-1958) vs. 9. Sabrina Ionescu (Oregon, 2016-2020)

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  • J

    Pretty terrible seeding throughout.

    2
  • J

    Great idea, terrible execution! Seriously it’s like a 22 year old duke grad did this. Danny Manning, 2 final fours, 1 championship (one of the most magical championship runs ever), 12 all time in scoring, averaged roughly 24pts 9 rebounds a game 2 straight years, is an 8seed??? Carmelo is a 5 and he had one great year, and he should be one of the higher freshman but still a 5 and manning is an 8. Not only is manning an 8 but Zion is the 9 and Christian laettner is the 1 seed in his bracket. Jay Bilas even called out how crazy that was on the live broadcast

    1
  • wissox

    I know I shouldn’t care, but there are so many names above Danny and Wilt in all the brackets it’s borderline outrageous. I’m not going to comment on the women in the list because I’m not qualified to discuss their merits. There’s only 1 Kentucky guy which is a little surprising, but that’s made up for by an inordinate amount of Duke players. Interestingly, I taught with Seimone Augustus’ HS coach at the school she attended. She was way underseeded. She was such a phenom she was on the cover of SI For Women as a HS Freshman!

    Pete Maravich as a 13 seed is ridiculous.

    Tyler Hansbrough is borderline ridiculous as a 5 if Danny is an 8.

    Wilt had 31 rebounds in his first college game! Imagine if Zion had done that!

    Christian Laettner made a really famous shot that propelled his team to the national cham…uh wait a minute, to the final four.

    7 Duke players since 1990? Why haven’t they won about 10 national championships during that time if they have that many?

    Jerry West was fantastic. Anyone leading WVU to a national championship must have been so. 13 seed?

    Have they never heard of Clyde Lovellette?

    Or George Mikan?

    Bob Pettit?

    @jayhawks2010 said it best. What was this a 22 year old Duke graduate that put this together?

    2
  • Crimsonorblue22

    Tyler, Cole says hi!

    3 wissox 1 Reply
  • wissox

    @Crimsonorblue22 Haha!

    0 Crimsonorblue22 1 Reply
  • Crimsonorblue22

    @wissox loved that game! I was like, who is this guy, I’m sure Tyler thought the same thing. A favorite game, one of many!

    0 wissox 1 Reply
  • wissox

    @Crimsonorblue22 Remember Billy Packer almost jinxing us by declaring the game over. I mean we were winning by something like 25, but it was the 1st half and we did nearly give it all away before reasserting ourselves.

    2 Crimsonorblue22 approxinfinity 3 Replies
  • Crimsonorblue22

    @wissox I forgot that.

    0
  • Crimsonorblue22

    @wissox I could watch that again. I was not a Tyler fan🤮

    0 Marco 1 Reply
  • Marco

    @Crimsonorblue22 Oh, I loved seeing Hansbrough get totally punked by our guys in '08!

    1
  • N

    Absolutely hate seeing Wilt seeded that low. Just because he didn’t win a title doesn’t mean he wasn’t a great college player.

    Russell as a two seed? Maybe, but he had K.C. Jones (another future Hall Of Famer) as a teammate to help carry the load for USF.

    Wilt had Maurice King and Gene Elstun.

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  • nuleafjhawk

    Whoever came up with this is an IDIOT. Wilt was a #1 and the OVERALL #1.

    1 jayballer73 Texas Hawk 10 2 Replies
  • jayballer73

    @nuleafjhawk said in ESPN's Greatest College Basketball Players of All Time Bracket:

    Whoever came up with this is an IDIOT. Wilt was a #1 and the OVERALL #1.

    Don’t pay any attention to this kind of Bull. - whoever makes these up has WAY to much time on their hands with these people having such tiny little brain if ANY at all. - - The biggest reason they do this is to just get your goat – Screw these idiots - they know NOTHING

    1
  • Texas Hawk 10

    @nuleafjhawk said in ESPN's Greatest College Basketball Players of All Time Bracket:

    Whoever came up with this is an IDIOT. Wilt was a #1 and the OVERALL #1.

    No, because it’s based ONLY on college achievements combining both individual and team achievement. Wilt only played 2 years, not the 3 that was standard for the time, and didn’t win a national championship. Could he have been seeded higher, probably, but based on the criteria, he didn’t deserve a 1 seed. When looking at Kansas only careers, Danny Manning was a better Jayhawk than Wilt.

    The four 1 seeds all won multiple national championships and all stayed in college the maximum allotted time.

    0 nuleafjhawk 1 Reply
  • nuleafjhawk

    @Texas-Hawk-10 I will never let stats and facts get in the way of my opinion of Wilt. 😉

    4
  • D

    This is truly one of the most idiotic attempts at ranking of greatest college basketball players that I’ve seen. Number one is the ridiculous Duke bias. As noted, 7 in the last three decades?! Number 2 is the recency bias - yes, probably is a millennial Dookie. Old enough to remember UCLA (other than Alcindor and Walton)???

    Those who definitely do not belong on the list of top 50 or so men’s college players: Trae Young, Stephen Curry, Doug McDermott, Dwayne Wade, Zion Williamson, Jimmer Fredette, Chris Webber, Marcus Camby, and Shane Battier. Not when the list doesn’t include Gail Goodrich, Sidney Wicks, Dan Issel, Calvin Murphy, Rick Mount, Wayman Tisdale, Scott May, Phil Ford, George Mikan, Clyde Lovellette and Bob Pettit (and I’m sure that I’m doing injustice to another half dozen who are more credentialed).

    Way over-“seeded” - Hansbrough, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, Jay Williams, Len Bias, and Kemba Walker. Way under-“seeded” - West, Bradley, Manning and Olajuwon.

    I don’t have a major issue with the women with two exceptions. The three greatest UConn players were Taurasi, Stewart and Maya Moore. I think the case could be made that Moore should be at the top of that list, but she definitely isn’t 4 seeds lines below Stewart. I would note that she is only one of 2 women to make the AA first team 4 years in a row. The other is Courtney Parris, who would be the other quibble.

    1 wissox 1 Reply
  • wissox

    @DCHawker Another name you and I forgot is Mark Aguirre, a truly great player who put Depaul basketball back on the map. Love em or hate em, but Kentucky had a mini dynasty in the late 90’s and they’re not represented.

    0
  • wissox

    To show how subjective these things are, I found a list of the 25 greatest, and while greatly flawed, it did rank Danny 9th, but their 4th ranked player Hank Gathers doesn’t even make ESPN’s tournament. I hate ESPN’s bias and it shows through so obviously here.

    0
  • kjayhawks

    This is laughable, MJ as a 2? Wilt and Pistol Pete way under seeded.

    1 bskeet 1 Reply
  • bskeet

    I’m sure whoever did this has a rationale they can use to back it up, but it doesn’t pass the common sense test. Looks like the model is faulty.

    0
  • bskeet

    @kjayhawks said in ESPN's Greatest College Basketball Players of All Time Bracket:

    This is laughable, MJ as a 2? Wilt and Pistol Pete way under seeded.

    100%

    0
  • Marco

    Not a big Duke fan (obviously), but Laettner was a great college basketball player. Two consecutive national titles (and ofcourse The Shot against Kentucky in the Elite 8). I’m not going to google this, I’m lazy, but didn’t he help Duke get to four consecutive Final Fours?

    0 mayjay 1 Reply
  • mayjay

    @Marco said in ESPN's Greatest College Basketball Players of All Time Bracket:

    didn’t he help Duke get to four consecutive Final Fours?

    Yep. Good memory!

    1
  • wissox

    Anthony Davis v. Jerry West. Jerry was 6’ 2". For his 93 game career he averaged 24.8 points a game and 13 rebounds. Did I mention he was 6’2"? Now I like and admire Anthony Davis too, but whoever put this together really doesn’t know all that much about college basketball. It could have been a good thing, a chance to teach people about an incredible player like Jerry West.

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  • approxinfinity

    @wissox said in ESPN's Greatest College Basketball Players of All Time Bracket:

    @Crimsonorblue22 Remember Billy Packer almost jinxing us by declaring the game over. I mean we were winning by something like 25, but it was the 1st half and we did nearly give it all away before reasserting ourselves.

    I also appreciated Danny Greens effort. The only Tarheel that came to play.

    2
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