Inspired by the Grantland article that came out today. I left off the 2003 Syracuse team because Carmelo Anthony would have made any of these teams legitimate. Which championship team has been the worst at producing sustaining NBA talent based on their hype at the time and how they turned out? 2000 Michigan State: Jason Richardon, Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson, Andre Huston 2002 Maryland: Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Chris Wilcox, Lonny Baxter 2004 UConn: Ben Gordon, Charlie V, Emeka Okafor, Marucs Williams, Hilton Armstrong 2005 UNC: Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, Sean May, Marvin Williams 2008 Kansas: Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Cole Alrich, Darrell Arthur 2009 UNC: Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansborough, Ed Davis, Danny Green
Well technically yes, but you could put any point guard on that team with similar results and I doubt Chalmers starts on another team.
Nope. He is very underrated. Defensively and offensively. Heat won some of those games in the final because of him. He plays big in big moments.
The 09 UNC team looks pretty good. Danny Green has been a good contributor. Ed Davis remains to be seen, but he's still around. Hansborough is earning a rep as a tough guy who can rebound, and Ty Lawson is probably the best player on that whole list.
Wut. Lawson is not. Maybe nowadays he might be. But Richardson was better. Gordon was probably the best player of the bunch before he left Chicago to go rot in Detroit. There were no classic 08/09 Bulls vs Celtics playoff matches without Ben Gordon. <br> I'd say that 08 team for sure. Then the 2000 Michigan State team, since no one other than Richardson did anything. I thought Morris Peterson would be better but he was disappointing. After that the Maryland team from 2002 was the most disappointing. Blake and Wilcox turned out to be decent NBA rotation players for a while (Blake obviously still is) but the fact that Juan Dixon did absolutely nothing really sucked for Maryland fans. His performance during that championship run was pretty awesome. I think the overall most disappointing player who actually showed promise is Okafor. That guy had a really good rookie season. Avg'd something like 15/11. Then got progressively worse as time goes on. Sad.
Even though Singler has made it to the NBA and Plumlee's having a decent year, I'd go with the 2010 Blue Devils over any of the teams in the poll.
Dont really see the point of this thread, TBH. Winning the NCAA title isn't all about accumulating as much NBA talent as possible. Successful NCAA teams are generally EXTREMELY well coached, especially when it comes to defense. Defense in NCAA is so much more fun to watch than in the NBA--because they actually try. Back to the topic, though--I will say the 2005 Tarheels squad has had the most dissapointing NBA career. Marvin Williams over CP3 in the draft to this day still puzzles me.
