Beard, Glove, Skyhook, and Splash (Conference Tourney Part 12)
We’re back with Part 12 of our College Conference Knockout Tournament! Check out our rules and some context for the tourney in Part 1 here. We’ve finally reached the number one seed and it’s framed with some slight serendipity, as the conference that inspired this hypothetical occupies top spot…
Pacific-12 Conference (Pac-12)
We’ve officially come full circle, as this whole excerise sprouted from my disappointment over the dissolution of the Pac-12 and my resulting disillusion with college basketball in general. It’s therefore fitting that we find ourselves closing out the seeding with the Pac-12 in the top spot. In addition to being a fun coincidence, this was a tremendously enjoyable team to craft, albeit a tremendously difficult one as well. The main source of that trouble was the incredible bounty of point guards available on the west coast, including four who were recently selected for the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players list in James Harden, Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, and Russell Westbrook, two additional Hall of Famers in Gail Goodrich and Paul Westphal, seven more players who made at least one All-League Team in Gilbert Arenas, Mack Calvin, Baron Davis, Kevin Johnson, Fat Lever, Isaiah Thomas, and Gus Williams, and, on top of all that, quality floor generals like Mike Bibby, Terrell Brandon, Jrue Holiday, and Damon Stoudamire who are unfortunately relegated to afterthought status in this exercise. Obviously, the key to building this roster was successfully navigating this position, specifically how many all-time greats can be picked before they become redundant? And can any of them coexist? Here’s how I landed:¹
- PG — Jason Kidd (Cal — 1,391 Total Games Played)
SG — James Harden (Arizona State — 1,000)
SF — Detlef Schrempf (Washington — 1,136)
PF — Andre Iguodala (Arizona — 1,231)
C — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA — 1,560)
B — Greg Ballard (Oregon — 802)
B — DeMar DeRozan (USC — 1,031)
B — Brook Lopez (Stanford — 946)
B — Gary Payton (Oregon State — 1,335)
B — Jakob Poeltl (Utah — 488)
B — Klay Thompson (Washington State — 716)
B — Derrick White (Colorado — 345) - 11,981 Total Games Played
Payton and Harden were undeniably the best eligible players to represent Oregon State and Arizona State², respectively, so I didn’t hesitate to select them as the two floor generals to lead this squad. Westbrook found himself on the opposite end of that alma mater calculus though, as UCLA has so many similarly talented or superior options that picking Westbrook would not maximize value, so he didn’t get much consideration. All of this left Kidd and Cal as the final variable — Was it worth carrying a third point guard, even one as good as Kidd?
Jason Kidd is undoubtedly Cal’s best player. However, they had three other All-Star caliber options in Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Jaylen Brown, and Phil Chenier, who, although nowhere near to Kidd in talent, could fit in perfectly as off-ball shooters and/or defenders next to Payton and Harden. Fortunately for the Pac-12 though, the conference is similarly lucky to have a deep pool of shooting guards and wings from which to pick. Therefore, even if I had gone with any of Abdur-Rahim, Brown, or Chenier, they’d face similarly difficult competition at their position for playing time as Kidd would at point guard. As such, in the end, I opted to take the simple route and maximize overall talent as much as possible and selected all three of Kidd, Payton, and Harden.³
Similar to the previously covered six seed Big Ten in which I picked both Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas, I felt that having two all-time great ball handlers was a worthwhile circumstance even if one of them played fewer minutes than the other. Harden’s shooting ability is the key to this conundrum and justifying the presence of a third point guard though. Harden does have history as an off guard and he’s also an all-time great shooter. As such, it’s not unreasonable to slot him into an off-ball catch-and-shoot role next to Kidd or Payton. However, his wing defense would be an issue and we would also lose his on-ball playmaking value in that role, though that wouldn’t hurt too much given that Kidd is a similarly all-time great playmaker. Harden could also potentially serve in a sixth man role for the team similar to his early career with the Thunder, particularly given that Klay Thompson could easily slide into the starting lineup for this group. The risk there is that I’m not sure if that approach would put Harden in the right headspace. Regardless, Harden presents just enough variability in his play style that he could theoretically coexist with Kidd or Payton.
Speaking of Klay, his selection was the only obvious one among all of the remaining schools in the entire conference. Washington State isn’t exactly a breeding ground for NBA talent. Although effective players like Aron Baynes, Gene Conley, James Donaldson, and Craig Ehlo were all Wildcats, Klay is in a league of his own, meaning the Splash Bro made this team in easy fashion. Fortunately/Unfortunately for us, every single other team from the Pac-12 offered varying degrees of difficult decisions.
So far, we’ve seen conferences like the WAC and Sun Belt with endlessly fluctuating membership resulting in over thirty possible options. The Pac-12 is the opposite, with admirable consistency and stability resulting in just fourteen teams having held membership over the years, including two who departed over sixty years ago in Idaho and Montana, and two who joined under fifteen years ago in Colorado and Utah. The core eight of Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, and Washington State formed a fraternity over a century old, with Arizona and Arizona State joining over a half-century later and sticking together for nearly a half-century more. In the chaotic landscape of conference realignment, this consistency is practically unfathomable. As impressive as this run was, it’s not too surprising that the grubby fingers of the eastern and midwestern powers came plucking and plundering sooner or later, but it’s really disappointing that they pillaged at the expense of the unparalleled run of camaraderie portrayed by the west coast colleges. Anyway, that’s just a long way of saying that there weren’t many schools from which to pick for this hypothetical team. In fact, given that Montana left the conference in 1950 and Idaho produced just one eligible NBA player in Red Morrison before departing in 1959, those two schools didn’t get much of a look at all, meaning that the twelve member schools as of this writing in 2024 were the twelve schools producing a player for this hypothetical squad. We’ve already picked from Arizona State, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State, meaning that Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, and Washington remained. Let’s tackle the rationale for the big boy amongst that group first, the winningest (in terms of championships) school in college basketball history: UCLA.
Although there were four point guards from the Pac-12 on the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players list, we had the luxury of selecting as many of them as we wanted. UCLA also has four players on the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players list⁴ in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Reggie Miller, Bill Walton, and Russell Westbrook, but we don’t have the same benefit of selecting more than one of them. For the reasons mentioned above in the point guard deliberations, Westbrook didn’t make this team. I also didn’t strongly consider Walton because I view Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a clearly superior option at the center position. Although there are a bunch of other terrific players from UCLA who did not make the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players list like Baron Davis, Mark Eaton, Gail Goodrich, Walt Hazzard, Jrue Holiday, Marques Johnson, Kevin Love, Swen Nater, Willie Naulls, Kiki Vandeweghe, Sidney Wicks, and Jamaal Wilkes, among others, Kareem and Reggie were the only two I seriously considered. Reggie’s shooting would be tremendously valuable, particularly given that James Harden and Klay Thompson are the only other two top-class shooters available⁵ from the Pac-12, but Kareem was ultimately an easy pick. He’s undeniably one of the five best players ever. Kareem was an elite offensive force and a very effective rim protector and shot deterrent in the heart of a defense. That talent simply can’t be passed up. Additionally, with Harden’s and Klay’s shooting already on the roster, as well as the availability of acceptably efficient wing three-point shooters from other schools still on the board, I felt that we could make up Reggie’s shooting elsewhere.
I found the next toughest decision to come from Arizona. All of Sean Elliott, Aaron Gordon, Andre Iguodala, Richard Jefferson, Lauri Markkanen, and Jason Terry would be amazing fits alongside the players already on the squad, though I ended up removing Terry from consideration among this group fairly quickly given his comparative lack of size and defensive impact. I then removed Elliott and Markkanen because, even though they’re the two best shooters of the remaining players, they’re also the least impactful defensively. Given that Gordon, Iguodala, and Jefferson are acceptably strong shooters, albeit not top tier ones, and the presence of Klay and Harden already on the team, I felt that this trio’s defensive impact would be most valuable. All three of these wings proved over the course of their careers to be amazing role players on championship teams and all would be great fits on the Pac-12 team, but Iguodala is my favorite of the three and received the selection. I felt that Iguodala was the best defender (though I wouldn’t contest anyone saying that Gordon was better) and he unquestionably had the most championship pedigree.
Get Hoops Hypotheticals’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
The tough calls don’t let up, as I also had a difficult time with Washington. Although the Huskies didn’t boast as many impressive options as Arizona, I felt that Brandon Roy and Detlef Schrempf were arguably stronger options than any of the considered Arizona players. Both Roy and Schrempf were terrific shooters, capably malleable role players, clutch, and acceptably effective defenders, albeit neither was exactly a plus in that area. I felt that Roy was the better overall player than Schrempf, but I also felt that Schrempf’s size, versatility, and rebounding would be more valuable to this squad, as Harden and Klay are already present on the team as off guards, whereas Iguodala is the only wing on the team so far.
Yet another tough call presented itself in USC, with wings DeMar DeRozan and Bill Sharman, and big men Taj Gibson, Evan Mobley, and Nikola Vucevic being available. I initially leaned toward Vucevic as an offense-first backup center to Kareem, but eventually shifted my preference to DeRozan as an offense-first wing option. Iguodala and Schrempf are both great players and perfect fits for this team, though neither is a classic scorer, whereas DeRozan is a scorer through and through. I like the versatility he brings to this team as either a spark plug off the bench or a starter next to Iguodala or Schrempf, so he got the pick for the Trojans.
Stanford was the next tough call. It offered an interesting debate, as modern big man Brook Lopez was available but there were also old school players Jim Pollard and George Yardley, who are probably the best overall players to ever come out of Stanford with both being First Team All-NBA and MVP-challenging⁶ caliber players residing in the Hall of Fame, but could their games hold up against modern competition? I tend to be very bullish on the capability of old players and think that Pollard and Yardley would be much better today than many modern fans realize, particularly Pollard given his reputation as one of the best athletes of his era. That being said, I still went with Lopez for positional purposes. Picking DeRozan over Vucevic from USC meant that the backup center position was still open, whereas the shooting guard and forward positions are starting to fill up. As such, Lopez would be a perfect backup to Kareem. Basically, I felt that the DeRozan-Lopez combo from USC and Stanford would be preferable to the Vucevic-Pollard combo, even if Pollard is the only Hall of Famer among those four.
Several of Oregon’s best players like Jim Barnett, Terrell Brandon, Aaron Brooks, and Luke Ridnour played positions that didn’t need further support, so that eased the decision around the Ducks somewhat, leaving just Greg Ballard, Steve Jones, and Jim Loscutoff for serious consideration. This hypothetical team so far is still lacking a true old school power forward and, although traditionally more of a small forward, I felt that Ballard was the closest player to fill that position. Ballard has championship pedigree and the necessary skillset to round out the forward rotation for this group, as well as a game that’s just different enough from Iguodala’s, Schrempf’s, and DeRozan’s that would bring unique value to the team.
Although they’ve been Pac-12 members for just over a decade, both Colorado and Utah still offered three eligible players each for consideration: Spencer Dinwiddie, Andre Roberson, and Derrick White for the Buffaloes and Kyle Kuzma, Jakob Poeltl, and Delon Wright for the Utes. I felt that White was the best overall player of this group and selected him first even though his position as guard will relegate him to the end of the bench behind Kidd, Payton, Harden, and Klay, though the other Colorado options would face the same problem so White was still an easy pick. Kuzma is probably a better overall player than Poeltl, but this team still needed size and a third big man behind Kareem and Lopez, so Poeltl was the pick for Utah.
I love this team. In the right system and with players buying into their roles, this could be an unstoppable offense. It will also have elite point-of-attack defense at all times, as well as sustained rim protection at all times bolstered by shutdown man defenders on the wing in the likes of Klay, Iguodala, and Ballard, so the defense should also be formidable. The team is also very versatile and deep at every position but power forward, though that shouldn’t be an issue given how well-built the group is for a small-ball attack with Kareem or Lopez as the lone big man. This team is a worthy one seed and a clear contender for the crown in this hypothetical tournament!
Footnotes
¹ For reference, here are the eligible Pac-12 schools and the timeframes from which we are able to select players:
Cal from 1915 to the present; Washington from 1915 to the present; Oregon from 1915 to 1959 and 1964 to the present; Oregon State from 1915 to 1959 and 1964 to the present; Washington State from 1917 to 1959 and 1963 to the present; Stanford from 1918 to the present; USC from 1922 to the present; Idaho from 1922 to 1959; Montana from 1924 to 1950; UCLA from 1928 to 2024; Arizona from 1978 to the present; Arizona State from 1978 to the present; Colorado from 2011 to the present; Utah from 2011 to the present
² Other Oregon State options included Brent Barry, Dave Gambee, Lester Conner, Mel Counts, AC Green, Steve Johnson, Red Rocha, and Lonnie Shelton. Other Arizona State options included Lu Dort, Eddie House, Fat Lever, Alton Lister, and Byron Scott. All of these players were good, some even great, but none come close to Payton and Harden.
³ Kidd presented an interesting problem while I was debating whether or not to pick him. One of the core tenets of this hypothetical is that the selected players are considered at the peak of their careers. Kidd’s peak is undoubtedly in the early 00s when he was contending for MVPs, leading Nets teams deep into the playoffs, and regularly making All-Defensive First Teams. However, he also wasn’t a very good shooter in those years, but evolved into a very effective one later in his career while retaining acceptable playmaking and defensive abilities. Given the other point guard options on this team, could a case be made that late-career Kidd would be a bitter fit on this team than prime Kidd? I’m unsure on this myself but lean towards prime Kidd.
⁴ The only other school with four players on the list was UNC with Billy Cunningham, Michael Jordan, Bob McAdoo, and James Worthy. The only other schools with multiple players were Houston and LSU with three representatives and Georgetown, Kansas, Ohio State, Syracuse, and Wake Forest with two each.
⁵ Bill Sharman could also be considered as an all-time great shooter, as he was one of the best shooters of his day, and still one of the best free throw shooters ever, but never took a three-point shot. As such, I wasn’t totally comfortable listing him as an all-time great deep threat, although he is still an all-time great shooter… if that even makes sense! Steve Kerr was also available for selection but wasn’t a good enough player overall to be seriously considered.
⁶ In Yardley’s case, he finished third in MVP voting 1958. Pollard, however, played before the MVP award existed. Had it existed during his career though, I doubt he’d ever win given his teammate George Mikan, but I suspect that he’d regularly appear in the top five.
