After a thrilling season of football upsets and an epic championship basketball game, we’re reminded why we love college sports. But, which college can boast the #1 sports program? In a HOFN.com exclusive, Jim Weber ranks this year’s top athletic programs.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
It’s March Madness - so what better time to talk about college basketball’s greatest players? A poll by www.HOFmagazine.com provides a consensus list of the Top 10 college players of all-time from which to choose. The list consists of (alphabetically):
- Lew Alcindor, UCLA
- Larry Bird, Indiana State
- Bill Bradley, Princeton
- Wilt Chamberlain, Kansas
- Pete Maravich, LSU
- Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati
- Bill Russell, San Francisco
- David Thompson, NC State
- Bill Walton, UCLA
- Jerry West, West Virginia
Again, the poll question asks who is the greatest - not who’s your favorite. That’s an important distinction. For me, my favorite college basketball player was Bill Bradley. But my greatest Top-5 is as follows:
- 5. Oscar Robertson
- 4. Pete Maravich
- 3. Bill Russell
- 2. Lew Alcindor ( Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
- 1. Bill Walton
Choosing between Walton and Alcindor was difficult. I give the slight edge to Walton for his rebounding and more aggressive style of play. However, being a three-time Player of the Year with two National Titles, plus leading his UCLA team to an 88-game winning-streak certainly helped!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
In another life, I was a high school basketball coach. To give you a hint how long ago, Rick Pitino was the head coach at Boston University. Back then, I was an admirer of two coaches with as diverse personalities as Obama and Hillary.
My coaching idols during those basketball days were John Wooden at UCLA and Bobby Knight at Indiana. I loved Wooden’s people and game-management genius and Knight’s overall basketball genius. The calmness of Wooden and the fire of Knight were both inspiring traits in their own right. Combine the two and you have the greatest basketball coach ever.
Back in the days of short-shorts in basketball, fiery coaches were more the norm than not – and while I admired Wooden, my coaching style was more like that of Knight. However, as years passed, I’ve been able to change with the times and become more Wooden-like with a calmer and more professional demeanor. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for Knight.
Watching Coach Knight’s antics the past decade, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that it was time for him to fade into coaching history. His recent press conference with his grandson only confirms that feeling. I’ve watched many embarrassing moments in Knight’s career that have made me wonder how this man could have been a coaching idol of mine, but this one could be the worst. I’m now even embarrassed for him as a man.
I thank my lucky stars that I also looked to Coach Wooden for inspiration.
