Sunday, November 24, 2019

All-Time Great 20th Centuries Team Picked for Value Add Basketball Game

In addition to the all-time teams of the 21st Century in the Value Add Basketball Game, cards will be released for the all-time teams of the 20th Century. Factors considered were how far teams went in the post season as well as if they featured one of the top 50 players of all time according to either Grantland, Bleacher Reports or ESPN. Each school could only have one team - the toughest choices being Bill Walton's best UCLA team being slightly better than Lew Alcindor's best UCLA team, even though Alcindor was slightly better than Walton as the best player in the history of college basketball.


YrACCWLFinishTop 50 All-Time or Best PlayerTop 50 All-Time?
74NC State301ChampionDavid Thompson4
92Duke342ChampionLaettner & Hurley8 & 42
82UNC322Champion Jordan & Worthy12 & 50
81Virginia294Final FourRalph Sampson5
80Louisville333ChampionDarrell Griffith27
96Wake Forest266Elite 8Tim Duncan22
87Syracuse317Runner upRony SeikalyNBA9
70Notre Dame218Peak AP No. 6Austin Carr14
ConfBig 12WLFinishTop 50 All-Time or Best PlayerTop 50 All-Time?
46Oklahoma St312ChampionBob Kurland23
57Kansas243Runner upWilt Chamberlain6
60Cincinnati282NCAA 3rd placeOscar Robertson2
68Houston312Final FourElvin Hayes6
66UTEP281ChampionDave LattinNBA10
82Missouri274Peaked AP 1Steve StipanovichNBA2
85Oklahoma316Elite 8Wayman Tisdale21
59West Virginia265Runner upJerry West7
ConfBig EastWLFinishTop 50 All-Time or Best PlayerTop 50 All-Time?
99Connecticut342ChampionRichard HamiltonAll-A, NBA3
84Georgetown343ChampionPatrick Ewing & Michael Graham15&40
85St. John's314Final FourWalter Berry & Chris Mullin6 & 40
77Marquette257ChampionButch Lee30
85Villanova2510ChampionEd PinckneyNBA10
89Seton Hall317Runner upJohn MortonNBA25
65Princeton236NCAA 3rd placeBill Bradley8
45DePaul213Won NITGeorge Mikan24
ConfBig TenWLFinishTop 50 All-Time or Best PlayerTop 50 All-Time?
76Indiana320ChampionScott May35
60Ohio State253ChampionJerry Lucas13
79Michigan State266ChampionMagic Johnson11
89Michigan307ChampionGlen Rice23
69Purdue235Runner upRick Mount32
63Loyola292ChampionJerry HarnessAll-A
54La Salle264ChampionTom Gola15
79Indiana State331Runner upLarry Bird8
ConfPac 12WLFinishTop 50 All-Time or Best PlayerTop 50 All-Time?
72UCLA300ChampionBill Walton3
91UNLV341Final 4L. Johnson & Augmon29 & 47
97Arizona259ChampionMike BibbyAll-A, NBA2
56San Francisco290ChampionBill Russell4
98Utah304Runner upAndre MillerAll-A, NBA8
59California254ChampionDarrall ImhoffAll-A, NBA8
58Seattle236Runner upElgin Baylor21
43Wyoming312ChampionKen SailorsInv. Jumper
ConfSECWLFinishTop 50 All-Time or Best PlayerTop 50 All-Time?
96Kentucky342ChampionTony DelkAll-A, NBA16
94Arkansas313ChampionCorliss WilliamsonNBA13
77Tennessee226Peaked AP 7thBernard KingAll-A, NBA7
77Alabama256Peak AP No. 3Reggie KingNBA18
86Navy305Peak AP 17David Robinson23
84Auburn2011Peak AP No. 16Charles BarkleyNBA5
82Georgia1912NIT SemisDominique WilkinsNBA3
70LSU2210NIT SemisPete Maravich2




As with the 21st Century teams, eight teams were selected loosely corresponding to the top 6 conferences over the past four decades - the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC, regardless of their actual conference when they played. If the team featured a player in one of the top 50 all-time lists, that player is listed and his highest all-time ranking is listed in the final column (e.g. NC State is listed first, and David Thompson is noted as the 4th greatest player ever which is his Grantland rating, while Michael Jordan's top rating came from the Bleacher Report.

 Going through the ACC as an example: The teams are listed in my perception of who will have the strongest player cards in the game to the weakest. While many are close, I perceive NC State's 30-1 national champion as the strongest ACC team of all time, though Duke's 34-2 champion and Jordan's 32-2 champs are very close. For that matter, even though Ralph Sampson's 1981 team was eliminated in the Final Four the Sampson vs. Jordan match-ups could go either way, and the 1980 Louisville national champions could certainly defeat any of those on a given day.

Rony Seikaly is the only ACC team with no all-time Top 50 great, so in his case "NBA9" means he as the 9th pick in the NBA draft. While I've pulled stats for players from all these teams, they are from before the tempo free stats of the 21st Century, so it will take some work to produce the cards. We can assume that LSU, who averaged winning 93-89 with Pistol Pete, played at a much higher tempo then DePaul used when working the ball into George Mikan and having him reject shots at the other end of the court.

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