What makes a great college basketball team?
Last month, on Jon Rothstein’s “Inside College Basketball Now,” Kansas head coach Self spoke on the benchmark for his teams nowadays, relaying that he wants to be “in the game”.
“In my 24 years here, I think we've been in the game probably 18, 19 times. When I say in the game, that if things fell right, we could win it,” and “it” of course, is the national title.
While Self has had several great teams in his time perhaps the one that comes to mind the most is his 2007-08 squad, which ultimately won “it.”
Self’s first of two title-winning teams will always be held in high regard by KU fans. Outside Kansas’ bubble, things are not the same.
In Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander’s final edition of their Candid Coaches series, they asked which college basketball team was the best of this century, and only one vote was given to the 2007-08 Jayhawks.
KU had to fight from behind all season
Despite starting 20-0 and enduring only three losses on the season, not once were the Jayhawks ranked as the nation’s No. 1 team in the land. Their high of No. 2 sat around for just two weeks in late January. 30 of Kansas’ 40 games that season were wins by 10 points or more, including their Final Four matchup against the UNC Tar Heels, where, despite North Carolina being the darling of the season, KU dismantled Roy Williams’ side by 16 points.
Part of what made that squad so dominant was their ability to play through the starting five. The Jayhawks had four different scorers of at least 10 points per game (Darrell Arthur-12.8, Brandon Rush-13.3, Mario Chalmers-12.8 and Darnell Jackson-11.2) and the fifth, Sherron Collins, did not fall too far behind with 9.3 points per game.
As a team, Kansas finished the season with the 13th-best offense in the nation at 80.5 points per game and 21st-best defense, allowing just 61.5 points per game.
Maybe what keeps this team tucked behind some of the others is the fact there was no central star?
Today it can be easy to look at the top teams and know that through thick and thin, they have a player who can get them out of trouble. As a matter of fact, that was supposed to be Kansas last season with Darryn Peterson, and it will be them this year with Tyran Stokes. But when you take a look at nearly all national awards given out that year, only one went to a Jayhawk, and that was to Chalmers for his clutch play during the tournament, eventually winning the Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament, as zero KU players made it to a consensus All-American team.
While there is probably little that can be understood about why this team wasn’t selected, at least Norlander believes they should have been better represented, saying, “That 2007-08 Kansas team is one of the 10 best of the 21st century and should have gotten at least three nods.”
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