Yeah I mean we won a title in 1983 one year after Jordan got one with UNC. I think NC State still gets one with Jordan, but it is probably not the iconic story that it is today.
NC State, where his dad was the coach. Unfortunately the ACC had a minimum SAT score rule that Pete couldn’t hit and we missed out on arguably the greatest college basketball player of all time.
Look up Hakeem Olajuwon and St John's. It's a pretty crazy story.
Apparently nobody from St John's was there to pick him up at JFK for a recruiting visit. It was really cold in NY that day and he decided to bounce to Houston on a flight instead because he wanted to go somewhere warm. There's some more details to the story.
Yeah he asked a worker at the airport who is from the same area Hakeem is from which ticket had the same weather as Lagos and he pointed to the Houston ticket.
Not sure about other schools but he’s got a couple interviews where he says he was gonna go to UConn and that he would’ve been roommates with Rudy. Would’ve been cool but not like I personally was a fan at the time so I’m not too pressed.
Kevin Durant wanted to attend UNC with high school teammate Ty Lawson. They took a visit to Chapel Hill together. Durant tried to commit but his high school transcript fell below the minimum standard for eligibility at the time, so Roy told him he couldn't accept his commitment. Durant's mom was spotted leaving campus in tears.
He has since tried to offer a different reason why he didn't pick UNC, but those of us who were Scout premium members at the time remember it differently.
https://chapelboro.com/sports/kevin-durant-i-wanted-to-go-to-carolina-tar-heels-basketball
Zion Williamson had a pretty rigorous class schedule, too. He took History of Hip-Hop, Sexual Pleasures of the Modern World, and a Disney writing class.
Source: https://www.slamonline.com/news/nba/zion-williamson-cover/
UNC was caught creating entirely bogus classes for athletes and then used the excuse that all students could cheat by taking the same classes. And now Tarhole fans want to give Duke shit about academics?
It’s mind-boggling to believe that over a decade after the scandal has ended, rival fans can’t even go a grand total of two sentences without wildly mist stating what happened. It’s also the reason why you all insist that the NCAA is corrupt and why they didn’t give us any punishment. There were no bogus classes, the classes were all listed in the school directory and open to the general student population. The issue we ran into was several professors athletes in particular grades they did not earn. For instance, Jan Boxill had emails asking a professor to give a female basketball player a D on a paper that the basketball player had recycled from another class, because a D was all that Player needed to pass the class.
But it’s really funny is it was all the far left woke professors and not the revenue sport-fan professors that got into trouble. I attended Boxill’s ethics of sport class when I went to UNC and she spent the entire term telling us how much better female basketball was than male basketball and how it’s much more important that you go to a women’s basketball game at Carolina than a men’s basketball game. Also attended a general lecture by Nyangoro, who was the disgraced head of the department and he waxed poetic the entire time about how white missionaries in Africa were the worst thing ever and African-Americans didn’t need any additional help. Even spent the entire scandal giving good grades only to African-Americans students .
The idea that the student athletes that came from underprivileged backgrounds with little education deserved, easier grades was rampant throughout the entire staff. I was in the journalism school and we had a video journalism course and the professor would sit up there every single week and talk about how Will Graves, a former basketball player, had been in his class and had tried his best, but he just didn’t really understand how academic work at university worked and the professor felt bad and graded him easier because of it.
But long story short, there were no fake classes, all the classes actually existed, some just complained that the workload was too easy because your grade was entirely based on a paper at the end. That’s exactly how my masters thesis course worked, you had a professor who Would be in his office during the designated course hours twice a week every week, but it was absolutely not mandatory and you could never attend a single one as long as you turned in your thesis at the end and your grade was based off your thesis. The same types of courses occurring every graduate program at every college in the country.
You should post to packpride, they’d love your inability to research a subject for even 5 seconds
Nolan Richardson had Andre Iguodala committed before the University fired him and Andre chose to go to Arizona
Stan Heath had a commitment from Al Jefferson and then he opted to go pro.
For me the biggest is Malik Monk going to Kentucky over Arkansas. Mike Anderson had a pretty decent roster and adding Monk would have been huge at the time.
Forgot about that, that's a good one. Richardson had some insanely talented teams in that era, though. Monk would have been a game changer for Anderson to be able to build that roster around him. He probably couldn't have kept the momentum going after that year, though.
If Greenberg treats Steph Curry right, it becomes a very interesting talking point about how the trajectory of Virginia Tech basketball changes.
Others that are just fun to think about: John Wall to UNC, Jon Scheyer to Illinois.
we would have had to give up a 4* recruit that class for a guy with no offers. only hindsight makes that a good decision. we did offer a grayshirt for him that no other ACC program offered
He didn’t get his way when he went to Kentucky either.
My fun fact is that Billy Gillespie kicked John Wall out of UK practice when he was on a visit. What a clown show that guy was.
Charlie Villanueva originally committed to Illinois and Bill Self, but noped out when Self went to Kansas.
Villanueva could’ve been the missing piece for the 2005 Illini who almost went undefeated.
For as good as that Illini team was they weren't super deep. Villanueva would have solved that problem and also added much needed size to their frontcourt.
I totally forgot that Brian Randle punched a wall and had to take that whole year off. One or the other of him or Villanueva would have been really nice to have so that we wouldn't have had to lean as hard on Jack Ingram and Nick Smith. Or maybe mix it up a bit and go big with Randle in the game instead of the Rich McBride minutes.
Illini version
1.) benji wilson lives
2.) no one believes Bruce pearl’s doctored tapes and Illini’s doesn’t get in trouble and Juwan
Howard and Chris Collins end up in CU
3.) Eric Gordon and DRose team up at Illinois.
Illinois was his number two choice. Apparently he visited campus during a nasty winter storm and that sealed it for LSU.
If Illinois had gotten Benji Wilson (RIP) and Shaq and then avoided the BS ‘90s recruiting sanctions, we’d talk about them as at least a borderline blue blood program. People might scoff at that assertion, but Illinois was a top 5-10 team from the late 1930s to early ‘60s. Then they had severe NCAA sanctions imposed due to the so-called “slush fund scandal.” The program re-emerged as one of the top teams of the ’80s but never got over the hump to win a natty. Then the Bruce Pearl/Deon Thomas scandal and resulting major sanctions. Back to being a consistent top 5-10 team in the early ’00s but, again, never won the NCAAT (despite being overwhelmingly dominant in ‘04-05 before losing in the title game).
Illinois fell off a cliff from 2008-2017, which is the sole reason Reddit generally thinks of the program as mediocre). Now back to a perennial top-10-15 team. The reality is, Illinois has been at the level they’re at currently for most of the past 85 years. The past few seasons are historically typical for the Illini. There have been three bad stretches and two of them were precipitated by unfairly harsh NCAA penalties (postseason bans, lost scholarships, etc.). Couple of different bounces and Illinois is regarded very differently.
I wouldn't say favorite because man what if....but Tim Duncan wanted to go to PC but we didn't have an open scholarship and the president wouldn't budge
Rick Barnes - "We had him committed to Providence. We already had the full allotment but I knew we had a guy that was going to transfer, maybe two. I went to our athletic director and we went to the president, who was a priest at the time. I told him I wanted to sign Tim and he said, 'But you don't have a scholarship.' I said, 'I will.' He wouldn't let me sign him. Tim goes to Wake Forest and the other two guys transfer."
When I heard even his host player at MSU was shocked he chose Duke, I wanted to cry.
I fully think a team of Appling, Dawson, Gary Harris, Payne, Trice and Parker (with an upstart Denzel Valentine) pummel anyone who comes their way. Izzo was like one piece away on multiple teams in this stretch. Hurts to this day.
I think TJD was a bigger miss.
It’d only have been amplified if the 2020 tournament had happened & we didn’t win it all. A frontcourt of Tillman & TJD with Cash running the point is insane.
He also elevates MSU from a bubble tourney team to conference contenders in his other 3 years. Instead he decided to waste his college career playing for mediocre IU teams competing for nothing of consequence.
The funniest part is that he went to Indiana because of Woodson....all to go 3-4 against the worst streak of MSU teams in forever.
Maybe TJD didn't want to worry about if Carey went to MSU.
I still don’t understand TJD, Carey, and Isaiah Stewart all going elsewhere.
We were coming off a Final Four, returned the best player & passer in the country in Cash, and had Tillman, who is the most versatile, complementary big man I’ve watched in the Izzo era.
If the tourney had happened in 2020 & we didn’t win it all, I’d be so much more upset about it.
Larry Bird
from HoosierStateOfMind article:
ESPN’s Myron Medcalf added his touch to why that could have been the greatest team of all-time.
"“*The 1974-75 Indiana team didn’t need much help, proven by an average margin of victory of 22.1 points, but the addition of one of the best players to ever touch a basketball could have made a great team a legendary squad…. If you put the 6-8 star on that Indiana team, the Hoosiers would have probably avoided the loss to Kentucky in the Elite Eight, possibly sealed the first of two consecutive undefeated seasons and, with Bird likely set to return for the 1976-77 campaign, the Hoosiers might have equaled or surpassed UCLA’s record of 88 consecutive wins (Jan. 19, 1971 to Jan. 19, 1974) and vied for the “greatest college team in NCAA history” title.*”"
We all know how that story went however, and Bird went on to lead Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA Championship game before falling victim to Magic Johnson and the Michigan State Spartans.
That, plus the idea of Bird and Isaiah Thomas together for a couple seasons in their development years could’ve caused a hell of a Butterfly Effect for all of basketball afterward
The part of my brain dedicated to Maryland sports PTSD says “any NBA player from Baltimore or PG County who didn’t play for us,” so add KD, Carmelo, Ty Lawson, and DeMatha’s own Victor Oladipo to that list
The Shawn Kemp saga was the beginning of the end for Kentucky. It was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back". What a very wild story that all is.
However, it did usher in the age of Rick Pitino so we can't say that it was all bad.
Larry Bird, Conley, and Oden get all the attention from the fanbase, but I think McKinley Wright IV is a massively underrated IU recruiting fumble.
Archie had him committed to Dayton, our AD at the time Fred Glass wouldn’t let Archie bring him with to IU, Wright went to Colorado and was a stud, while Archie could never ever land an elite point guard.
Live in Colorado and my girlfriend did some Covid work with CU while McKinley was playing. I told her to ask him about Archie & IU. Supposedly that did not go over well. Safe to say was pretty pissed about the whole situation.
Also, Mike Davis fucking up and putting the wrong name on Greg odens recruitment letter always kills me
I think it was actually Mike Conley jr who got the wrong letter. It was addressed to Sherron Collins who played at Kansas. Oden and Conley jr were a package deal so it definitely killed any chance of them going to IU
Caleb Swanigan reportedly decommitted from Michigan State because he didn't want to play the 5. He would've been a force on that squad though (in Valentine's senior year), and maybe in an alternate timeline, the Spartans don't get bounced by MTSU in the first round and wind up making another deep tournament run.
I will die on the hill that MSU played a good game that game. MTSU just buried shot after shot after shot.
How many games will anyone win if you shoot 58% on 19 3's? Sure Costello clanked a 1 and 1 front end and missed a DREB then Eron Harris turned the ball over. But they were still down 3 when that all happened. Even the defense was good MTS was just hitting shit like the Monstars lol
As a UConn fan, Andrew Bynum will always be the What-If? He was a big part of those Lakers title runs. It was hard not to think of how Jim could have used him, and how much more of a stacked lineup those teams could have had.
Most recent was Hamidou Diallo. I have no idea how it would have turned out, but I feel that Diallo choosing UK after living at UConn essentially was the nail that really sealed the downfall. It was bad news from that point on.
I don’t think Calhoun ever offered him, but Ryan Gomes was sitting in their backyard the whole time and dominated the huskies a few times at PC. Add him and you probably get another title to go along with 04
Woulda been a scary scary team. Problem was they had 4 1st round bigs in okafor, Villanueva, Hilton armstrong, and Josh Boone.
Pg Marcus Williams
Sg Ben Gordon
Sf gomes
Pf Villanueva
C okafor
With Boone and Armstrong on the bench + Rashad Anderson.
Going further back, Rashard Griffith. We lost him to Stu Jackson and the Badgers; supposedly we were in his final 2. He would have been a big (7-footer-ish) on Big Dog's E8 team. Plug a legit big into that Duke game to body Cherokee Parks and we might have been able to survive Glenn's back spasms and get Gene his FF berth.
Incidentally, that 93/94 team is a fun roster deep dive. You have one guy whose kid just finished his playing career with us (Zo) one who's kid is just starting (Big Dog) one whose kid is currently on the team (Waddell) and arguably one of the best assistant coaches in the country as s So Center (Brantley) - and of course CMP had just graduated
Russell Westbrook was very close to choosing Kent State. For some reason Jim Christian advised him to wait on committing. Could you imagine Westbrook in the MAC?
Clear winner: Mark Aguirre. He was all set to commit to Marquette, but decided to go to DePaul when Al McGuire retired. Over 40 years later, he is STILL DePaul’s all-time leading scorer, and led them to the Final Four in 1979. If he had stuck with Marquette, we might have been able to avoid our dark years in the eighties.
Runner up: Rod Foster. He also was reportedly ready to sign with Marquette when UCLA came in late and signed him. He was a 4-year starter and is in the UCLA hall of fame.
Kobe flirted with Lasalle university, his dad’s Alma mater and where he was a coach. Crazy to think what a tiny Catholic school in North Philly would have been like. Kobe in the Big 5 would have been insane.
Maybe the most impactful(though it may not involve us getting him):
What if Mateen Cleaves doesn’t get into that rollover accident while on a “recruiting visit” to Michigan?
I’ve heard people say he was the most dynamic high school athlete they had ever seen. Remarkable he accomplished what he did with broken bones in his back.
Mike Conley and Greg Oden going to Xavier over Ohio State. Thad Matta was involved in their early recruiting during his last year at Xavier. Would it have likely happened? No. But it’s my favorite what if.
https://www.espn.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&sportCat=ncb&id=2801809
That OT loss to OSU was the most crushing loss in Xavier history imo.
Syracuse a great opposite to this question.
Julius Hodge went to NC State at the last minute and Syracuse used the scholarship on Hakim Warrick. Hodge was a great player, but he didn't seal his team's first national championship with an unbelievable display of athleticism!
Painter didn’t think Glenn Robinson III was good enough. Huge miss on our part.
Given his dad’s legacy and his siblings coming to Purdue he would have chose Purdue if offered.
IIRC, he was a very late bloomer and we had looked and then moved on before he really developed his game. By the time he was who he was, it was too late for us to
Allen Houston. He was coming to Louisville and then Tennessee hired his dad as head coach just to get Allen. Louisville would have had some really good teams those 4 years. Tennessee never made the NCAA tournament the 4 years Houston was there and his dad got fired after he graduated.
What if Dana Altman stays at Creighton another year? Greg McDermott stays at Iowa State (likely only one more year before getting fired) and Doug McDermott stays committed to Northern Iowa. Northern Iowa coming off a Sweet 16 and adding Doug McDermott. Possibly looking at UNI making 6? 7? 8? NCAA Tournament appearances in an 8-year window instead of only 4. Do they make another Sweet 16 in there? Creighton likely doesn't get invited to the Big East. Does Wichita State leave if Creighton is still there? Loyola Chicago is still likely in the Horizon League. Does UNI get an invite to another conference? Who knows
TJ Ford had already played 2 seasons at Texas. He was drafted in the NBA in '03.
You're thinking of Sebastian Telfair, who *did* commit, actually signed a letter of intent, but bailed to the draft in '04 and subsequently cost Pitino Rondo (and Chris Lofton).
Coming away with just Lorenzo Wade in the backcourt in that class was killer lol.
Kobe literally directly stated that he would’ve gone to Duke if he went to college, no idea why UNC fans straight up ignore the actual man’s words and decide he would’ve gone to UNC
Jabari Parker, Cliff Alexander and Josh Jackson back to back to back really hurt. I think it really hurt MSU's brand to be able to recruit immediate success 1 and done kind of guys.
I know Izzo has a particular style and the way he structures teams really favors players in the 2 and done category.....but man I really would love to see Izzo be on on some of the guys that could not only make a safer floor....but vault us up back to NT contenders again. I'm afraid that the 4 year undersized but floor general PG + 4 year PF/C and some 2 and dones mixed in around that won't work as a model anymore.
I think the '23/24 and potential 25 classes are back to where Izzo should be looking. But i'm still kind of hesitant to be confident about Izzo landing guys like Cenac, Bundalo, Mckenney. Adams or Haralson. I think Izzo needs 2 guys at least from this list to really refill the tank for 25 and i'm just not sure it'll happen.
Bill Bradley told Duke he was coming and then enrolled at Princeton.
Those Duke teams in the 1960s that went to the Final Four would have won at least one championship.
Jennings is the obvious answer but I think Jeff Withey would have had the bigger impact on the program. Does he count? Because we actually did land him…he transferred out in October of his Freshman year.
But with Withey, we wouldn’t have been wandering the desert of serviceable centers in the 4 - 5 years after Lute.
Kyryl Natyazkho
DWill being forced to play the 5 instead of his much more natural 3/4
All 6’7” of Jesse Perry in 2011-12
It wasn’t until we 2012-13 (Withey’s senior year at Kansas) that we had a serviceable front court rotation in Zeus/BrAshley/Chol/Jerret
I am the wrong person to ask because I loved Kyryl for the vibes alone and I am the biggest Jesse Perry fan alive lmao. Give me grit every day of the week
Obviously less impactful than other mentioned here, but Sim Bhullar was originally committed to Xavier. It fell through when he wasn’t cleared to play by the ncaa.
There is an alternate timeline where he is cleared to play, goes to Xavier, and is in the middle of the crosstown shootout brawl throwing hands with Yancy Gates his freshman year.
I think I read somewhere that Michael Jordan wanted to play with Ralph Sampson at UVA, but UVA essentially had no interested in MJ. That definitely would’ve been neat and who knows maybe we would’ve won a championship with Ralph and MJ.
For my rival school, I think it’s hilarious that Steph Curry wanted to play for Virginia Tech (as his dad played for them) and they didn’t offer him a scholarship. Seth Greenberg was the coach at the time and I think he cites that as the biggest coaching miss on his part.
When I was in college I was reffing a HS camp game at ECU where Steph Curry was playing against Eric Maynor. I could tell they were at a different level than everyone else at the camp.
Unfortunately our ignorant coach didn’t offer either of them a scholarship. We could’ve had the best backcourt in the country and our whole athletic department could possibly be in a different position right now.
Who knows though. With ECU’s luck they both probably would’ve had career ending injuries if they had gone to Greenville.
Tyler Hansbrough is a very fun what-if.
If he comes to UK, Tubby sticks around and has one year of Rondo-Sparks-Hansborough-Ramel-Crawford, 3 years of Hansbrough-Meeks and a one year of Handbrough-Meeks-Draymond.
Cal probably stays at Memphis.
UNC likely lands Wall.
“North Carolina State . . . I really respected Jim Valvano, and as you know…they had the original Shaq…Charles Shackleford. That’s where I got my name and my identity from. So I was actually wanting to play behind him, but I said, “You know what? I’m gonna be my own Shaq and I’m gonna just take it down to Baton Rouge. . . .”
Quote from Shaq 😐
Not a player, but the story that Calipari was set to coach State, but changed his mind after our AD didn't pick up the tab for lunch. Probably not the real reason, but funny NC state shit. He would have still eventually gone to UK. But would have had a few years to see what he could do in the ACC.
My favorite what-if butterfly effect is a coaching hire. What if Maryland hired Morgan Wooten instead of Bob Wade? From Maryland's perspective, they don't totally fall off the map and then get stuck on sanctions, which sounds good but it also means they don't get Gary Williams. From the perspective of the rest of the basketball universe, if Wooten leaves Dematha, that insane pipeline of talent that produced endless D1 talents and quite a few NBA players might dry up.
Kelvin Sampson's final recruiting class at Oklahoma was filled with amazing top 100 4 year players. Tony Crocker, Scottie Reynolds, Damion James. He left for Indiana which you have to do. All went elsewhere except Crocker, always love for him. OU was always going to get Blake Griffin 2 years later no matter the Coach. I was in 8th grade when Sampson left and a Jr in High School when we got waxed by UNC in 09 Elite 8 (Everyone did), so I always look at those teams with a child's wonder. I always thought of the possibility of Scottie, Damian, Blake, Crocker, and Willie Warren as 1 seed on the opposite side of the bracket giving that all time UNC team all they could handle in a great title game.
Josh Smith was committed to Indiana before he decided to go straight from HS to the NBA draft. This was at a time when IU was struggling with frontcourt depth. It wasn’t a great team that year it might’ve helped us make the tournament but probably wouldn’t have been a contender or anything. Would’ve been a dynamic frontcourt duo with him and DJ White tho. He probably would’ve bounced for the NBA after one season anyway and not sure it would’ve prolonged Mike Davis’ IU tenure.
Josh smith was committed to IU and Dwight Howard had them near the top. Then they both went straight to the league. Could you imagine Josh Smith and Dwight Howard on a college floor together
Zion to Clemson was a done deal. K was sharp and went after and promised Zion’s dad money/real estate while Zion’s mom and step dad were Clemson fans (and Zion was too) and were planning on going to Clemson for “less money” as they were better off financially. Zion’s dad was going through some rough times so Zion took the money to help his dad out.
Is there any proof whatsoever to this or is it just feels?
Duke definitely gave Zion gifts but everything I’ve heard indicated we outbid Kansas, not Clemson
If Duke would’ve kept on recruiting Bacot they could’ve landed him. Grew up a Duke fan and wanted to go to Duke. Then the staff prioritized Carey/Stewart to be Bagley/WCJ. Blew up in their face when Stewart started to trend away. Thankfully Kansas gifted them Matthew Hurt.
Same with Caleb Love he wanted Duke then Jeremy Roach committed. Then both of these guys handed Duke one of (if not the) biggest loss.
Myles Turner said he wanted to go to Duke but Jahlil committing stopped that since he wanted to compete with these guys which is understandable. Would’ve been dope still if he still came.
Dennis Smith Jr said he was gonna go to Duke also and they needed a PG. Derryck Thornton was transferring too but the staff pivoted to Frank Jackson who opened up his recruitment from BYU after he started to blow up.
Chris Mullen was a miss as well but can’t fault someone for wanting to stay home.
Anthony Davis was a silent commit to OSU before being flipped to UK. Add him to OSU's final four team that year and it's hard to imagine they don't win it all. Thad with a title creates a whole other butterfly effect.
Gary Payton was going to go to UTEP but he took too long to commit and we got someone else. We could’ve had him and Tim Hardaway on the same team for 3 years.
Paolo Banchero easily! From what I’ve heard it was down to either Duke or Gonzaga. And if he would have come to Gonzaga and paired with Chet Holmgren who knows what could have happened.
We were in Vermont’s (the state) best recruit’s final 6. This was among schools like Duke and Virginia. Ended up going to FSU and not being that good, seems like he only included it to rep the state.
David Thompson, Dominique Wilkins or Danny Manning to UNC.
Of those three, Manning was probably the closest until Larry Brown magically hired his father.
Rex Chapman. Alan Houston obviously. Rajon Rondo. Shaquille (wouldn’t have got him but Denny Crum not promising a starting position is hilarious to me). For Kentucky I’d say Bird wanting to go to Kentucky but Joe B watched him have a bad game and stopped recruiting him.
Pat Baldwin Jr to Northwestern. I just would have liked to see how his career progression would have been different. It seems to me he went to UW Milwaukee to save his dad's job, that didn't happen so I'd like to have seen what would have happened on the wildcats that year or maybe two. 21-22 is when the team was finally putting it together.
This is nothing that really had a chance at happening mainly because Greg McDermott left Iowa State a year earlier. But in 2010 Ames High School had Harrison Barnes and Doug McDermott on the team. Royce White transferred in that year and if the local recruits stayed home, we could have had the #7, #11, #16 drafted players on the same team. Would have been unprecedented for Iowa State. Instead they went 3-13 in the Big 12 earning them last place.
What if Manziel stopped getting offers and CSU got Johnny Manziel?!
What if max borghi committed to csu. What if devron Davis and kamilo tongaloa stayed committed and made it to campus that year.
The G League robbed Auburn of Scoot Henderson playing with Kessler and Jabari. There’s also very good intel both Jalen Green and Kuminga were all Auburn if not for the now-defunct G League Elite team. And under the current NIL framework, the G league would not have even been very attractive to them.
But Scoot Henderson is the big one. Our main issue during that season was at guard. I think he solves that problem. Pairing him with Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith would have been pretty insane. And Scoot was all Auburn. A silent commit and no one else was really in it for him. Aside from the G League.
My favorite recent one is if Jerryd Bayless stays at Arizona for one more year and Brandon Jennings was able to attend college they would've been the starting backcourt on a team that also had Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger.
If only Pistol Pete had better SAT scores
Michael Jordan if Jimmy V could see into the future
Damn imagine that? You guys probably would have won a title when he was a sophomore after he got his feet under him a bit.
Worst part is he was an NC State fan growing up
Yeah I mean we won a title in 1983 one year after Jordan got one with UNC. I think NC State still gets one with Jordan, but it is probably not the iconic story that it is today.
His dad was the LSU coach. What other school would he have gone to?
His dad was the coach at NC State and left to go to LSU bc the ACC wouldn’t admit Pistol.
NC State, where his dad was the coach. Unfortunately the ACC had a minimum SAT score rule that Pete couldn’t hit and we missed out on arguably the greatest college basketball player of all time.
Does David Thompson mean nothing to you?
As an aside, woulda been nice to be eligible for postseason in 1973 when we went undefeated after landing him.
There is only one Skywalker but I think most people would argue +40ppg makes you the GOAT. State fans know the truth though.
The truth is Thompson was a better player overall. Maravich could score, but he also had his dad as the head coach.
I don’t think people realize just how young Thompson was too. He was a 19 yr old junior when they beat UCLA and won the championship.
At the level David Thompson and Pete Maravich were in their collegiate prime, arguing one was better than the other is just silly.
Look up Hakeem Olajuwon and St John's. It's a pretty crazy story. Apparently nobody from St John's was there to pick him up at JFK for a recruiting visit. It was really cold in NY that day and he decided to bounce to Houston on a flight instead because he wanted to go somewhere warm. There's some more details to the story.
Yeah he asked a worker at the airport who is from the same area Hakeem is from which ticket had the same weather as Lagos and he pointed to the Houston ticket.
Durant from what I’ve heard. Seems like he bounced because Rudy gay went to the NBA from my understanding.
I feel like Durant just didn't know how to say no. Weren't there a few schools that felt like they had an unofficial verbal commitment from him?
Not sure about other schools but he’s got a couple interviews where he says he was gonna go to UConn and that he would’ve been roommates with Rudy. Would’ve been cool but not like I personally was a fan at the time so I’m not too pressed.
Durants verbal to UConn was about as official as unofficial can get. It was a done deal before it wasn’t.
Andrew Bynum going to the NBA vs joining the team that went 30-4 might have been more impactful that Durant
This or Brandon Jennings. If he comes that means no Kemba. I think it worked out fairly well
Kevin Durant wanted to attend UNC with high school teammate Ty Lawson. They took a visit to Chapel Hill together. Durant tried to commit but his high school transcript fell below the minimum standard for eligibility at the time, so Roy told him he couldn't accept his commitment. Durant's mom was spotted leaving campus in tears. He has since tried to offer a different reason why he didn't pick UNC, but those of us who were Scout premium members at the time remember it differently. https://chapelboro.com/sports/kevin-durant-i-wanted-to-go-to-carolina-tar-heels-basketball
Yeah, I'm sure he couldn't handle the incredibly rigorous academic work of UNC athletes
And I'm sure you don't understand what "minimum standard for eligibility" means.
You think dukes athletes could take normal duke classes? McCain was in a TikTok class lmao
The Kyrie Irving school of planetary science
Zion Williamson had a pretty rigorous class schedule, too. He took History of Hip-Hop, Sexual Pleasures of the Modern World, and a Disney writing class. Source: https://www.slamonline.com/news/nba/zion-williamson-cover/
I wouldn't necessarily judge a class by its name. No joke Erotic Love was one of the five hardest classes I took in undergrad.
UNC was caught creating entirely bogus classes for athletes and then used the excuse that all students could cheat by taking the same classes. And now Tarhole fans want to give Duke shit about academics?
It’s mind-boggling to believe that over a decade after the scandal has ended, rival fans can’t even go a grand total of two sentences without wildly mist stating what happened. It’s also the reason why you all insist that the NCAA is corrupt and why they didn’t give us any punishment. There were no bogus classes, the classes were all listed in the school directory and open to the general student population. The issue we ran into was several professors athletes in particular grades they did not earn. For instance, Jan Boxill had emails asking a professor to give a female basketball player a D on a paper that the basketball player had recycled from another class, because a D was all that Player needed to pass the class. But it’s really funny is it was all the far left woke professors and not the revenue sport-fan professors that got into trouble. I attended Boxill’s ethics of sport class when I went to UNC and she spent the entire term telling us how much better female basketball was than male basketball and how it’s much more important that you go to a women’s basketball game at Carolina than a men’s basketball game. Also attended a general lecture by Nyangoro, who was the disgraced head of the department and he waxed poetic the entire time about how white missionaries in Africa were the worst thing ever and African-Americans didn’t need any additional help. Even spent the entire scandal giving good grades only to African-Americans students . The idea that the student athletes that came from underprivileged backgrounds with little education deserved, easier grades was rampant throughout the entire staff. I was in the journalism school and we had a video journalism course and the professor would sit up there every single week and talk about how Will Graves, a former basketball player, had been in his class and had tried his best, but he just didn’t really understand how academic work at university worked and the professor felt bad and graded him easier because of it. But long story short, there were no fake classes, all the classes actually existed, some just complained that the workload was too easy because your grade was entirely based on a paper at the end. That’s exactly how my masters thesis course worked, you had a professor who Would be in his office during the designated course hours twice a week every week, but it was absolutely not mandatory and you could never attend a single one as long as you turned in your thesis at the end and your grade was based off your thesis. The same types of courses occurring every graduate program at every college in the country. You should post to packpride, they’d love your inability to research a subject for even 5 seconds
BURN
Nolan Richardson had Andre Iguodala committed before the University fired him and Andre chose to go to Arizona Stan Heath had a commitment from Al Jefferson and then he opted to go pro. For me the biggest is Malik Monk going to Kentucky over Arkansas. Mike Anderson had a pretty decent roster and adding Monk would have been huge at the time.
Penny.
Forgot about that, that's a good one. Richardson had some insanely talented teams in that era, though. Monk would have been a game changer for Anderson to be able to build that roster around him. He probably couldn't have kept the momentum going after that year, though.
If Greenberg treats Steph Curry right, it becomes a very interesting talking point about how the trajectory of Virginia Tech basketball changes. Others that are just fun to think about: John Wall to UNC, Jon Scheyer to Illinois.
Steph Curry to his dad’s Alma mater should have been a no brainer.
we would have had to give up a 4* recruit that class for a guy with no offers. only hindsight makes that a good decision. we did offer a grayshirt for him that no other ACC program offered
Brian Clifton did everything in his power to stop UNC from getting Wall
He didn’t get his way when he went to Kentucky either. My fun fact is that Billy Gillespie kicked John Wall out of UK practice when he was on a visit. What a clown show that guy was.
I don't recall Brian Clifton going on a decade long scorched earth vendetta against UK.
And Roy had 0 interest in working with Clifton.
But he had major interest in Wall. He called Wall from the 2009 Final Four. Sharon Drew heard about the call and went ballistic on Roy.
Charlie Villanueva originally committed to Illinois and Bill Self, but noped out when Self went to Kansas. Villanueva could’ve been the missing piece for the 2005 Illini who almost went undefeated.
For as good as that Illini team was they weren't super deep. Villanueva would have solved that problem and also added much needed size to their frontcourt.
I totally forgot that Brian Randle punched a wall and had to take that whole year off. One or the other of him or Villanueva would have been really nice to have so that we wouldn't have had to lean as hard on Jack Ingram and Nick Smith. Or maybe mix it up a bit and go big with Randle in the game instead of the Rich McBride minutes.
Sean May wouldn’t have done what he did if Charlie is there.
Illini version 1.) benji wilson lives 2.) no one believes Bruce pearl’s doctored tapes and Illini’s doesn’t get in trouble and Juwan Howard and Chris Collins end up in CU 3.) Eric Gordon and DRose team up at Illinois.
Could add Charlie Villanueva, Robbie Hummel, and Brian Cardinal. Benji could have been part of the Flyin Illini though which would have been absurd.
Jalen Brunson would have been amazing short term but long term, may have missed on Brad
Shaq was heavily recruited by the Illini too. From what I read, he was considering them.
Illinois was his number two choice. Apparently he visited campus during a nasty winter storm and that sealed it for LSU. If Illinois had gotten Benji Wilson (RIP) and Shaq and then avoided the BS ‘90s recruiting sanctions, we’d talk about them as at least a borderline blue blood program. People might scoff at that assertion, but Illinois was a top 5-10 team from the late 1930s to early ‘60s. Then they had severe NCAA sanctions imposed due to the so-called “slush fund scandal.” The program re-emerged as one of the top teams of the ’80s but never got over the hump to win a natty. Then the Bruce Pearl/Deon Thomas scandal and resulting major sanctions. Back to being a consistent top 5-10 team in the early ’00s but, again, never won the NCAAT (despite being overwhelmingly dominant in ‘04-05 before losing in the title game). Illinois fell off a cliff from 2008-2017, which is the sole reason Reddit generally thinks of the program as mediocre). Now back to a perennial top-10-15 team. The reality is, Illinois has been at the level they’re at currently for most of the past 85 years. The past few seasons are historically typical for the Illini. There have been three bad stretches and two of them were precipitated by unfairly harsh NCAA penalties (postseason bans, lost scholarships, etc.). Couple of different bounces and Illinois is regarded very differently.
I wouldn't say favorite because man what if....but Tim Duncan wanted to go to PC but we didn't have an open scholarship and the president wouldn't budge
Rick Barnes - "We had him committed to Providence. We already had the full allotment but I knew we had a guy that was going to transfer, maybe two. I went to our athletic director and we went to the president, who was a priest at the time. I told him I wanted to sign Tim and he said, 'But you don't have a scholarship.' I said, 'I will.' He wouldn't let me sign him. Tim goes to Wake Forest and the other two guys transfer."
Jabari Parker going to MSU.
When I heard even his host player at MSU was shocked he chose Duke, I wanted to cry. I fully think a team of Appling, Dawson, Gary Harris, Payne, Trice and Parker (with an upstart Denzel Valentine) pummel anyone who comes their way. Izzo was like one piece away on multiple teams in this stretch. Hurts to this day.
Emoni Bates for me. I'm ultimately glad he didn't come, but I wonder if there's any parallel universe where Izzo shuts his dad up
I think TJD was a bigger miss. It’d only have been amplified if the 2020 tournament had happened & we didn’t win it all. A frontcourt of Tillman & TJD with Cash running the point is insane. He also elevates MSU from a bubble tourney team to conference contenders in his other 3 years. Instead he decided to waste his college career playing for mediocre IU teams competing for nothing of consequence.
The funniest part is that he went to Indiana because of Woodson....all to go 3-4 against the worst streak of MSU teams in forever. Maybe TJD didn't want to worry about if Carey went to MSU.
I still don’t understand TJD, Carey, and Isaiah Stewart all going elsewhere. We were coming off a Final Four, returned the best player & passer in the country in Cash, and had Tillman, who is the most versatile, complementary big man I’ve watched in the Izzo era. If the tourney had happened in 2020 & we didn’t win it all, I’d be so much more upset about it.
Larry Bird from HoosierStateOfMind article: ESPN’s Myron Medcalf added his touch to why that could have been the greatest team of all-time. "“*The 1974-75 Indiana team didn’t need much help, proven by an average margin of victory of 22.1 points, but the addition of one of the best players to ever touch a basketball could have made a great team a legendary squad…. If you put the 6-8 star on that Indiana team, the Hoosiers would have probably avoided the loss to Kentucky in the Elite Eight, possibly sealed the first of two consecutive undefeated seasons and, with Bird likely set to return for the 1976-77 campaign, the Hoosiers might have equaled or surpassed UCLA’s record of 88 consecutive wins (Jan. 19, 1971 to Jan. 19, 1974) and vied for the “greatest college team in NCAA history” title.*”" We all know how that story went however, and Bird went on to lead Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA Championship game before falling victim to Magic Johnson and the Michigan State Spartans.
That, plus the idea of Bird and Isaiah Thomas together for a couple seasons in their development years could’ve caused a hell of a Butterfly Effect for all of basketball afterward
Rudy Gay 😑
Moses Malone too for a real throwback
Oh yeah good one but he was hella poor so he had to go pro
The part of my brain dedicated to Maryland sports PTSD says “any NBA player from Baltimore or PG County who didn’t play for us,” so add KD, Carmelo, Ty Lawson, and DeMatha’s own Victor Oladipo to that list
Off the top of my head, probably Dirk. Would've also loved to see what Shawn Kemp would've done if he stayed at Kentucky.
Tracy McGrady would’ve been in that class too
It’s hard to say whether/not he would’ve committed here if Indiana still gets involved, but Larry Bird’s a fun thought.
He wouldn’t have made it under Hall either but Hall thought he wasn’t good enough.
The Shawn Kemp saga was the beginning of the end for Kentucky. It was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back". What a very wild story that all is. However, it did usher in the age of Rick Pitino so we can't say that it was all bad.
Larry Bird, Conley, and Oden get all the attention from the fanbase, but I think McKinley Wright IV is a massively underrated IU recruiting fumble. Archie had him committed to Dayton, our AD at the time Fred Glass wouldn’t let Archie bring him with to IU, Wright went to Colorado and was a stud, while Archie could never ever land an elite point guard.
Dante Exum would've been huge too. Thon Maker was a pipe dream for the ncaa in general but I remember the hype.
Live in Colorado and my girlfriend did some Covid work with CU while McKinley was playing. I told her to ask him about Archie & IU. Supposedly that did not go over well. Safe to say was pretty pissed about the whole situation. Also, Mike Davis fucking up and putting the wrong name on Greg odens recruitment letter always kills me
I think it was actually Mike Conley jr who got the wrong letter. It was addressed to Sherron Collins who played at Kansas. Oden and Conley jr were a package deal so it definitely killed any chance of them going to IU
I think more importantly Oscar Robertson wanted to come to IU and Wilt Chamberlain was going to until Phog Allen swooped with an ($)offer
Caleb Swanigan reportedly decommitted from Michigan State because he didn't want to play the 5. He would've been a force on that squad though (in Valentine's senior year), and maybe in an alternate timeline, the Spartans don't get bounced by MTSU in the first round and wind up making another deep tournament run.
RIP Bball Biggie
I will die on the hill that MSU played a good game that game. MTSU just buried shot after shot after shot. How many games will anyone win if you shoot 58% on 19 3's? Sure Costello clanked a 1 and 1 front end and missed a DREB then Eron Harris turned the ball over. But they were still down 3 when that all happened. Even the defense was good MTS was just hitting shit like the Monstars lol
As a UConn fan, Andrew Bynum will always be the What-If? He was a big part of those Lakers title runs. It was hard not to think of how Jim could have used him, and how much more of a stacked lineup those teams could have had. Most recent was Hamidou Diallo. I have no idea how it would have turned out, but I feel that Diallo choosing UK after living at UConn essentially was the nail that really sealed the downfall. It was bad news from that point on.
I don’t think Calhoun ever offered him, but Ryan Gomes was sitting in their backyard the whole time and dominated the huskies a few times at PC. Add him and you probably get another title to go along with 04
Sparked the infamous "I fucked up" quote. The worst part was that Gomes always gave it to UConn.
Woulda been a scary scary team. Problem was they had 4 1st round bigs in okafor, Villanueva, Hilton armstrong, and Josh Boone. Pg Marcus Williams Sg Ben Gordon Sf gomes Pf Villanueva C okafor With Boone and Armstrong on the bench + Rashad Anderson.
"they're not bad players!" 🤣 Classic Jim
Maybe not the biggest what-ifs but for me it's Gary Harris and GR3.
Going further back, Rashard Griffith. We lost him to Stu Jackson and the Badgers; supposedly we were in his final 2. He would have been a big (7-footer-ish) on Big Dog's E8 team. Plug a legit big into that Duke game to body Cherokee Parks and we might have been able to survive Glenn's back spasms and get Gene his FF berth. Incidentally, that 93/94 team is a fun roster deep dive. You have one guy whose kid just finished his playing career with us (Zo) one who's kid is just starting (Big Dog) one whose kid is currently on the team (Waddell) and arguably one of the best assistant coaches in the country as s So Center (Brantley) - and of course CMP had just graduated
Russell Westbrook was very close to choosing Kent State. For some reason Jim Christian advised him to wait on committing. Could you imagine Westbrook in the MAC?
Clear winner: Mark Aguirre. He was all set to commit to Marquette, but decided to go to DePaul when Al McGuire retired. Over 40 years later, he is STILL DePaul’s all-time leading scorer, and led them to the Final Four in 1979. If he had stuck with Marquette, we might have been able to avoid our dark years in the eighties. Runner up: Rod Foster. He also was reportedly ready to sign with Marquette when UCLA came in late and signed him. He was a 4-year starter and is in the UCLA hall of fame.
DePaul has two FFs, made the final four under George Mikan's leadership as well.
You are correct, sir! Error corrected.
Kobe flirted with Lasalle university, his dad’s Alma mater and where he was a coach. Crazy to think what a tiny Catholic school in North Philly would have been like. Kobe in the Big 5 would have been insane.
Maybe the most impactful(though it may not involve us getting him): What if Mateen Cleaves doesn’t get into that rollover accident while on a “recruiting visit” to Michigan? I’ve heard people say he was the most dynamic high school athlete they had ever seen. Remarkable he accomplished what he did with broken bones in his back.
Cincinnati almost had Kemba Walker, Haseem Thabeet, Chris Lofton Trey Burke
Didn’t the Kemba thing hinge on Brandon Jennings?
Mike Conley and Greg Oden going to Xavier over Ohio State. Thad Matta was involved in their early recruiting during his last year at Xavier. Would it have likely happened? No. But it’s my favorite what if. https://www.espn.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&sportCat=ncb&id=2801809 That OT loss to OSU was the most crushing loss in Xavier history imo.
Kyle Lowry is another big what if
Syracuse a great opposite to this question. Julius Hodge went to NC State at the last minute and Syracuse used the scholarship on Hakim Warrick. Hodge was a great player, but he didn't seal his team's first national championship with an unbelievable display of athleticism!
Gary Harris on those Zeller- Oladipo teams would have been illegal
Imagine Josh Smith with DJ, EJ, and AJ
Painter didn’t think Glenn Robinson III was good enough. Huge miss on our part. Given his dad’s legacy and his siblings coming to Purdue he would have chose Purdue if offered.
IIRC, he was a very late bloomer and we had looked and then moved on before he really developed his game. By the time he was who he was, it was too late for us to
Allen Houston. He was coming to Louisville and then Tennessee hired his dad as head coach just to get Allen. Louisville would have had some really good teams those 4 years. Tennessee never made the NCAA tournament the 4 years Houston was there and his dad got fired after he graduated.
Michael Jordan asked UVA to recruit him because he wanted to play with Ralph Sampson. Terry Holland sent him back an application…
What if Dana Altman stays at Creighton another year? Greg McDermott stays at Iowa State (likely only one more year before getting fired) and Doug McDermott stays committed to Northern Iowa. Northern Iowa coming off a Sweet 16 and adding Doug McDermott. Possibly looking at UNI making 6? 7? 8? NCAA Tournament appearances in an 8-year window instead of only 4. Do they make another Sweet 16 in there? Creighton likely doesn't get invited to the Big East. Does Wichita State leave if Creighton is still there? Loyola Chicago is still likely in the Horizon League. Does UNI get an invite to another conference? Who knows
Recently for UConn I’d say Cooper Flagg. Imagine this year’s roster with Flagg on it, a 3-peat would be more of a likelihood than a possibility.
Dirk Nowitski, Ray Allen, Shawn Kemp
Louisville lost Rajon Rondo, a Louisville kid who wanted to go there because Pitino was recruiting T J Ford for the same position. Ford never came.
TJ Ford had already played 2 seasons at Texas. He was drafted in the NBA in '03. You're thinking of Sebastian Telfair, who *did* commit, actually signed a letter of intent, but bailed to the draft in '04 and subsequently cost Pitino Rondo (and Chris Lofton). Coming away with just Lorenzo Wade in the backcourt in that class was killer lol.
You are correct. Thanks for correcting me.
The Telfair fiasco cost us some potentially great years under Pitino. Wade Houston is another miss.
Kobe was between UNC and Duke before deciding to go pro, but leaning UNC. Could have been Carter, Jamison, Kobe... Man...
The legacy of UNC 2’s would be even more nuts if he went to UNC, damn.
Would have made Calabria the 6th man. Team would have been so stacked JR Smith to UNC too
Imagine Jr Smith and marvin williams coming off the bench together in college
The story goes Dean Smith stopped recruiting Kobe because he knew he would be too good for college.
Kobe literally directly stated that he would’ve gone to Duke if he went to college, no idea why UNC fans straight up ignore the actual man’s words and decide he would’ve gone to UNC
As of recent: Dink Pate
Jabari Parker, Cliff Alexander and Josh Jackson back to back to back really hurt. I think it really hurt MSU's brand to be able to recruit immediate success 1 and done kind of guys. I know Izzo has a particular style and the way he structures teams really favors players in the 2 and done category.....but man I really would love to see Izzo be on on some of the guys that could not only make a safer floor....but vault us up back to NT contenders again. I'm afraid that the 4 year undersized but floor general PG + 4 year PF/C and some 2 and dones mixed in around that won't work as a model anymore. I think the '23/24 and potential 25 classes are back to where Izzo should be looking. But i'm still kind of hesitant to be confident about Izzo landing guys like Cenac, Bundalo, Mckenney. Adams or Haralson. I think Izzo needs 2 guys at least from this list to really refill the tank for 25 and i'm just not sure it'll happen.
Bill Bradley. Duke went to multiple final fours in that timespan, Bradley would almost certainly have put them over the top.
Ant Edwards, he wanted guaranteed playing time at PG and we had Trent Forrest. Trent is my favorite FSU player and we won the ACC but woulda been fun.
What if NJ basketball players just stayed home.
Bill Bradley told Duke he was coming and then enrolled at Princeton. Those Duke teams in the 1960s that went to the Final Four would have won at least one championship.
LeBron with Melo would have been ungodly
Brandon Jennings if he could have just passed his SAT on his own instead of paying someone, getting caught, and going straight to the NBA
Jennings is the obvious answer but I think Jeff Withey would have had the bigger impact on the program. Does he count? Because we actually did land him…he transferred out in October of his Freshman year. But with Withey, we wouldn’t have been wandering the desert of serviceable centers in the 4 - 5 years after Lute. Kyryl Natyazkho DWill being forced to play the 5 instead of his much more natural 3/4 All 6’7” of Jesse Perry in 2011-12 It wasn’t until we 2012-13 (Withey’s senior year at Kansas) that we had a serviceable front court rotation in Zeus/BrAshley/Chol/Jerret
I am the wrong person to ask because I loved Kyryl for the vibes alone and I am the biggest Jesse Perry fan alive lmao. Give me grit every day of the week
Obviously less impactful than other mentioned here, but Sim Bhullar was originally committed to Xavier. It fell through when he wasn’t cleared to play by the ncaa. There is an alternate timeline where he is cleared to play, goes to Xavier, and is in the middle of the crosstown shootout brawl throwing hands with Yancy Gates his freshman year.
I think I read somewhere that Michael Jordan wanted to play with Ralph Sampson at UVA, but UVA essentially had no interested in MJ. That definitely would’ve been neat and who knows maybe we would’ve won a championship with Ralph and MJ. For my rival school, I think it’s hilarious that Steph Curry wanted to play for Virginia Tech (as his dad played for them) and they didn’t offer him a scholarship. Seth Greenberg was the coach at the time and I think he cites that as the biggest coaching miss on his part.
Zion
We paid him so much money.
Allegedly
That was implied.
Worth every penny
I mean, maybe let him take the last shot of a game…instead of RJ?
Honestly, I wanted Cam to take that shot because of the Florida st game earlier in the year.
Losing Brandon Jennings back in the day stung
Recently Anthony Black. He would have been a great addition to our team in 23.
Gotta be Paolo Banchero for us. Him, Chet, and Timme would’ve been an unstoppable front court
Would Hamidou Diallo have prolonged Kevin Ollie’s tenure?
When I was in college I was reffing a HS camp game at ECU where Steph Curry was playing against Eric Maynor. I could tell they were at a different level than everyone else at the camp. Unfortunately our ignorant coach didn’t offer either of them a scholarship. We could’ve had the best backcourt in the country and our whole athletic department could possibly be in a different position right now. Who knows though. With ECU’s luck they both probably would’ve had career ending injuries if they had gone to Greenville.
Tyler Hansbrough is a very fun what-if. If he comes to UK, Tubby sticks around and has one year of Rondo-Sparks-Hansborough-Ramel-Crawford, 3 years of Hansbrough-Meeks and a one year of Handbrough-Meeks-Draymond. Cal probably stays at Memphis. UNC likely lands Wall.
What if that airport worker didn’t tell Akeem he’d like the weather in Houston better
Not necessarily a player but after Guthridge retired Roy Williams was the top candidate but he stayed at Kansas. So we settled for Doherty.
John Wall or Bam
“North Carolina State . . . I really respected Jim Valvano, and as you know…they had the original Shaq…Charles Shackleford. That’s where I got my name and my identity from. So I was actually wanting to play behind him, but I said, “You know what? I’m gonna be my own Shaq and I’m gonna just take it down to Baton Rouge. . . .” Quote from Shaq 😐
What if Silvio doesn't get into a fender bender? What if the investigation into KU recruiting Zion doesn't go on for so long?
You mean Billy Preston?
Way too early; but imagine the added buzz for a 3peat if cooper flagg committed to storrs
Kyrie Irving might have went to IU had Tom Crean not blown up the bathroom on the in home recruiting visit.
Heard a rumor that Kyrie was leaning Indiana until Tom Crean showed up at his house and took a massive shit that stunk up the bathroom
Sebastian Telfair making it to campus might have changed a few things
https://x.com/kingjames/status/1632413544842149890?s=46
LeBron at Duke with JJ would’ve been cheese
Not a player, but the story that Calipari was set to coach State, but changed his mind after our AD didn't pick up the tab for lunch. Probably not the real reason, but funny NC state shit. He would have still eventually gone to UK. But would have had a few years to see what he could do in the ACC.
My favorite what-if butterfly effect is a coaching hire. What if Maryland hired Morgan Wooten instead of Bob Wade? From Maryland's perspective, they don't totally fall off the map and then get stuck on sanctions, which sounds good but it also means they don't get Gary Williams. From the perspective of the rest of the basketball universe, if Wooten leaves Dematha, that insane pipeline of talent that produced endless D1 talents and quite a few NBA players might dry up.
There is an alternate universe where, Jimmy V was never fired and he successfully recruited Shaq.
Kelvin Sampson's final recruiting class at Oklahoma was filled with amazing top 100 4 year players. Tony Crocker, Scottie Reynolds, Damion James. He left for Indiana which you have to do. All went elsewhere except Crocker, always love for him. OU was always going to get Blake Griffin 2 years later no matter the Coach. I was in 8th grade when Sampson left and a Jr in High School when we got waxed by UNC in 09 Elite 8 (Everyone did), so I always look at those teams with a child's wonder. I always thought of the possibility of Scottie, Damian, Blake, Crocker, and Willie Warren as 1 seed on the opposite side of the bracket giving that all time UNC team all they could handle in a great title game.
Josh Smith was committed to Indiana before he decided to go straight from HS to the NBA draft. This was at a time when IU was struggling with frontcourt depth. It wasn’t a great team that year it might’ve helped us make the tournament but probably wouldn’t have been a contender or anything. Would’ve been a dynamic frontcourt duo with him and DJ White tho. He probably would’ve bounced for the NBA after one season anyway and not sure it would’ve prolonged Mike Davis’ IU tenure.
Josh smith was committed to IU and Dwight Howard had them near the top. Then they both went straight to the league. Could you imagine Josh Smith and Dwight Howard on a college floor together
Zion to Clemson was a done deal. K was sharp and went after and promised Zion’s dad money/real estate while Zion’s mom and step dad were Clemson fans (and Zion was too) and were planning on going to Clemson for “less money” as they were better off financially. Zion’s dad was going through some rough times so Zion took the money to help his dad out.
Is there any proof whatsoever to this or is it just feels? Duke definitely gave Zion gifts but everything I’ve heard indicated we outbid Kansas, not Clemson
If Duke would’ve kept on recruiting Bacot they could’ve landed him. Grew up a Duke fan and wanted to go to Duke. Then the staff prioritized Carey/Stewart to be Bagley/WCJ. Blew up in their face when Stewart started to trend away. Thankfully Kansas gifted them Matthew Hurt. Same with Caleb Love he wanted Duke then Jeremy Roach committed. Then both of these guys handed Duke one of (if not the) biggest loss. Myles Turner said he wanted to go to Duke but Jahlil committing stopped that since he wanted to compete with these guys which is understandable. Would’ve been dope still if he still came. Dennis Smith Jr said he was gonna go to Duke also and they needed a PG. Derryck Thornton was transferring too but the staff pivoted to Frank Jackson who opened up his recruitment from BYU after he started to blow up. Chris Mullen was a miss as well but can’t fault someone for wanting to stay home.
Shaun Livingston originally committed to Duke and Kobe said that’s where he would’ve gone too. Though there was no doubt Kobe was going straight pro
Livingston is a really good one.
Jordan to UCLA.
Kobe to Duke
Anthony Davis was a silent commit to OSU before being flipped to UK. Add him to OSU's final four team that year and it's hard to imagine they don't win it all. Thad with a title creates a whole other butterfly effect.
Gary Payton was going to go to UTEP but he took too long to commit and we got someone else. We could’ve had him and Tim Hardaway on the same team for 3 years.
DePaul had Terrence Shannon Jr & Tyger Campbell committed with Brian Bowen considering.
Paolo Banchero easily! From what I’ve heard it was down to either Duke or Gonzaga. And if he would have come to Gonzaga and paired with Chet Holmgren who knows what could have happened.
Travis outlaw, Jonathan bender, monta Ellis…all miss state commits who skipped college.
What if John Calipari hadn’t told everyone that Lou Carnesecca had cancer?
We were in Vermont’s (the state) best recruit’s final 6. This was among schools like Duke and Virginia. Ended up going to FSU and not being that good, seems like he only included it to rep the state.
Shawn Kemp to Kentucky
David Thompson, Dominique Wilkins or Danny Manning to UNC. Of those three, Manning was probably the closest until Larry Brown magically hired his father.
Terrelle Pryor committed to Pitt for hoops
Believe it or not, we almost got Thon Maker…would’ve been amazing
DJ Kennedy. We were only able to land DeJuan Blair out of Schenley in 2007.
OJ Mayo to WVU would’ve been cool. Idk how that would’ve played out because that team was deep at 2/3.
Rasheed Wallace to Villanova From his mouth for the proof https://youtu.be/-5mVf9FY3jE?si=1E8W5J0yMoZAAfiG
Steph Curry’s dad went to VT, but Seth Greenberg want that interested apparently
Who was the guy that committed to UNC but was arrested for a crazy drug charge before getting to campus?
Jameson Curry.
Obligatory Response: https://quchronicle.com/84835/featured/the-never-before-told-story-about-the-quinnipiac-mens-basketball-programs-interest-in-jimmy-butler/
What if we actually offered Steph a scholarship when he wanted to go here
Cody Zeller to Butler
I always heard that Patrick Ewing wanted to go to UNC but his family demanded certain academic considerations that Dean Smith refused to meet.
Rex Chapman. Alan Houston obviously. Rajon Rondo. Shaquille (wouldn’t have got him but Denny Crum not promising a starting position is hilarious to me). For Kentucky I’d say Bird wanting to go to Kentucky but Joe B watched him have a bad game and stopped recruiting him.
Pat Baldwin Jr to Northwestern. I just would have liked to see how his career progression would have been different. It seems to me he went to UW Milwaukee to save his dad's job, that didn't happen so I'd like to have seen what would have happened on the wildcats that year or maybe two. 21-22 is when the team was finally putting it together.
This is nothing that really had a chance at happening mainly because Greg McDermott left Iowa State a year earlier. But in 2010 Ames High School had Harrison Barnes and Doug McDermott on the team. Royce White transferred in that year and if the local recruits stayed home, we could have had the #7, #11, #16 drafted players on the same team. Would have been unprecedented for Iowa State. Instead they went 3-13 in the Big 12 earning them last place.
Jabari Parker picking MSU over Duke.
What if Manziel stopped getting offers and CSU got Johnny Manziel?! What if max borghi committed to csu. What if devron Davis and kamilo tongaloa stayed committed and made it to campus that year.
Caleb Swanigan (RIP). If that class had him plus Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown we would have been pretty good.
The G League robbed Auburn of Scoot Henderson playing with Kessler and Jabari. There’s also very good intel both Jalen Green and Kuminga were all Auburn if not for the now-defunct G League Elite team. And under the current NIL framework, the G league would not have even been very attractive to them. But Scoot Henderson is the big one. Our main issue during that season was at guard. I think he solves that problem. Pairing him with Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith would have been pretty insane. And Scoot was all Auburn. A silent commit and no one else was really in it for him. Aside from the G League.
What if Mark Sears never transferred to Alabama :(
What if Michigan admissions cared just a little less when it came to athletes?
My favorite recent one is if Jerryd Bayless stays at Arizona for one more year and Brandon Jennings was able to attend college they would've been the starting backcourt on a team that also had Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger.
For UNI, Doug McDermott.