I’m guessing very few of you saw this—not being Mets, Phillies or WBB fans—but Geno threw out the first pitch (strike!) at Citi Field last night and they interviewed him during the game. He had some interesting thoughts on the difference between sports like basketball and football, where players are frequently judged historically on the number of championships they’ve won, versus baseball, which has become mostly an individual sport where players are frequently judged on individual stats like HRs, hits, wins, saves, etc. He very skillfully transitioned from that to a discussion of playing at a place like Connecticut, where championships are the expectation because of our history of basketball excellence. And then he wove the championship tradition of UConn basketball into UConn baseball, pointing out the UConn players in the Mets farm system, and concluding that college athletes in all sports now come to UConn with the expectation that winning championships is not only possible, but that it is the goal. All of which is to say that, I think most here would agree that the best gauge of the quality of a D1 basketball program is whether, and how frequently/consistently, that team is in position to compete for championships. On that scale, I don’t think there is anyone in the post-Wooden era who comes close to K. I’ll take JC head-to-head in any game, and he is certainly in the discussion for next best after K, but there is simply no denying K’s standing and success.
