Top 25 men's college basketball teams of all time | The Boneyard

Top 25 men's college basketball teams of all time

23-24 UConn is the best team of the 64 team era.

91-92 Michigan had 8 losses and got smoked in the championship game. They have no business on the list.

The rankings of the Kentucky teams is out of whack, 95-96 Kentucky is the best Kentucky team ever.

17-18 Nova is underranked, they smoked everyone in the tournament.
 
And the 2004 Champions didn't make the list?

One of the SIX Champions from the same little country school in the last 26 years (twice as many as the cheaters from uNC) and still only get grudging respect.

Not quite as dominant in the tournament as the 2023 and 2024 teams, but totally dominated the regular season. I would bet the 2004 Duke team would be on this list if we hadn't beaten them. It never ends......
 
Scrutineer said:
And the 2004 Champions didn't make the list?

One of the SIX Champions from the same little country school in the last 26 years (twice as many as the cheaters from uNC) and still only get grudging respect.

Not quite as dominant in the tournament as the 2023 and 2024 teams, but totally dominated the regular season. I would bet the 2004 Duke team would be on this list if we hadn't beaten them. It never ends......
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That 04 team only had 1 challenging game in the tourney, vs Duke. They def deserve to be here over a few of these teams.
 
Scrutineer said:
And the 2004 Champions didn't make the list?

One of the SIX Champions from the same little country school in the last 26 years (twice as many as the cheaters from uNC) and still only get grudging respect.

Not quite as dominant in the tournament as the 2023 and 2024 teams, but totally dominated the regular season. I would bet the 2004 Duke team would be on this list if we hadn't beaten them. It never ends......
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The 2004 UConn team is one of the most talented teams ever but they did have 6 regular season losses and they didn't play or beat that many ranked teams during the season or tournament.

There is no logical argument to put any team of the 64 tournament team era over UConn in '24.
 
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That’s a terrible list but nice to see the 1999 team get respect. 96 Kentucky at 14 is wild.
 
Im surprised by the comments, i was expecting agreement on every selection across the board............ Anyway That 90-91 UNLV team, as much as I was into UConn ball by that time, is the first real memory I have of being in awe of college athletes. And Tark was the perfect Professor X for those dudes. And then the following year in Ann Arbor it happens again. Best 3-4 year period to solidify a love of college bball in a 12 year old kid who read The National every morning.
 
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The best team that I have ever seen is the 1990-91 UNLV team that was undefeated until they ran into Duke in the Final Four and even then, only lost by 2 points. Also, some of those late 80's Syracuse teams with Derrick Coleman and Sherman Douglas were absolutely stacked. I will absolutely not argue about the UCLA teams of the 60's and 70's but truthfully, it was much easier back then. 32 teams not 64 and they stayed and played in their own regions and UCLA was a Juggernaut so they were able to land the best recruits. But still, I will not disparage their greatness. Some of those 20** Kentucky teams were absolutely stacked. The best UCONN team I have ever seen is the 2023-24 Huskies. They were absolutely loaded. I agree the 98-99 Huskies team was very good as was the 03-04 Huskies. I'd take the 2023-24 Huskies against anyone. That was a powerhouse of a team.
 
I’ve always thought on these lists that you should get docked points if you didn’t win all the hardware you could have. Kentucky 1995-96 and 2011-12 lost the SEC title games to Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. Villanova 2017-18 finished second in the Big East. (Same goes for our 2004 team, which was second to Pitt during the regular season).

If there was a trophy at stake and you didn’t win it, you’ve lost your claim of being the best ever.
 
I thought for a long time Kentucky 96 was the best team I'd seen, based on their dominance but also on the sheer number of guys who played in the NBA (nine, I think). What they did in the league, though, was way less impressive. Antoine Walker was the best, and he was polarizing at best. The rest were pretty mid.
 
very weird rankings. The order is way off. That 95 - 96 UK team is top five at least, probably #3 behind the UCLA team and IU's undefeated team.
 
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superjohn said:
The 2004 UConn team is one of the most talented teams ever but they did have 6 regular season losses and they didn't play or beat that many ranked teams during the season or tournament.

There is no logical argument to put any team of the 64 tournament team era over UConn in '24.
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I don't agree with you often on these extreme takes that always lean the same way, but I do agree on the 24 team. I honestly cannot see how that Duke team would beat them. We could throw Castle on Hurley, Laettner would be swallowed up by Clingan, Hill would be impacted too. That UConn teams physicality alone would stifle that Duke team, had matchup advantages that were almost impossible to contest. The only way out was getting Clingan into foul trouble, which no one was able to do. I just don't know what team in the modern era had the size, matchups, smarts to beat that team. They had three big ball handlers, two cheat code defenders. They ran through the field and didn't even shoot the 3 well. To me, from a pure matchup standpoint, I'm not sure which team in the modern era could crack that code.

I can't get into the argument around pre modern era teams, nor is it even worth the conversation given the system back then.
 
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Kitaman said:
John Thompson's Georgetown not having one team listed is criminal.
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I've always thought Sonny Vaccaro was really the man responsible for Georgetown's success. He funneled players to Georgetown for Converse, and they were the sneaker kings at the time as a result.

To show you Vaccaro's power, he took Iverson away for a weekend after he committed to Virginia and upon his return he flipped to Georgetown. Not very common in those days.

When Georgetown won their only championship it was on the back of "the enforcer", Michael Graham.

Graham was the one year player brought in to take the pressure off Patrick Ewing by creating mayhem. He drew blood in two fights in his one year there, once with Pearl Washington and once with Walter Berry (in the Big East tournament as I recall). Graham was the player that caused the NCAA to implement the fighting rule.

He was gone after that year to a one year stint at an NAIA school and was never heard from again.
 
Texas Western was historic, but not one of the best teams of all time.

8 loss Michigan is ridiculous.

2004 UConn was a great team. Most of those losses happened with Okafor out or at 50%.

1991 UNLV was the best team I have ever seen. I will go to my grave thinking that game vs. Duke was fixed.

07 Florida is top 25, not top 10.
 
1990-91 UNLV team is number 8??? They should be at least top 5. Prolly top 3. Also the 95-96 Kentucky team should be at least top 5 as well. Trash rankings
 
nelsonmuntz said:
Texas Western was historic, but not one of the best teams of all time.

8 loss Michigan is ridiculous.

2004 UConn was a great team. Most of those losses happened with Okafor out or at 50%.

1991 UNLV was the best team I have ever seen. I will go to my grave thinking that game vs. Duke was fixed.

07 Florida is top 25, not top 10.
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Match up 91 UNLV with UConn 24.

Augmon
Anthony
Hunt
Johnson
Ackles

That was a really undersized team. Was a 6’6” LJ gonna be able to attack the rim with Clingan there? Augmon do anything with Castle on him? That team generally produced two pros.

Such a diff style and rules back then. I still think we take them. That was a small team. We would have towered over them at every position other than the 3. If today’s rules I honestly don’t know if it’s close.
 
RuffRuff said:
Match up 91 UNLV with UConn 24.

Augmon
Anthony
Hunt
Johnson
Ackles

That was a really undersized team. Was a 6’6” LJ gonna be able to attack the rim with Clingan there? Augmon do anything with Castle on him? That team generally produced two pros.

Such a diff style and rules back then. I still think we take them. That was a small team. We would have towered over them at every position other than the 3. If today’s rules I honestly don’t know if it’s close.
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One of the most talented teams to not win it all in somewhat recent memory is the Nova team sandwiched between their championships in 2016 and 2018, they actually lost second round to Wisconsin. Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins, Donte Divincenzo, Eric Paschall. They didn't have a center but that's one of the best small ball teams I can remember.
 
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superjohn said:
One of the most talented teams to not win it all in somewhat recent memory is the Nova team sandwiched between their championships in 2016 and 2018, they actually lost second round to Wisconsin. Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins, Donte Divincenzo, Eric Paschall. They didn't have a center but that's one of the best small ball teams I can remember.
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What team would be the worse matchup for that 24 UConn team? Maybe one of those Pitino UK teams? Long athletics teams that could disrupt and push pace, pressure? Maybe Nova, and pull Clingan from rim.
 
Travelman6 said:
2004 needs to be on the list and 2011 is knocking on the door.
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Remove Michigan 91-92, put Uconn 2004 and move them up about 10 spots. That team had losses early on but once OK4 got healthy and Shad cracked the lineup it was over. The refs helped keep Duke close but if they hadnt that game is not close.
 
RuffRuff said:
Match up 91 UNLV with UConn 24.

Augmon
Anthony
Hunt
Johnson
Ackles

That was a really undersized team. Was a 6’6” LJ gonna be able to attack the rim with Clingan there? Augmon do anything with Castle on him? That team generally produced two pros.

Such a diff style and rules back then. I still think we take them. That was a small team. We would have towered over them at every position other than the 3. If today’s rules I honestly don’t know if it’s close.
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That UNLV team was insanely athletic, starting with LJ. Augmon is one of the best defensive players at the college level in my lifetime. For the era, Hunt was an incredible 3 point shooter, hitting 40% from 3 as a high volume 3 point shooter in an era where almost no one did that. Anthony was blazing fast and a great distributor, and he wasn't a bad shooter on that team because he got so many open looks. That UNLV team shot over 40% from 3 in an era where that was unheard of. That team shot 58% from 2 because they dunked so much.

UConn 24 would lose 8 out of 10.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
That UNLV team was insanely athletic, starting with LJ. Augmon is one of the best defensive players at the college level in my lifetime. For the era, Hunt was an incredible 3 point shooter, hitting 40% from 3 as a high volume 3 point shooter in an era where almost no one did that. Anthony was blazing fast and a great distributor, and he wasn't a bad shooter on that team because he got so many open looks. That UNLV team shot over 40% from 3 in an era where that was unheard of. That team shot 58% from 2 because they dunked so much.

UConn 24 would lose 8 out of 10.
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'24 would swallow them up. Our guards would simply be too big for their guards and their attack of the rim would be slowed down by Clingan.

UNLV's schedule was easy and they didn't get the job done when it mattered.
 
superjohn said:
'24 would swallow them up. Our guards would simply be too big for their guards and their attack of the rim would be slowed down by Clingan.

UNLV's schedule was easy and they didn't get the job done when it mattered.
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UConn had an offense no one had seen before, and it was unstoppable. It would break teams. The Alabama Final Four game was a perfect example of what that offense would do. Alabama played great, but they couldn’t stop UConn and took increasingly crazy shots out of desperation because UConn would score every possession.

UNLV was the better team, and I am certain Hunt and at least one other player was point shaving against Duke.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
That UNLV team was insanely athletic, starting with LJ. Augmon is one of the best defensive players at the college level in my lifetime. For the era, Hunt was an incredible 3 point shooter, hitting 40% from 3 as a high volume 3 point shooter in an era where almost no one did that. Anthony was blazing fast and a great distributor, and he wasn't a bad shooter on that team because he got so many open looks. That UNLV team shot over 40% from 3 in an era where that was unheard of. That team shot 58% from 2 because they dunked so much.

UConn 24 would lose 8 out of 10.
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It really doesn't matter how athletic UNLV was - we'd slow them down into a grind and we towered over them. A Castle today is 100x stronger than a stringy Augmon. I honestly think there is a better chance the 24 team would win 8/10. Were were their answers? A 6'6" Larry Johnson taking mid range jumpers? The only way to match teams up of these differing eras is player for player, and I just don't it.

They were flashy, they had Tark, they ran over a lousy league, they were built for their era.
 
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