Fun February Madness

March Madness is right around the corner, and what could be a better prelude to the Big Dance than a fantasy tournament for the ages? Introducing, the first hypothetical tournament on this site, the “All-Time NCAA Tournament."

The tournament is in the mold of a Classic Sports “what-if” model – that age old water-cooler argument about who would beat who if they could access a time machine. It was originally designed by ESPN.com’s Scoop Jackson when he was writing for “SLAM” magazine (Jackson was finally able to run the idea last year on ESPN.com in conjunction with Eric Neel). The origins of the idea stemmed from an argument Scoop was having over whether a team of UCLA alumni would beat a team of North Carolina alumni. Worthy, Jordan, Carter and Jamison playing against Miller, Walton and Abdul-Jabbar – what would happen? All players would be in their prime, of course, which includes their NBA career. When Carolina plays in this theoretical tournament, Michael Jordan would be the NBA legend Michael Jordan, not the scrawny collegiate version. Conversely, Christian Laettner wouldn’t be a superstar in this game the way he was in college.

And thus the idea of two teams playing each other grew into a field of 32 colleges who produced the best players in basketball history. Carmelo and Coleman star for Syracuse. Duke has Brand and Hill. Georgetown has its legendary centers, Ewing, Mourning and Mutombo all playinging together. Kansas has Paul Pierce and some guy named Chamberlain. Finally, each team is coached by its most legendary floor general – Knight leads Indiana, Wooden leads UCLA, and so on.

Panelists at ESPN.com seeded the teams 1-32, and placed them into four regions, ala the selection committee (a fan vote determined who advanced from round to round – that vote will be included in addition to my pick and analysis, as well as Neel and Scoop's take). Each team gets a starting five and two reserves – the best seven players even to suit up for that particular school. The body of work the committee used to seed the teams was based on the talent level of each lineup on paper. Of course, championships aren’t won on paper.

For example, the All-Time North Carolina team is:

Starting Lineup
G Michael Jordan
G Phil Ford
F James Worthy
F Billy Cunningham
C Bob McAdoo

Bench
G/F Charlie Scott
F Walter Davis

And those are the seven best players in Carolina history (according to the panel). Stackhouse, Sheed, and Vince Carter didn’t even crack the team.

Without Further ado, the ALL-TIME NCAA TOURAMENT BRACKET: (click on a team for rosters provided at espn.com, along with Jackson and Neel’s analysis):

RUPP ARENA REGION
1st round: Boise

(1) UCLA
(32) Marquette

(16) Louisville
(17) Syracuse

(8) Indiana
(25) Villanova

(9) Duke
(24) DePaul


CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM REGION
1st round: Dean Dome

(12) UNLV
(21) San Francisco

(5) Kansas
(28) Georgia Tech

(13) Michigan State
(20) Arizona

(4) Georgetown
(29) Illinois


ASSEMBLY HALL REGION
1st round: The Pit

(3) LSU
(30) Iowa

(14) Ohio State
(19) Cincinnati

(6) Houston
(27) Arkansas

(11) Kentucky
(22) Providence


CARRIER DOME REGION
1st round: Palestra

(10) Michigan
(23) North Carolina State

(7) Maryland
(26) Minnesota

(15) Connecticut
(18) Notre Dame

(2) North Carolina
(31) Utah

So what would happen if such an All-time tournament took place….? Let the discussion begin.

Tomorrow: Rupp Arena 1st Round