Dedication
To my beautiful wife Teresa: Teresa is that once in a lifetime person that helps me get through life. She is the mother of my three wonderful children. Most of all Teresa knows how to keep me grounded. She doesn’t let me get a big head and think highly of myself. For example...Time and time again she would ask me, “Why are you writing a book that nobody is going to read?,” and “what makes you qualified to write about basketball?” Sometimes she would just say, “Stop wasting your time on that stupid book and go clean something.” I love you honey, you are the light of my life.
A Clash of Titans: A What If book.
Chapter 1:
Why is it that when men and women (ok, let's be honest, it is mostly men) get together they argue about sports? It really is unbelievable how the male of the species has to argue about who is the greatest, or the top five, or top ten, or top 100 about anything. And, if these arguments are not ranking individuals, or performances, they end almost always with someone making a comparison. Even these comparison arguments can be categorized. Like, "who is the better quarterback, Montana or Brady?" Or, "how would Bill Tilden have done against Pancho Gonzales, Bjorn Borg, or Roger Federer?"
I am willing to bet that 10,000 years ago on the great savannah of Africa, as night settled around the Bushmen, a conversation started. As the fire was stoked after a long day of trying to find food and stay alive, they argued about who was the greatest hunter, the greatest spear thrower, the greatest basket maker (pun intended), the greatest...anything.
Approximately 4000 years ago, the Chinese were holding gymnastic competitions. This means that, also 4000 years ago, some Chinese guys were sitting around comparing gymnast Chen to gymnast Chan to gymnast Le. This was all quickly followed by the invention of (cue the echo machine) “The list.”
Soon after the invention of sport, the next day actually, came the invention of “the list.” The “list” has to be the cruelest, and at the same time, most fascinating invention of mankind. If memory of my past bible studies is correct, I believe that at some point Moses asked God for a “list” of the most important sins. God did not distinguish between sins but man could not deal with this lack of a sin list and pushed God to come up with the goods. “We need a list!” the people said over and over again. God was so annoyed he decided to create the “list” just to shut them up.
I am no better than any of these past men. At work, I am a teacher, and at play, I play poker twice a week at a local bar, I argue with coworkers and friends about who was the greatest pro quarterback (Joe Montana), what are the top five sweatiest movies of all time (my list: Alien, Spartacus, Rocky, Flight of the Phoenix, The African Queen) or the ten best college football coaches (Bill Snyder, John McKay, Tom Osborn, Robert Neyland, Walter Camp, Bernie Bierman, Frank Leahy, Fielding Yost, Bud Wilkinson, and Chris Petersen), or the five hottest female tennis players of all-time (Dominika Cibulkova, Maria Sharapova, Ashley Harkleroad, Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova), the five greatest debut albums of all time (Boston, The Clash, The Cars, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Eagles), thirty sports figures I don’t respect (Nick Van Exel, Jim Rome, Keyshawn Johnson, Zab Judah, O.J. Simpson, and Jimmy Conners are some examples) and the top three sports cars ever manufactured (the Mazda Miata, the 427 Cobra, and Ferrari 250 GT). I am good at it. To put it bluntly, I have a black belt in list making.
The idea for this book started in 2006. Three separate events, all broadcast on television, and all claiming the same thing, were the catalyst for this work. The first event consisted of comments made by Digger Phelps, who was the color analyst for the finals of the Missouri Valley Conference championship, also known as Arch Madness. I was flipping through the channels and stumbled onto the Missouri Valley Basketball Championship game. This game featured the Southern Illinois Salukis versus the Braves of Bradley University. The second event was the 2006 Selection Sunday Show, on CBS, with hosts Jim Nance and Billy Packer, and the comments made by both men.
The 2006 Missouri Valley Conference championship game featured the SIU Salukis versus the Bradley Braves. The game was a defensive struggle and for approximately six minutes during the game both teams only scored a couple of points. It was during this moment that the play-by-play announcer asked Digger Phelps about the Missouri Valley possibly getting as many as four or five teams invited to play in the NCAA tournament. Digger’s response was very derogatory toward the Missouri Valley Conference. (Why am I candy coating this? Digger was being a real jerk towards the Missouri Valley). Mr. Phelps said that it was ridiculous to give the Missouri Valley multiple invitations. He then said that the proof that they don’t deserve to have more than one team in the tournament was that during the last couple of minutes of the game, that they were calling, both teams had only scored a couple of points. (Never mind that during the NCAA championship game, Florida versus UCLA, UCLA only scored 3 points in the last six minutes of the first half. I have emailed Mr. Phelps at ESPN about whether UCLA deserved to be in the final considering this lack of offense, I am still waiting for a response.)
Approximately one week later the 2006 Selection Sunday show was on CBS. The hosts and analysts for this show were Jim Nance and Billy Packer. When the 64-team field was announced both Jim and Billy threw a hissy fit because the Missouri Valley Conference had four schools chosen to the “Big Dance.” Jim and Mr. Packer said that there was something wrong with this scenario. Both men said that there were power conferences with teams more deserving than these “Mid Major” schools. Well, Digger Phelps, Jim Nance, and Billy Packer were proved to have been amazingly WRONG! In that 2006 NCAA championship tournament the Missouri Valley did very well. Wichita State beat Seton Hall, and the number two seed Tennessee. Bradley, also a Missouri Valley school, beat the number four seed Kansas and then beat the number five seed Pittsburgh.
The third event happened about ten days into the 2006 NCAA tournament. CBS had Mr. Doug Gottlieb on to be the college analyst expert and he was being asked about how the small conference schools were doing and in particular he was asked about Wichita State’s big win over the number 2 seed Tennessee. Mr. Gotlieb down played Wichita’s victory. He said that he was not impressed with Wichita State’s win over Tennessee because Tennessee is not that good. This is the same Tennessee that beat National Champ Florida twice that year, but to Doug Gotlieb Wichita State’s victory did not count for much.
Before the tournament was over an idea started to take shape in my Indiana Hoosier born and bred brain.
What if you took the thirteen greatest basketball players in the history of each current conference and molded them into one team to represent that conference, and what if the best coaches from those conference’s history were then selected to coach those dream teams? Then, once those teams were assembled, what if they were put into a playoff bracket just like the NCAA bracket and these teams had to play their way through the bracket? Which conference could rightfully say, “We are the greatest college basketball conference of all time”...?
There it is, the idea for my book. I will look at every division 1 college conference (and the NAIA), and identified the thirteen greatest players who have ever played in that conference’s history. Then I will find the two greatest coaches from each conference to coach these thirteen players. Once all this information has been compiled I will seed the teams and put them into a tournament style bracket. Each game will be played and I will write about the game and it’s outcome.
