Bay Area Sports Blog

Well, the St. Mary’s bubble went all bursted today. And now the Gaels are causing fights between Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale. Never mind the schedule, the Gaels can blame Mississippi State. And Arizona. Arizona? Seriously? Are they just giving the Wildcats pity bids at this point? Nobody likes a pity bid. Cal gets Maryland in the first round and potentially Memphis in the second. Brutal. Enjoy your one weekend in the tourney, Cal.

But St. Mary’s fans shouldn’t fret: Your team is still alive in the Bay Area Sports Blog’s totally fabricated and completely irrelevent side tournament! Score! What is this glorious-sounding thing, you might ask?

We wanted to settle the whole debate about who has the best all-time basketball team in the Bay Area. Is it Stanford? USF? San Jose State? So we chose an all-time starting five for each team, we got the committee together to seed them, and we’ll pit them against each other over the next few weeks using the WhatIfSports simulator. Today, get a good look at the bracket and the starting fives for each team. Next week the tourney begins. Suggestions? Modifications? Leave them in the comments. Be sure to read the fine print first, though.

The fine print is this: WhatIfSports doesn’t have NCAA teams older than this decade, so we had to use the NBA simulator. That means we compiled teams of college stars using the stats from their best pro season. Does that sound illogical? Don’t think about it so much. Does this upset you? Screw you. Besides, one of the marks of success for a college program is its ability to produce pro stars, right? Oh, also, these are really the best teams of the last half-century because WhatIfSports stats start in 51-52. Finally, with these parameters some teams didn’t have enough players to field a starting five or a full 12-man roster, so we used repeat seasons from existing players.

Here are the lineups, with the pro season we’ll use in parentheses.

1-University of San Francisco Dons

C-Bill Cartwright 79-80

F-Bill Russell 61-62

F-Joe Ellis 69-70

G-KC Jones 55-56

G-Phil Smith 75-76

Bench: G Freddie Scolari 51-52; G Quinton Dailey 83-84; F Erwin Mueller 66-67; F Kevin Restani 79-80; G Winford Boynes 78-79; C Wallace Bryant 84-85; C Pete Cross 70-71

2-Cal Golden Bears

C-Darrall Imhoff 66-67

F-Lamond Murray 99-00

F-Shareef Abdur-Rahim 99-00

G-Kevin Johnson 89-90

G-Jason Kidd 98-99

Bench: G Phil Chenier 73-74; C Francisco Elson 06-07; G Ed Gray 97-98; G Charlie Johnson 74-75; C Michael Stewart 97-98; F Jamal Sampson 04-05; C Mark McNamara 83-84

3-Stanford Cardinal

C-Rich Kelley 78-79

F-Bob Bedell 67-68

F-Josh Childress 06-07

G-Todd Lichti 90-91

G-Brevin Knight 05-06

Bench: G Mike Bratz 80-81; C Jarron Collins 01-02; G Art Harris 68-69; G Casey Jacobsen 04-05; F Adam Keefe 97-98; C Jason Collins 04-05; G Paul Neumann 65-66

4-Santa Clara Broncos

C-Dennis Awtrey 74-75

F-Kurt Rambis 88-89

F-Ken Sears 59-60

G/F Carlos Ogden 69-70

G-Steve Nash 05-06

Bench: C Mark McNamara 83-84; C Nick Vanos 85-86; G Marlon Garnett 98-99; Nash 04-05; Nash 06-07; Nash 07-08; Rambis 89-90

5-St. Mary’s Gaels

F-Peter Thibeaux 85-86

F-Tom Meschery 67-68

F-Meschery 62-63

G-Frank Kudelka 51-52

G-Kudelka 52-53

Bench: Thibeaux 84-85; Meschery 61-62; Meschery 68-69 Meschery 64-65; Meschery 65-66; Meschery 69-70; Meschery 66-67

6-San Jose State Spartans

C-Coby Dietrick 76-77

F-Ricky Berry 88-89

F-Darnell Hillman 77-78

G/F-Chris McNealy 85-86

G-Tariq Abdul-Wahad/Olivier Michael St. Jean 99-00

Bench: F Tony Farmer 99-00; F Wally Rank 80-81; Abdul-Wahad 98-99; Hillman 76-77; McNealy 86-87; Hillman 78-79; Dietrick 79-80

  or     or  

By Peter on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 2:03 pm.
Tags: Cal Golden Bears, San Francisco Dons, San Jose State Spartans, Santa Clara Broncos, St. Mary's Gaels, Stanford Cardinal