The ongoing NBA lockout is resulting in some unintended but interesting effects related to college basketball. This offseason has already produced a handful of ‘alumni games,’ featuring former players of recent vintage, including some at two of the most storied programs in the sport, Kansas and Kentucky, in addition to last week’s Jimmer All-Stars at BYU. Saturday night’s Legends of the Phog in Lawrence was a jam-packed extravaganza of KU hoops that ended in a 111-111 tie as Mario Chalmers nailed a trey at the buzzer (who else?).
You’ll recall that a team called the Kentucky Pros scrimmaged John Calipari‘s Dominican Republic team twice back in mid-August, losing twice in games at Rupp Arena and Yum! Center in exhibitions that sometimes resembled pick-up than organized basketball. Still, both games were well attended (23k at Rupp, 15k at Yum) and with current professionals like Rajon Rondo, Jodie Meeks, Patrick Patterson and others sitting around these days rather than preparing for NBA training camps, WKYT-TV has reported that there are plans to send these and other former UK players on a barnstorming tour around the state against various “villains” from their collegiate days.
We actually love this idea, if for no other reason than the potential crowd reactions to some of the villains, reported as “Kemba Walker, Rudy Gay, Tyler Hansbrough, Nolan Smith, Eric Gordon, Terrence Williams, Joakim Noah, Kenneth Faried and Shelvin Mack.” For Kentucky fans from Pikeville to Murray, there’s some serious villain juice here. Hansbrough was a Tubby Smith recruiting flash point; Gordon and Williams played for hated Indiana and Louisville teams; Noah was the most despised SEC player of the last decade.
It got us thinking a little more about this idea, though. What if we could create all-villain teams in a Legion of Doom scenario for some of the major basketball schools around the country? What if we put together a group of players and coaches in their primes whose appearance in a rival’s gym would cause certain mayhem in certain pockets of America? Our list is by no means exhaustive, but in a back-of-the-envelope tinkering sort of way, we came up with these legendary (and not-so-legendary) names that to this very day still inspire profuse venom and vitriol at those universities. Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments below, including other schools beyond the five we have here.
Duke Villains
- Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina (captain)
- Scotty Thurman, Arkansas
- Khalid El-Amin, Connecticut
- Randolph Childress, Wake Forest
- Rasheed Wallace, North Carolina
- Dean Smith, North Carolina (coach)
*self-loathing sub: Dahntay Jones
Syracuse Villains
- Patrick Ewing, Georgetown (captain)
- Keith Smart, Indiana
- TJ Sorrentine, Vermont
- Alonzo Mourning, Georgetown
- Charlie Villanueva, Connecticut
- John Thompson, Georgetown (coach)
*self-loathing sub: Eric Devendorf
North Carolina Villains
- JJ Redick, Duke (captain)
- Harold Arceneaux, Weber State
- Gerald Henderson, Duke
- Danya Abrams, Boston College
- Rick Robey, Kentucky
- Mike Krzyzewski, Duke (coach)
*self-loathing sub: Makhtar Ndiaye
Kansas Villains
- Derrick Chievous, Missouri (captain)
- Mike Bibby, Arizona
- Mitch Richmond, Kansas State
- Anthony Peeler, Missouri
- Ali Farokhmanesh, Northern Iowa
- Roy Williams, North Carolina (coach)
*self-loathing sub: Lester Earl
Kentucky Villains
- Christian Laettner, Duke (captain)
- Rasheed Wallace, North Carolina
- Corliss Williamson, Arkansas
- Samaki Walker, Louisville
- Joakim Noah, Florida
- Rick Pitino, Louisville (coach)
*self-loathing sub: Rodrick Rhodes
Others? We’re taking nominations for players/coaches left off this list as well for other schools not mentioned.
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1 2 Next »"*self-loathing sub: Dahntay Jones"
No no no. I'm not aware of any Duke fan that has beef with Dahntay...McRoberts, Greg Newton, and Shavlik "Don't get your gay on me" Randolph would be the 3 most logical candidates.
Definitely considered McBob, but ultimately didn't think he was good enough. Newton is a great one.
Need Mike Bibby and Miles Simon on that Kentucky villain list for sure.
Any list of Duke villains that doesn't include King Rice is incomplete. (And Childress may have killed Duke, but I can't remember a lot of dislike going his way.)
I remember a lot of Childress hatred, esp. when he threw the ball in the stands at Duke after hitting another game-winner and ended up clocking somebody.
Ur completely missing cuttino mobely or acie law IV for Kansas.. Not to mention that fellow named Carmelo Anthony..
Carmelo Anthony should be captain of the Kansas Legion of Doom. Also, put Kevin Durant on there, KU never lost to him, but he still had most of us shaking in our boots.
It actually shouldn't be Carmelo as the captain, it should be Gerry McNamarra. You'll recall that as a freshman in that '03 title game, he was unconscious from deep and was actually the player to beat us, not Carmelo who had a pedestrian game.
I gave strong consideration to G-Mac, but figured some of the older rivalry guys outweighed him. Also considered Hakim Warrick's wingspan as another one.
Regardless, not to have a single player from that Syracuse team on our LOD team is just plain wrong.
Fun. I'll play... For UCLA: Joakim Noah captain, Derrick Rose, Derrick Williams, Brandon Roy and Lee Humphrey rounding out the starting five, and so many possibilities for self-loathing sub, but I'll take Jerome Moiso by a whisker over Jerime Anderson and Trevor Ariza...
Drew, I gave UCLA some thought, but I figured they didn't have beef with anybody up until the 80s, haha. Maybe David Thompson? Really like the Lee Humphrey addition -- he killed those 06 and 07 Bruin teams.
IU-
Juan Dixon
Brian Cardinal
Luke Recker
Sean May
Chad Austin
Gene Keady (coach)
Bruce weber (assistant)