OK, time to admit something embarrassing: In addition to having terrible judgment in venues, coaches, players, and nicknames, we here at STF cannot properly count to 36 without losing our place. Somewhere in the crush of the State Project, we lost track of Massachusetts and California. Heck, the golden state is only 164,000 square miles, can you blame us? We fixed Mass after a reader corrected us, and we noticed Cali on our own just last night. So here I am to rectify the latter screwup and get this pony back on the track. Note the revised numbering in the sidebar to the right.
We accept your scorn.
California is the largest state we'll deal with, and it has the most teams as well. As we did with New York, we'll expand the superlatives a bit, because we hate to leave out so many teams. Of course, nine of the teams form one conference, the Big West. Chock full of hyphenates, that one is. -Fullerton, -Riverside... on and on.
Let's head out west!
2008 Breakdown
State winning percentage: .511
Number of teams: 25
NCAA Tournament teams: Fullerton, St. Mary's, San Diego, UCLA, USC, Stanford
Conference champions: UCLA, UCSB (reg. season)
Most wins: UCLA (35)
Least wins: Sacramento State: (4)
Teams with winning records: Cal-Bakersfield, -Berkley, -Irvine, -Santa Barbara. Cal State-Fullerton & -Northridge. Pacific, St. Mary's, San Diego, San Diego State, USC, Stanford, UCLA. Whew... 13!
Teams with single digit wins: Cal Poly, Cal-Davis, Cal-Riverside, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Sacramento State. That makes an even six-pack.
Historical breakdown
Most Memorable Team: How to choose? The Bruin dynasty spanned more than one team, but they've taken on some kind of legendary uber-team status over time. To be perfectly honest, the team that will always stick in my mind is the 1990 Loyola Marymount team that tore through the NCAA West region after Hank Gathers died. With a frenetic Paul Westhead offense that routinely scored over 100 points, and Bo Kimble shooting lefty free throws (and not missing any) in honor of his friend, well.... I still get the goose bumps, even now.
Top Player All-Time: Lew Alcindor for his game. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for his acting skills.
Favorite Coach: John Wooden is my favorite coach of any sport at any time, ever. It's not just the double-handful of championships, either. The Indiana-born gentleman brought a much-needed humility to Los Angeles, along with a shitload of legendary players. He is without peer.
Top Player 2008: Pretty tough, with this many teams and so many great players. And it feels anti-climactic to pick the easy answer, but it's Kevin Love. Ryan Anderson at Cal was also spectacular, as was Patty Mills at St. Mary's. But Love did many things very well, and stood out on a team full of good players.
Top Aussie: Patty Mills, St. Mary's
Best On-Campus Venue: USC's Galen Center is probably the nicest building, being brand new and all. I've heard Maples can be fairly intimidating. Pauley Pavilion crushes opponents beneath the sheer weight of championship banners hanging from the ceiling. But if you sent me out west for a basketball road trip, I'd want to plop my butt on one of the bleacher seats at St. Mary's dim, raucous McKeon Pavilion before I hit any of those others.
Best On-Campus Venue Nickname: San Diego's Jenny Craig Pavilion is known as the Slim Gym.
Best NCAA Venue: Oracle/Oakland Coliseum. 1990, 1995, and 2006. Most recently, hosted the game in which UCLA made Gonzaga's Adam Morrison cry.
Most Prestigious Program (ESPN Style): #7 UCLA Bruins.
Best Nickname, Mid-Major Division: Even with Gauchos, Dons, Matadors, Toreros, Gaels, Waves, and Aztecs to choose from, I've always been a big fan of the Anteaters.
Best Nickname, BCS Division: Stanford Cardinal. Why? For being singular. For not actually referencing a red bird. Mostly, for not being some form of bear.
Dribble-Drive-Don't-Let-The-Door-Hit-You-In-The-Ass Award: Offensive genius Vance Walberg managed a season and a half as head coach at Pepperdine before his personality got him booted. His system took Memphis to the championship game last season, and now he's an assistant at UMass.
The Low Self-Esteem Award: San Francisco Dons. A team with a very respectable history allowed Eddie Sutton to coach a partial season just to make a personal goal. Way to teach those kids the team concept. They are partially redeeming themselves by hiring one of my favorite former Jayhawks for this season - Rex Walters.
STF’s Favorite Program: Very hard to choose here. As much as I respect UCLA, I don't have much affection for them. I often find myself rooting for those plucky scholars from Stanford in big Pac 10 games, especially with the wacky Lopezes last season. For small schools, Santa Clara won me over in the Dick Davey sweater years.
[Get Acquainted with the STF State Project Concept]
See the rest of the list in the right-hand sidebar.
We accept your scorn.
California is the largest state we'll deal with, and it has the most teams as well. As we did with New York, we'll expand the superlatives a bit, because we hate to leave out so many teams. Of course, nine of the teams form one conference, the Big West. Chock full of hyphenates, that one is. -Fullerton, -Riverside... on and on.
Let's head out west!
2008 Breakdown
State winning percentage: .511
Number of teams: 25
NCAA Tournament teams: Fullerton, St. Mary's, San Diego, UCLA, USC, Stanford
Conference champions: UCLA, UCSB (reg. season)
Most wins: UCLA (35)
Least wins: Sacramento State: (4)
Teams with winning records: Cal-Bakersfield, -Berkley, -Irvine, -Santa Barbara. Cal State-Fullerton & -Northridge. Pacific, St. Mary's, San Diego, San Diego State, USC, Stanford, UCLA. Whew... 13!
Teams with single digit wins: Cal Poly, Cal-Davis, Cal-Riverside, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Sacramento State. That makes an even six-pack.
Historical breakdown
Most Memorable Team: How to choose? The Bruin dynasty spanned more than one team, but they've taken on some kind of legendary uber-team status over time. To be perfectly honest, the team that will always stick in my mind is the 1990 Loyola Marymount team that tore through the NCAA West region after Hank Gathers died. With a frenetic Paul Westhead offense that routinely scored over 100 points, and Bo Kimble shooting lefty free throws (and not missing any) in honor of his friend, well.... I still get the goose bumps, even now.
Top Player All-Time: Lew Alcindor for his game. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for his acting skills.
Favorite Coach: John Wooden is my favorite coach of any sport at any time, ever. It's not just the double-handful of championships, either. The Indiana-born gentleman brought a much-needed humility to Los Angeles, along with a shitload of legendary players. He is without peer.
Top Player 2008: Pretty tough, with this many teams and so many great players. And it feels anti-climactic to pick the easy answer, but it's Kevin Love. Ryan Anderson at Cal was also spectacular, as was Patty Mills at St. Mary's. But Love did many things very well, and stood out on a team full of good players.
Top Aussie: Patty Mills, St. Mary's
Best On-Campus Venue: USC's Galen Center is probably the nicest building, being brand new and all. I've heard Maples can be fairly intimidating. Pauley Pavilion crushes opponents beneath the sheer weight of championship banners hanging from the ceiling. But if you sent me out west for a basketball road trip, I'd want to plop my butt on one of the bleacher seats at St. Mary's dim, raucous McKeon Pavilion before I hit any of those others.
Best On-Campus Venue Nickname: San Diego's Jenny Craig Pavilion is known as the Slim Gym.
Best NCAA Venue: Oracle/Oakland Coliseum. 1990, 1995, and 2006. Most recently, hosted the game in which UCLA made Gonzaga's Adam Morrison cry.
Most Prestigious Program (ESPN Style): #7 UCLA Bruins.
Best Nickname, Mid-Major Division: Even with Gauchos, Dons, Matadors, Toreros, Gaels, Waves, and Aztecs to choose from, I've always been a big fan of the Anteaters.
Best Nickname, BCS Division: Stanford Cardinal. Why? For being singular. For not actually referencing a red bird. Mostly, for not being some form of bear.
Dribble-Drive-Don't-Let-The-Door-Hit-You-In-The-Ass Award: Offensive genius Vance Walberg managed a season and a half as head coach at Pepperdine before his personality got him booted. His system took Memphis to the championship game last season, and now he's an assistant at UMass.
The Low Self-Esteem Award: San Francisco Dons. A team with a very respectable history allowed Eddie Sutton to coach a partial season just to make a personal goal. Way to teach those kids the team concept. They are partially redeeming themselves by hiring one of my favorite former Jayhawks for this season - Rex Walters.
STF’s Favorite Program: Very hard to choose here. As much as I respect UCLA, I don't have much affection for them. I often find myself rooting for those plucky scholars from Stanford in big Pac 10 games, especially with the wacky Lopezes last season. For small schools, Santa Clara won me over in the Dick Davey sweater years.
[Get Acquainted with the STF State Project Concept]
See the rest of the list in the right-hand sidebar.
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