What will you remember about the 2023 season?
Probably won't be the title game, if we're being honest
Everything about this college basketball season was incredible except the final game. That’s unfortunate, because having your marquee event turn into a not-quite-blowout but still never truly be within hollering distance of a competitive contest has to be frustrating. Jim Nantz wanted SO BADLY to have some high stakes in this game and UConn decided somewhere early in the second half that leading by somewhere between 10-15 points was preferable for its overall brand and never deviated from that plan save one tantalizing late San Diego State run to cut the deficit into single digits. Nantz goes out without one final Gus Johnson moment and that’s a shame in some respects, but not really devastating for anyone. Jim Nantz is an American icon and nothing that happened Monday night in Houston was going to change that either way.
The natty wasn’t a great game; if you think it sucks for the NCAA when this happens in hoops, imagine how bad it is for the CFP people who spend weeks and months analyzing matters great and small in college football only to realize in the first quarter that Georgia or Alabama is winning by 45 again regardless. I suppose it does ratings for a time, but America is a fickle mistress who uses blowouts to shop online and take up hobbies like stamp monitoring. Not collecting, mind you. Just making sure we’re all aware and appreciative of the stamp.
The best thing about the national championship is that it can serve as a handy referendum on a season. This was great in 2018 when Kris Jenkins hit an amazing shot to win an all-timer. I’m going to date myself a bit, but it was demonstrably less so when Maryland beat Indiana in a first-to-60 snooze fest that sucked out loud in 2002. Both were, largely, indicative of their seasons.
What happened Monday is indicative of the 2022-23 season to a lot of people. There were no great teams, few great players and the entire enterprise was mostly a war of attrition. I’ll grant all that, to casuals and even some long-timers alike. The complaints are valid on their face. The portal does make team continuity more difficult than ever. The young talent—for this year, at least—probably wasn’t on the level that it was in the past. Do the officials sometimes suck? God, do they ever.
Is the game still great? Hell yeah it is.
2022-23 gave us a lot. Maybe we didn’t appreciate it. But there’s still time, before we turn the page and get into the silly stuff that is offered during the summer, to recognize the greatness witnessed the last few months.
Specifically, these things:
Zach Edey, the surest two points in college hoops. If Edey turns pro, I suspect he gets chosen somewhere between 40th and 60th and Purdue finishes 15-17 next year. If he comes back—and if Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith make the expected leap from freshman to sophomore—Purdue might win the thing next year.
Markquis Nowell lighting up Madison Square Garden with his best Kemba impersonation.
Related:
2023 was the year of FAU, Fairleigh Dickinson, Princeton, Furman, San Diego State and more schools that achieved heights rarely seen and perhaps never even considered.
This might be connected to the previous bullet, but it was also the year Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana and Arizona didn’t make the second weekend and North Carolina missed the field entirely.
New coaching blood! Jerome Tang, Rodney Terry, Jon Scheyer and Dennis Gates made the most of their first season’s at the helm of high-major programs.
Old timer’s hitting rough patches. Jim Boeheim decided to hang ‘em up in his uniquely Boeheimian way. John Calipari and Kentucky need couples therapy in the worst way. Mike Anderson got 86’d at St. John’s and (rightfully) made it weird on his way out. I’d say more about Leonard Hamilton but the man terrifies me and I don’t want to wake up with my car on fire.
The women’s game took on a larger role in the public consciousness this year. Forget about the Final Four and the title game for a second. Dawn Staley cemented her place on the short list of great coaches in the game, men or women, and should get asked to go down the hallway the next time South Carolina wants a men’s head coach. CAITLIN CLARK (this autocorrected to all-caps on its own, hand to God). Angel Reese. Stanford (for good and ill). UConn being so snake-bitten I almost felt bad for Geno Auriemma.
Muss, continually on his Petey Pablo:
Tennessee’s defense ascending to a higher plane. If Zakai Ziegler doesn’t get hurt, I will always believe this Tennessee team could have made a Final Four and possibly won the whole thing.
All 6-0 and 165 pounds of Aidan Mahaney sometimes being the best dude on the court and always being the most vengeful.
Providence, remaining college basketball’s team voted “Most likely to cut off a toe on a dare.”
Donovan Clingan, whom I waffle back and forth between being “evolutionary Jake Voskuhl” or “Jake Voskuhl 2.0”; I’ll let America decide.
Kendric Davis just hossing his way to a 25-win season.
Gradey Dick Energy.
One last ride for Dr. Drew Timme. Few college basketball players have been more aggressively college basketball player-y than Drew Timme; he’s the sort that doesn’t come around often anymore, and we have to appreciate that when it comes along.
Louisville. I will never, ever forget what happened to Louisville this year and it won’t matter if Kenny Payne wins four national titles while he’s there.
Thank you—each and every one of you—for reading this year. I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it. I enjoyed interacting with any of you who got in the comments or on Twitter to rap with me about basketball, or if you did so in real life. I love this sport. I love you people.
What are we gonna talk about between now and November? The portal? The coaching carousel? The Holy Trinity (Tony Delk, Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer)? Friends… we’ll get there. Patience. We have months to go and my imagination to guide us. I can sense your apprehension through the screen already. But thank you.