If you're like me, you know Chuck Klosterman from his fantastic reads on pop culture (including Fargo Rock City and Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs), but his tenure over at Grantland also includes journeys into sports lists and his latest project is a Top 50 College Basketball Players of All-Time. It's a list he calls, "This is not a list of the 50 most talented college basketball players of all time, or the 50 who had the biggest impact on the sport. These are the 50 players who inhabit our collective memory as "awesome college guys."
↵For Kansas Jayhawks fans, they'll recognize current assistant coach Danny Manning as the prominent KU name on the list. Klosterman has him on No. 14 overall and writes, "As a freshman, he seemed overhyped. As it turns out, he was "accurately hyped." The Jayhawks won the national title when Manning was a senior, despite a mediocre 21-11 record during the regular season; had he turned pro as a junior, they might have missed the NIT."
↵Interestingly enough, Xavier McDaniel of Wichita State fame comes in at No. 20. Klosterman writes, "Certainly a solid pro and an okay grunge-era actor, but his '85 season for Wichita State — 27.2 points, 14.8 rebounds — established him as the first-ever college player to lead the nation in both categories."
↵The entire list is worth a read and if you've yet to check out Grantland, it's always a worth a daily and/or weekly look.
↵