Best College Basketball Seasons of the 2000s
At Hoops Heaven, we are big fans of college basketball rankings and lists. If you do a quick internet search for the best basketball teams or the best basketball players, you will find thousands of different rankings. College rankings. Pro rankings. Player rankings. Team rankings. Coach rankings. Uniform rankings. And our personal favorite, mascot rankings (not to fear, we are working on our definitive list of mascot rankings). It is time for us to add our own version now; we are ranking the best college basketball seasons of the 2000s by an individual player.
Why are rankings like this so popular? Rankings provide a general framework for argument, the ground rules for debate. Once we have established the ranking parameters, then we can combine historical data (sometimes) with our own memories, biases and nostalgia to see who can come up with the “best” list. Ultimately rankings generate friendly (hopefully) discussion, and fans love to discuss their sport.
Does the internet need another historical college basketball ranking? It doesn’t. But they are fun, and we like them. Researching these seasons brought back so many memories for us. We hope that you enjoy reliving them as well. And if you were not watching these players real time, go ahead and check out these players when you get a chance. You will be glad you did.
With that introduction behind us, it is time to explain what we are ranking and how we are going to do it. There are a million ways to do this, and we will probably try most of them eventually. But this is Hoops Heaven’s inaugural ranking, and we wanted to try something a little different. We are ranking the best college basketball seasons of the 2000s (beginning with the 2000-2001 season and ending with the 2009-2010 season) for an individual player.
First of all, this is an individual ranking. We are not trying to determine the best team here. This is also not a ranking based purely on the best statistical season by an individual player. Trying to determine the best season by a player is a little different than just determining the best player for a season. Yes, statistics do matter. But there is more to it than that.
If I asked any of today’s best college players to define a great season, they would probably start with stats. Points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks. Achieving some threshold or goal in each of those would almost certainly factor into the perfect season, but would that be it?
Probably not. They would probably include some sort of individual honor like all-conference, All-American or player of the year. That would be a cherry on top of just averaging 20+ points per game. But even this is still not enough. Most players, at least the type you would want on your team, would include a team accomplishment. After all, if you lead the nation in scoring but lead your team to the NIT, was it really a great season?
Our ranking includes all of those. We have added each player’s total points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. Then we add the player’s win shares (thanks to Sports Reference) multiplied by ten. Then we add points for winning the Wooden Award (+100), being named a 1st or 2nd Team All-American (+100 or +50), advancing to the Final Four (+100) and winning the national championship (+100). The sum of those numbers is used to determine the final ranking. The stats we are using are total numbers for the season, not per game averages. Yes, that benefits teams that play more games. Yes, that was intentional. The teams play a similar number of regular season games; the biggest difference in games played comes down to success in the tournament. This is an individual ranking, but team success is a huge component of it.
This ranking is not perfect. There are probably things that you would change or that we overlooked. But that’s exactly the point. We hope you enjoy remembering these players and these seasons.
10. Stephen Curry, Davidson (2008-2009)
For some of these players in this ranking, college basketball was as good as it was going to get. Everyone on this list continued their careers in the NBA, but the pinnacle of their dominance was reached during their days on campus. Others became so famous as NBA players that you do not even think of them as college players. Stephen Curry is one of the latter.
Not to say that he wasn’t a tremendous college player or that he did not have an all-time great college season (he wouldn’t be ranked here if that was the case). We just feel like his NBA accomplishments (10x All-NBA, 2x MVP, 2x Scoring Champ, 4x NBA Champion) and his status as one of the faces of the league make it difficult to remember his college days.
Curry was already well known in basketball circles prior to the season. He was coming off a 2nd Team All-American season as a sophomore. Curry had averaged 25.9 points per game for a Davidson team that went 29-7 before losing to Kansas in the Elite Eight. He was undoubtedly a great shooter; after all, his dad was a career 40% three-point shooter who played 16 years in the NBA. Incredibly impressive, but not unprecedented in college basketball for a mid-major kid to light it up.
If there were any lingering questions as to how good Curry was, he put them to bed during the 2008-2009 season. Davidson’s coach, Bob McKillop moved Curry to point guard, and he blossomed with the additional playmaking responsibility that came with it. 28.6 points per game. 5.6 assists per game. 1st Team All-American. He tallied the most total points in a season of anyone on this list.
Unfortunately, Davidson was upset in the semifinals of the Southern Conference tournament, and the selection committee decided not to extend Davidson an at-large bid. Well done selection committee. Ultimately, the lack of team success (relatively speaking, Davidson still went 27-8) is the only reason that Curry is not higher in our ranking.
9. Drew Gooden, Kansas (2001-2002)
Drew Gooden was the best player on a loaded Kansas team that included 6 future NBA players. Kansas tallied a 33-4 record and went undefeated in the Big 12 before losing in the Final Four to eventual NCAA champion Maryland.
The team was never ranked lower than eighth in the AP poll and finished the season as the #2 team in the country. Obviously, not winning the NCAA championship was a disappointment (and Drew missed out on the national championship bonus points), but the 2001-2002 Jayhawks checked the box for team success.
What did Gooden do individually? He only led the Big 12 in scoring and rebounding (19.8 and 11.4 per game, respectively) and was named 1st Team All-American. Gooden was also Kansas’s leader in steals, second on the team in blocks and fourth on the team in assists. If averaging a double-double for a team that makes it to the national championship game while being named an All-American doesn’t get it done, we don’t know what would.
The most surprising thing about this season might just be how under-the-radar it was. We actually thought it would be one of Gooden’s teammates, Nick Collison, that made it onto the ranking. It turns out that Gooden’s statistics were slightly better in their best seasons. Don’t forget about Drew Gooden when you are thinking about the best college basketball players of this decade.
8. Michael Beasley, Kansas State (2007-2008)
If you forgot where Michael Beasley went to college, you are probably not alone. The 2007-2008 Wildcats spent much of the year unranked. They went 21-12 before losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament to a Wisconsin team that would be upset in the next round by Curry’s Davidson Wildcats.
The lack of team success only makes what Beasley did individually even more impressive. Impressive enough to warrant a spot on this list without the team bonuses.
The Wildcats entered the season on the heels of a solid, ho-hum 2006 campaign that saw them lose in the second round of the NIT Tournament. Despite this, the 2007 season began with optimism. They had a new coach in Frank Martin. And they welcomed a star freshman that was the #1 ranked high school player in his class. While the season probably did not end with the success the K-State faithful were hoping for, you can’t blame Beasley.
26.2 points per game. 12.4 rebounds per game. 1st Team All-American. USBWA Freshman of the Year. Third in the nation in total points and rebounds (remember those are total figures that benefit players that make deeper runs in March). Beasley showed up in Manhattan, dominated college basketball and immediately left for the NBA. His college career was like a comet, short-lived but awe-inducing while it was here.
7. Andrew Bogut, Utah (2004-2005)
While not a college basketball blueblood, the University of Utah has produced a fair number of stud big men over the years. Jakob Poeltl. Michael Doleac. Keith Van Horn. Tom Chambers. That is a lot of noteworthy talent for a program that isn’t flashy or sexy. Andrew Bogut was the best big man of that group.
The 2004-2005 NCAA basketball season was interesting historically. An Illinois team led by 3 All-Americans (Dee Brown, Luther Head and Deron Williams) was the #1 team in the country for most of the year before losing to North Carolina in the national championship. Chris Paul and JJ Redick announced themselves nationally, earning 1st Team All-American honors. But for some reason, this season did not have the same star power as others do. There were not any crazy narratives or Cinderella stories that the public could latch onto despite there being a ton of talent in the college ranks.
A season like that was tailor made to be dominated by an unassuming big man from Utah. He was not flashy, and his team wasn’t great. But Bogut’s performance speaks for itself and puts him at #7 in our ranking.
Bogut averaged 20.4 points per game and 12.2 rebounds per game while garnering 1st Team All-American honors. He won the Wooden Award, Naismith Award and the AP Player of the Year award. He led the nation in total rebounds and win shares and was seventh in total scoring. It wasn’t a flashy season, but Bogut dominated college basketball with quiet competence. Perfect for a big man from Utah.
6. Jay Williams, Duke (2000-2001)
Imagine a season where a player averages 21.3 points per game and wins the Wooden Award while playing for one of the best teams in the country. Would you believe that it wasn’t the player’s best season? Believe it or not, that is the case for Jay Williams. He swept most of the individual awards in the 2001-2002 season before leaving college for the NBA, but it was actually his 2000-2001 season that ranks as the sixth best college basketball season of the 2000s.
Williams averaged 21.6 points per game and 6.1 assists per game as a sophomore, slightly surpassing his 21.3 points and 5.3 assists per game averages from a year later. He was a 1st Team All-American as a sophomore, accomplishing the same feat as a junior but adding the aforementioned individual awards in his third year in Durham.
So why are we picking the 2000-2001 season as his best? Because the 2001 Blue Devils steamrolled their way through the NCAA tournament. They won every game by 10 or more points and ended the season on a 10-game winning streak. Williams was the offensive engine for a team that never ranked lower than 4th in the AP Poll. You can disagree with our ranking system, but Duke’s team accomplishments outweigh the individual awards Williams would garner the following year.
5. Emeka Okafor, UConn (2003-2004)
Emeka Okafor felt like he played for Jim Calhoun at Connecticut for 10 years. In reality, he only spent three seasons in Storrs. But he was so dominant on both ends of the court that his presence seemed to linger over college basketball. To win the national championship in those years, you knew you’d eventually have to go through Okafor. As anyone who tried to score at the rim against UConn could attest, that was going to be tough to do.
Okafor averaged 17.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 4.1 blocks per game during the 2003 season. Those are great numbers, but not eye-popping compared to some of the others on this list. Okafor’s greatness came from a sense of inevitability. He was a college basketball terminator, and he always delivered.
UConn went on to win the national championship, beating Georgia Tech by 9 in a championship game that never felt that close. Okafor led the nation in rebounds and blocked shots and was named a 1st Team All-American and Defensive Player of the Year. There were flashier stat lines to choose from, but no one exhibited the kind of quiet dominance that Okafor did during the 5th best college basketball season of the 2000s.
4. Blake Griffin, Oklahoma (2008-2009)
Blake Griffin’s 2008-2009 was at the other end of the spectrum. There was nothing quiet about him. He jumped higher and ran faster than anyone he played against. His highlights consisted of endless loops of breathtaking dunks. If anyone ever looked like a man amongst boys playing big-time Division 1 basketball, it was Griffin.
Griffin showed a lot of promise during his freshman year in 2007. He averaged 14.7 points per game and grabbed 9.1 rebounds per game, leading Oklahoma in both categories. But the team was fairly average, finishing fourth in the Big 12 and losing in the second round of the tournament as a #6 seed.
The following season, Griffin turned it on. The Sooners finished second in the Big 12 and spent most of the year in the top 5 of the AP Poll. That was followed by a great run in the tournament, making it to the Elite 8 before losing to eventual champion North Carolina. Given the lack of talent on the team, this was about as good a result as Oklahoma could hope to achieve.
Griffin averaged 22.7 points per game and 14.4 rebounds per game (leading the nation in rebounding) while making 65% of his shots. His game was like a fireworks display, displaying an athletic grandeur that was impossible to look away from. He was a 1st Team All-American and Wooden Award winner in a season that included Stephen Curry and James Harden.
If nothing else, Griffin’s 2008-2009 season turned the Oklahoma faithful into basketball fans for a little while. That may actually be his greatest achievement as a Sooner.
3. Kevin Durant, Texas (2006-2007)
Not sure how we ended up with a Sooner and a Longhorn back to back, but here we are. Kevin Durant only spent one year in Austin, but he made his limited time there count.
Durant was third in the nation in total points and total rebounds, scoring over 170 points more than Stephen Curry in their freshman seasons and outrebounding Al Horford and Joakim Noah. And he did it so effortlessly, showing off a silky smooth game that NBA fans have been appreciating for over fifteen years.
When you watched him play, his body didn’t seem to match up with what you were seeing on the court. How could someone that long be such a great shooter and ballhandler? How could someone that skinny be such a great rebounder? In the college game, he was truly unique. If you were trying to create the perfect scorer in a lab, Durant would probably be the result of your experimentation. And don’t forget that he was also made the Big 12 All-Defense team that season.
The Longhorns team was nothing special, losing in the second round of the tournament after finishing third in the conference. Durant’s performance still netted him the Wooden Award and 1st Team All-American honors. Averaging 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds and almost 2 blocks per game while shooting over 40% from the 3-point line will do that for you.
2. Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina (2007-2008)
Watching Tyler Hansbrough play basketball was a very different experience than watching the other players on this list. It is impossible to dispute his productivity (finishing second in the best college basketball seasons of the 2000s is no small feat); he left North Carolina as one of the most accomplished college players ever. But it was not next-level athleticism or skill that led to those brilliant results. If we had to describe Hansbrough with one word, we would pick effort.
No one played harder than Hansbrough. He was the proverbial “bull in a china shop” on a basketball court. While not an official statistic, we are confident that he led the nation in rebounding his own misses before scoring. He seemed to pound his opponents into submission with a relentlessness that no one could match.
His game looked a little awkward, but it was effective. His style of play often put him in situations that opposing fans might describe as dirty. It was never intentional; he just had a motor that couldn’t be shut off. And if you were in his way, it was probably going to hurt.
Hansbrough averaged 22.6 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in the 2007-2008 season, leading the team to the Final Four before losing to Kansas. He won the Wooden Award and was a 1st Team All-American. The next year, he took North Carolina back to the Final Four and won it. It was a fitting end to a career marked by the relentless pursuit of greatness.
1. Shane Battier, Duke (2000-2001)
If you’re still with us at this point, hats off to you. We finally made it. If you’re a Duke hater, you are probably furious that you read this much to get this result. But based on our methodology, there is no debate. Shane Battier’s 2000-2001 season takes the top spot in our ranking.
Fourth in the nation in total scoring and first in total win shares, Battier was the only sole winner of the Wooden Award and defensive player of the year honors during this period (the following year, Jay Williams won the Wooden Award but split the defensive award with Drew Gooden).
He averaged 19.9 points and 7.3 rebounds. Yes, we have seen higher numbers. But the efficiency was amazing. He took less than 14 shots per game and shot almost 42% on three-pointers. He averaged 1.8 assists, 2.1 steals and 2.3 blocks and took (checking our notes) roughly one million charges.
Battier was the most well-rounded player on this list. He was a college basketball swiss army knife. He didn’t do one or two things well, he did everything well. Need a crucial bucket at the end of the game? Battier’s your guy. Need a stop on the final possession? Battier’s got you covered. He seemed to make the right play every play. And he did it within a team context that did not require him to “dominate” like some players. Not that he didn’t dominate, you just didn’t notice that he dominated. He was the thinking man’s all star. It wasn’t based on pure athleticism or ability; it was just being a basketball player in the truest sense of the word.
Not to mention he was the undisputed leader for a Duke team that won the national championship. Remember, team accomplishments are important to this ranking. And they should be. After all, how can you truly have the perfect season if your team doesn’t win it all?
