My Two Cents: Has UConn Replaced Indiana As College Basketball Blueblood?
NEW YORK — When it comes to grouping the ''bluebloods'' in college basketball, there is no Mount Rushmore sort of rule. It's doesn't have to be just four. That's not — to pardon too easy of a pun — something that's etched in stone.
It also, unlike Mount Rushmore, doesn't have to be permanent and forever.
The NCAA basketball tournament started in 1939, and Oregon won the first one. Indiana won the second in 1940 with Branch McCracken as its head coach, and he led the Hoosiers to another title again in 1953. Bob Knight then added to the collection with national championships in 1976, 1981 and 1987.
Outside of John Wooden and UCLA, no one had won more titles than Indiana from 1939 to 1987. Kentucky had won as many, but no one else had won more than two.
In that nearly 50-year window, Indiana was absolutely one of the ''bluebloods'' of the game. They were one of college basketball's flagship programs for sure, and were led in the last half of that timeframe by a big and loud and bold figure in Knight. Indiana basketball was iconic, to be sure.
But not any more. When you haven't won a title in 37 years, and haven't won a game on the second weekend of the tournament in 22 years, it's hard to remain in the ''blueblood'' category, even with an impressive yet old and dusty resume.
There are two eras of college basketball to look at, one where Indiana mattered as a title contender, and one — like right now — where they don't.
We got a very friendly reminder of that on Sunday in Madison Square Garden. Five-time champion Indiana played five-time champion Connecticut, and the unranked Hoosiers lost by 20, completely overmatched by talent at every position. No. 5 UConn looks ready to repeat or at least contend for another title.
Indiana, banner free since 1987, does not. So it's a good time to ask. Has UConn taken Indiana's spot as a ''blueblood'' in college basketball?
Fact's always help, so there's this. Here's the list of who won NCAA titles from 1939 through Indiana's most-recent crown in 1987. And yeah, I know, you're chuckling at that ''most recent'' line since it was 37 years ago. I get it.
NCAA Titles 1939-1987
- UCLA (10): 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975
- Indiana (5): 1940, 1953, 1976, 1981, 1987
- Kentucky (5): 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978
- North Carolina (2): 1957, 1982
- Louisville (2): 1980, 1986
- North Carolina State (2): 1974, 1983
- Cincinnati (2): 1961, 1962
- San Francisco (2): 1955, 1956
- Oklahoma State (2): 1945, 1946
- Arkansas (1): 1994
- UNLV (1): 1990
- Michigan (1): 1989
- Villanova (1): 1985
- Georgetown (1): 1984
- Michigan State (1): 1979
- Marquette (1): 1977
- Texas-El Paso (1): 1966
- Loyola-Chicago (1): 1963
- Ohio State (1): 1960
- California (1): 1959
- LaSalle (1): 1954
- Kansas (1): 1952
- CCNY (1): 1950
- Holy Cross (1): 1947
- Utah (1): 1944
- Wyoming (1): 1943
- Stanford (1):: 1942
- Wisconsin (1): 1941
- Oregon (1): 1939
- CONNECTICUT (0)
As I said, it's been a long 37 years since Indiana was at the top of the mountain, and they've been stuck in the mud with their five titles ever since then. That early group of ''bluebloods'' certainly included UCLA, Indiana and Kentucky, and even though North Carolina won just two titles and Kansas just one, it seemed they were always highly ranked and making deep runs in the tournament without winning it all.
Kansas, for instance, only won one title in my window, but they went to six Final Fours, losing in the title game to Indiana in both 1940 and 1953, and to North Carolina in 1957. They also hang banners in Phog Allen Fieldhouse for the pre-NCAA national titles they claim in 1922 and 1923. All that adds up to ''blueblood'' for sure, at least in my book.
And North Carolina? They went to the Final Four nine times in that window, second only to UCLA. They lost to Indiana in the 1981 final, and also lost in the championship game in 1946, 1968 and 1977. That's a ''blueblood'' resume, for sure.
Those are five great programs for sure in that window. Others may argue for their squads, but I'll stand pat with those five when it comes with knighting them as elite.
Indiana certainly maintained its ''blueblood''status for a while longer, contending for national titles in 1992 and 1993, and actually going to the 2002 NCAA title game under Mike Davis, who replaced Knight 18 months earlier after he was fired in Sept. 2000.
But even during the last five or six years of the Knight era, the blue in the blood started to fade. They haven't even reached an Elite Eight since 2002, and have gone through Knight, Davis, Kelvin Sampson, a few weeks of Dan Dakich, Tom Crean, Archie Miller and now Mike Woodson, who's in his third season at the helm of the Hoosiers program
Eighteen different schools have won a national title since Indiana hung banner No. 5. And in this current window from 1988 to 2023, the list of ''blueblood'' schools has changed. In that 35-year window, North Carolina, Kansas and Kentucky have maintained their ''blueblood'' status. Duke has pulled up a chair at the ''blueblood'' table, and there's no debate about that.
But Connecticut has certainly attained ''blueblood status'' now in this modern window as well, certainly after the Huskies won their fifth national title — all since 1999 — last season. Look at these champions:
NCAA Titles 1988-2023
- Connecticut (5): 1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023
- Duke (5): 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015
- North Carolina (4): 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017
- Kansas (3): 1988, 2008, 2022
- Kentucky (3): 1996, 1998, 2012
- Florida (2): 2006, 2007
- Villanova (2): 2016, 2018
- Michigan (1): 1989
- UNLV (1): 1990
- Arkansas (1): 1994
- UCLA (1): 1995
- Arizona (1): 1997
- Michigan State (1): 2000
- Maryland (1): 2002
- Syracuse (1): 2003
- Louisville (1): 2013
- Virginia (1): 2019
- Baylor (1): 2021
- INDIANA (0):
There's been some good basketball at Indiana since Knight's last good team in 1993, but none that threatened to win anything. The 2002 year when Indiana reached the finals, they were a No. 5 seed that had lost 11 regular season games. They weren't elite, just a bunch of tough scrappers who played really well for five games in a row.
The 2013 team under Tom Crean was No. 1 in the country for a while, but lost an NCAA regional semifinal game to Syracuse to end their season as a top seed. I don't think there's any question that was the best roster Indiana has had since the last title. I loved that team with Cody Zeller, Victor Oladipo, Christian Watford, Jordan Hulls and Yogi Ferrell.
They were beloved, for sure, but they came up short in the tournament. That was a major disappointment.
Some teams are built for March, and in the past 25 years, UConn has been one of those teams that has been capable of making runs. I was at their first title win in St. Petersburg, Fla. in 1999, when they beat a favored Duke team in the final at Tropicana Field. The Huskies were a No. 1 seed that year, but winning was still a surprise. They weren't the favorite any of their other years either in 2004, 2011 or 2014, but they got hot at the right time, and that's was tourney time is all about.
In 2023, they were a No. 4 seed, just like Indiana. With the pod set-up, they were actually in Albany, N.Y. too for the first two rounds, playing on the same days as Indiana. Not having seen them play all year, I was duly impressed by their two wins in the first weekend. They absolutely crushed a Saint Mary's team that drubbed Indiana by a million a year earlier in the NCAA Tournament. That was crazy impressive. Connecticut looked like a title contender to me with all that size and skill, and that's exactly what happened. Two weeks later, they were cutting down the nets and won all six NCAA games by 13 points or more. They were a machine.
Indiana, as you recall, lost its second-round game to Miami, ending the great college career of Trayce Jackson-Davis. They won 23 games and were Indiana's best team since probably 2016, but they were nowhere near being a national title contender.
They were ranked No. 13 to start the season, and No. 13 to end it. That was all.
And four games into this season, the idea of an Indiana national title still seems like a blurry vision into the future. UConn? They would certainly be the huge betting favorite to get to No. 6 before Indiana does. Same with Duke, who's also got five.
Add up all those titles from both of my eras, and UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas all can still claim ''blueblood'' status. Duke and UConn, with all they've done in the past 30 years, can say the same thing. UConn sure looked great on Sunday, pulling away late to win by 20, and that was without their top 5-star recruit, too.
Indiana? Not so much. I don't see a lot of greatness in those candy stripes right now.
And that's a shame. That blue blood, it's faded away ever so slowly.
