The greatest programs: No. 12, Utah
Posted: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 5:29 PM
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Greatest hoops programs
Nearly every team on this top 25 list of the greatest college basketball programs comes from a BCS conference: The Big Ten, ACC, Big East, Big 12, SEC or Pac-10. Those schools usually receive more media exposure, tend to draw highly touted prospects and feature plenty of big-name coaches.
So what to make of the schools on the list that aren’t from a BCS conference?
What to make of Utah, which lands at No. 12 on this list?
Simply put, the Utes have been one college basketball’s most consistent and most impressive winners since the 1920s. (Click here for an impressive run of video highlights and here for an impressive list of players on the school’s all-century team.)
Compare the Utes’ 1,613 victories and .6554 win percentage to a school like Indiana, one of the NCAA’s legendary powerhouses. The Hoosiers have just 22 more victories, won at a .6493 clip.
Also on an impressive hoops résumé:
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Utah is among the handful of schools that have won an NCAA title (1944) and an NIT crown (’47).
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Only Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and Penn have more regular-season conference championships than the Utes’ 31.
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Utah’s 26 NCAA appearances are more than Georgetown, Michigan State or Ohio State. Its four Final Four appearances are equal to Arizona and Syracuse.
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The Utes have had six players as consensus All-Americans, including three since 1997 in Keith Van Horn, Andre Miller and Andrew Bogut. Bogut also was the player of the year in 2005.
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And few teams racked up wins the way Utah did in the early- and mid-90s under coach Rick Majerus.
It’s enough to make some wonder if Utah should really be part of the Pac-10, rather than the Mountain West. That kind of success isn’t normal for a non-BCS team, but it’s not surprising coming from Utah.
When Majerus was hired in 1989, the Utes were already a school with a proud hoops tradition. Jack Gardner left Kansas State – with two Final Four berths already to his credit – for Utah in 1953, because of the program Vadal Peterson built. Between 1927 (Peterson’s first year) and 1971 (Gardner’s last) Utah claimed 13 conference titles, reached three Final Fours and won those NCAA and NIT titles. That’s an impressive run for any school.
Peterson, still Utah’s all-time winningest coach, was the guiding force behind those two titles, while Arnie Ferrin, a four-time All-American (also a future Utah athletic director and soon-to-be-inductee into the hoops hall of fame) was the driving force behind those teams.
Oddly enough, that NCAA title almost didn’t happen.
Utah turned down the NCAA’s offer to play in the 1944 tournament, opting instead for the NIT, which was the more prestigious tourney at the time. An opening-round loss to Kentucky (a continual postseason opponent through the years) ended that tourney, but when Arkansas withdrew from the NCAAs, the Utes jumped at the chance to be a replacement.
Their overtime win against Dartmouth remains one of the school’s proudest moments, though it was capped soon after during a Red Cross benefit game against NIT champion St. John’s. Ferrin stole the show in a 43-36 victory, which effectively put Utah atop the hoops nation.
Three years later, Utah beat Kentucky in the NIT championship game.
The Gardner era began a few years later. His fast-breaking teams were a postseason mainstay, which was no easy feat in those days. Utah’s best showings were a couple of Sweet 16 seasons (sporting records of 24-4 and 26-3) until 1961 when it ran all the way to the Final Four and lost to eventual champion Cincinnati.
That team featured one of the school’s first dominant big men in Billy McGill, who would be the top pick in the 1962 NBA draft. Gardner needed players like McGill to compete in Utah, let alone on the national stage. Both BYU and Southern Utah featured competitive teams, but Gardner’s attention to detail and willingness to recruit outside of the state proved to be big advantages.
A return trip to the Final Four in 1966 established Gardner as the first coach in NCAA history to take two different schools to two Final Fours, but Utah lost to eventual champion Texas Western.
Pimm’s teams didn’t have the same NCAA tournament success of the Peterson and Gardner squads, though they were no less talented. The 1981 team started the season 21-1 and featured future NBA players in Tom Chambers and Danny Vranes, but lost to North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
And once Majerus arrived, things really started to resemble the 40s and 50s.
The Utes finished 30-4 and reached the Sweet 16 in Majerus’ second season, the second round two years later, then went on a tear, averaging 26 victories a season, winning seven consecutive regular-season titles (he would win 10 during his tenure) and snagging at least one victory in the Big Dance each year.
And if not for Kentucky, Utah might’ve had even more to show for this era. The ‘Cats – who, along with Duke, were the dominant program of the ‘90s – beat the Utes in the NCAA tourney in ’93, ’96, ’97 and ’98.
Kentucky went to the Final Four in each of those seasons – and beat the Utes for the ’98 crown. But that Utah team nearly pulled off one of the great upsets in college hoops history.
After Miller’s triple-double against Arizona sent Utah to the Final Four, the Utes stunned North Carolina, which featured lottery picks and all-ACC players in Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter. Of course, Utah feature lottery picks of its own in Miller and Michael Doleac, but few expected Utah to actually pull off the win.
It established the Utes as the smart, lovable underdog and cemented Majerus’ reputation as a big-time coach (though some of his faults have surfaced recently). Even blowing a 10-point halftime lead to Kentucky in the championship didn’t hamper the program. It continued to win and attract star players (like Bogut), though the last three seasons have been tough.
Under new coach Jim Boylen, Utah finally got back to the postseason (even if it was the CBI) and figures to be among the Mountain West’s contenders. A program like this can’t stay down for long.
Next Tuesday, No. 11 on the list of greatest programs.
No. 13: Villanova.
No. 14: Illinois.
No. 15: Michigan State.
No. 16: Georgetown.
No. 17: Arkansas.
No. 18: Ohio State.
No. 19: St. John's.
No. 20: UNLV.
No. 21: Texas.
No. 22: Notre Dame.
No. 23: Temple.
No. 24: Oklahoma.
No. 25: N.C. State.
