Editor’s note: As the World Cup continues in the United States for the first time since 1994, The Athletic is looking back at college sports in the 1990s and how much has changed since then. Join us for a couple of weeks of offseason football and basketball nostalgia.
The 1990s were the heyday of college hoops. ESPN2 debuted in 1993 and gave us another national network to show games. It’s the decade when the best college players started leaving early for the NBA, but most stayed at least three years.
It gave us the Fab Five, Jerry Tarkanian building a juggernaut and Duke pulling off one of the all-time Final Four upsets over the undefeated Runnin’ Rebels, which set the table for the Blue Devils to become a superpower in the sport. Then Kentucky and Rick Pitino temporarily unseated Duke in the mid-90s until Pitino left for the Boston Celtics. The first season I ever remember was 1990-91, when Duke upset UNLV and then broke my 6-year-old heart by knocking off Kansas in the national championship.
I lived for those games in the 90s. Cut my hair (unfortunately) like Rex Walters. Convinced my mom to let me stay up late when a good game was on. Disliked Billy Packer because my dad didn’t like Packer. Watched “SportsCenter” every morning to keep up with everything in the sport. Mimicked the moves of the best players on the goal that hung on the door in our basement, where I’d watch the games on an old-school big screen TV that weighed more than a couch. Those were the days. That era of hoops convinced me there was nothing else to do with my life but to somehow be involved with college basketball.
And, when it was presented that we were doing a 1990s week in June and someone needed to pick all-decade teams, I’ve never felt more qualified.
It’s the East versus the West, with the line of demarcation the Mississippi River. Tarkanian, who would have crushed in this NIL era, will coach the West. Mike Krzyzewski, who became the most recognizable face in college hoops in the 90s, will coach the East.
Let’s meet the teams.
East
Starters
Kenny Anderson, Georgia Tech
23 points, 5.6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2.6 steals
Anderson was college basketball’s best point guard in the early 1990s. He spent only two years in school, and you could argue Bobby Hurley, the man who owned college basketball’s assist record for 33 years, deserves the starting spot. But scroll to the 5:30 mark of this video to understand why Anderson is the pick. He probably still haunts Hurley’s nightmares.
Grant Hill, Duke
14.9 points, 6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.2 steals, 1.4 blocks
Hill’s passing makes him a great fit in this lineup surrounded by two buckets on the perimeter. The legacy of great college players is often enhanced or hampered by what they become in the NBA. Hill would be considered one of the game’s all-time greatest wings if not for ankle injuries that turned him into a shell of himself in his late 20s and throughout his 30s. Hill has one of the most memorable alley-oop finishes in college basketball history and was a four-year starter, winning back-to-back titles his first two years and carrying Duke to get back to the title game as a senior.
Grant Hill is one of three Duke players on our all-90s East team. (John W. McDonough / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Glenn Robinson, Purdue
27.5 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.8 steals, 1 block
The Big Dog was the best wing scorer of the 90s in college hoops. He was the only high-major player to average 30-plus points in a season in the 1990s (he averaged 30.2 in his National Player of the Year 1993-94 campaign), and no high-major player since has averaged 30.
Christian Laettner, Duke
16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.6 steals, 1 block
Laettner’s college career was defined by winning. He was the star on Duke’s back-to-back title winners and had one of the greatest single-game performances of all time in one of the greatest games ever. Laettner’s game-winner in overtime to beat Kentucky in the 1991 Elite Eight is iconic, but what gets glossed over is that he went 10-for-10 from the field and 10-for-10 at the free-throw line. Duke also made a Final Four every year of Laettner’s career, the latter four of a five-year Final Four run, the longest post-tourney expansion streak.
Shaquille O’Neal, LSU
21.6 points, 13.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.2 steals, 4.6 blocks
Shaq is the greatest post-1990 center ever. While his college teams were good but not great, he put up silly numbers in his sophomore and junior years. As a sophomore, he was National Player of the Year and averaged 27.6 points, 14.7 rebounds and 5.0 blocks per game; he followed that up with 24.1 points, 14.0 rebounds and 5.2 blocks in his final year of college. He also starred in “Blue Chips,” the must-see basketball movie for any kid in the 90s. (Indiana ended Shaq’s college career, but Neon Boudeaux got revenge.)
Bench
Tim Duncan, Wake Forest: Duncan was one of the greatest recruiting finds of all-time, so far outside the spotlight that he was deemed a “footnote” in his recruiting class. He quickly became one of the best centers in college hoops and stayed four years, even though he could have been the No. 1 pick after his junior year. He was a two-way monster in college, winning NABC Defensive Player of the Year three times.
Marcus Camby, UMass: Another two-way monster. Camby was in the same class as Duncan and actually won National Player of the Year over Duncan during their junior seasons. He also took the Minutemen to a Final Four and set up John Calipari to become one of the game’s coaching stars.
Jamal Mashburn, Kentucky: Mashburn didn’t win a national title as a collegian, but he helped Rick Pitino take UK from probation to the Final Four. Hill was the best do-it-all wing of that era, but Mashburn wasn’t far behind. He just edges out Indiana’s Calbert Cheaney for this spot.
Chris Webber, Michigan: Webber was the best talent at his position in the 90s and led a team with five freshmen starters to the national championship game. His college career was haunted by the timeout, but it’s pretty remarkable that both his college seasons ended in the national title game when Michigan didn’t have one upperclassman starter.
Bobby Hurley, Duke: Hurley was the game’s assist king until Braden Smith broke his record this past season. For a team with so many stars, he’s the perfect table setter off the bench.
Allen Iverson, Georgetown: Was there a cooler college jersey than that gray Iverson Georgetown No. 3 in the 90s? Iverson and Anderson had nearly identical college numbers and games. Anderson just edged Iverson for a starting spot by being more efficient and with better assist numbers. Nobody was more electric in the open floor than those two in the 90s.
Antawn Jamison, North Carolina: It felt like Jamison never missed a jump hook. Vince Carter was in the same class and became the superior NBA player, but Jamison was the star on back-to-back Final Four teams.
West
Starters
Jason Kidd, Cal
14.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 8.4 assists, 3.5 steals
Kidd ended Bobby Hurley’s career and was among the best do-it-all point guards of the 90s. He was an elite passer, defender, and rebounder. Kidd holds Cal’s all-time steals record and played only two college seasons.
Jason Kidd led Cal past Duke in the NCAA Tournament as a freshman. (Otto Greule / Allsport via Getty Images)
Gary Payton, Oregon State
18.1 points, 4 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 3.4 steals, 0.5 blocks
The Glove played only one of his four college seasons in the 90s, but it was one of the most statistically impressive of the decade. He averaged 25.7 points, 8.1 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 3.4 steals per game.
Keith Van Horn, Utah
20.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.7 steals, 1.2 blocks
The Utes, who made four Sweet 16s and a Final Four in the 90s, deserve a player on this team. It was a toss-up between Van Horn and Andre Miller, but Van Horn’s position is less stacked on this side of the Mississippi. Van Horn, along with Miller and coach Rick Majerus, turned the Utes into one of the best programs out west. Utah went 14-14 in Van Horn’s freshman season, then won 84 games his final three years.
Larry Johnson, UNLV
21.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.9 steals, 1.2 blocks
Junior colleges used to be a place where you could find NBA-level talent, and Johnson was arguably the best juco recruit ever. The top pick in the 1991 NBA Draft helped the Runnin’ Rebels win a national title, make two Final Fours and go 69-6 in his two years in Vegas. The Rebels nearly became the first team since Indiana in 1976 to go undefeated in Johnson’s senior season, but famously lost to Duke in the Final Four, the same team UNLV had blasted by 30 in the previous year’s title game.
Raef LaFrentz, Kansas
15.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.7 steals, 1.1 blocks
The Jayhawks were second to Duke in wins for the decade (290 to 286) and had one of the greatest teams ever to not win a title in 1997. LaFrentz was the star of that team and the program’s best player of the decade. He’s another who would likely be viewed differently if not for injuries in the NBA. The big lefty’s baseline turnaround was unstoppable.
Bench
Bryant Reeves, Oklahoma State: The West team needs a giant to deal with the East’s monsters in the middle, and Big Country was one of the best bigs in college basketball in the 90s. Like Shaq, he could also break a backboard. He took the Cowboys to the Final Four in 1995 and averaged 21-plus points per game in his final two college seasons. Also, he had an elite flat-top haircut, the preferred cut for a 90s behemoth.
Corliss Williamson, Arkansas: One of the defining programs of the decade was the “40 Minutes of Hell” Razorbacks, who won the 1994 national title. Those teams, because of the endless, full-court pressure, were intimidating to face, and the Williamson and Scotty Thurman inside-out duo made the Razorbacks hum on offense too.
Ed O’Bannon, UCLA: Both Williamson and O’Bannon were slightly undersized power forwards in the NBA, but they were awesome college players and both won national titles. O’Bannon also changed college sports forever with his antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA.
Damon Stoudamire, Arizona: This team could use some shooting off the bench. Mighty Mouse provides it. The Arizona point guard shot above 40 percent from 3 for his career and made 46.5 percent of his 3s as a senior. Mike Bibby was also under consideration and led the Cats to a national title in 1997, but Stoudamire was the better college scorer and this team has two elite true point guards in the starting lineup.
Paul Pierce, Kansas: The West needs a backup wing, and Pierce was arguably the best pure scorer to ever play for Roy Williams. He could score at all three levels and was somehow underappreciated by NBA scouts, falling to 10th in the 1997 draft and ending up in the Hall of Fame. He had the ultimate “tip your cap” moment from an opposing coach, when Kelvin Sampson slapped him on the rear as Pierce was scoring 15 straight during a 31-point performance against the Sooners.
Isaiah Rider, UNLV: Another juco stud for the Runnin’ Rebels, Rider arrived to a program on probation. His 1991-92 team went 26-2 but wasn’t eligible for the postseason and was banned from television. Rider got plenty of TV time during his senior season when he averaged 29.1 points per game. I cannot remember a player being featured on “SportsCenter” more than Rider that year.
Miles Simon, Arizona: Simon went on one of the all-time tourney runs, scoring 30 in an overtime win over Providence in the Elite Eight, following that up with 24 in a semifinal win over North Carolina and then dropping 30 in an overtime win in the national championship against Kentucky. Those Wildcats were the first and only team to ever beat three No. 1 seeds in the tournament.
Who wins?
It’s possible that Kidd and Payton gobbling up steals in Tark’s Amoeba defense gets the West out to an early lead and Larry Johnson is a matchup problem for Laettner — he had 22 and 11 in the 1990 title game blowout against Duke — but the East is a heavy favorite on paper. The East’s interior is far superior and the bench is stacked.
Laettner might not be as dominant in such a star-studded game, but Coach K can turn to Webber or go huge with Duncan and be just fine.
But there’s only one way to decide a winner: I need a programmer to put these players in “Coach K’s College Basketball” on Sega, and we’ll settle it on the floor.