What If Rival College Basketball Teams Used Their Best Players Of All Time? (Photos)
Basketball may have been back in our lives for a while now with the return of the NBA, but there are just some things about the college game that cannot be matched.
The atmosphere, the tradition, the unmistakably different style of play; all of these unique facets keep us tuned in as the excitement of the season rises like a crescendo to the main event: March Madness.
But even past the NCAA Tournament, there's one feature of college basketball that stands above the rest: rivalries. And the best of these heated matchups always have a way of capturing our imagination, whether it prompts questions of which program is better, or even, which has produced the best players.
Diving into the latter question, much like imagining NBA dream teams of hometown players, is a throughly fun exercise especially.
After compiling the best talents ever developed by each program featured in college basketball's greatest rivalries, we've come up with this: Here's how those rivalries would look if they used the best players of our generation.
Illinois vs. Missouri
Ohio State vs. Michigan*
Louisville vs. Kentucky
California vs. Stanford
UCLA vs. USC
Cincinnati vs. Xavier
Indiana vs. Purdue*
Syracuse vs. UConn*
Duke vs. North Carolina
Georgetown vs. Villanova*
Marquette vs. Wisconsin
Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary's
Iowa vs. Iowa State*
Kansas vs. Kansas State
Alabama vs. LSU
Tennessee vs. Memphis
Texas vs. Arkansas
Georgia vs. Georgia Tech
Washington vs. Washington State
Wake Forest vs North Carolina State*
Brigham Young vs. Utah
Florida vs. Florida State
DePaul vs. Notre Dame
Clemson vs. South Carolina
Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State
Santa Clara vs. San Francisco
St. John's vs. Providence
Arizona vs. Arizona State
Michigan vs. Michigan State
Duke vs. Maryland
Rutgers vs. Seton Hall
Holy Cross vs. UMass
Temple vs. La Salle
West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh
Bonus: Just 'Cause
Disagree with any of the selections above? Let us know who you would choose for the all-legend teams of college basketball's greatest rivalries.
*This was always meant to end up becoming a crowdsourced list, and the people have spoken. Rivalries with asterisks reflect changes to the original selections.
