Men only
Catch is that the player must have been in college for at least three years if not more, so that means no one and dones like Carmelo, KD, Beasley, and Bosh, and no two and throughs like Andre Igoudala, Blake Griffin, Caron Butler and CP3. Also, name four year seniors if at all possible. You can name players who played in 1998 or 1999 perhaps, but they should have played or at least will play two or more years in the 2000′s
G: Jason Williams – Duke – He won a split of the National Player of the Year Awards in 2001 along with Shane Battier when they won the National Title over Arizona. He continued his dominance into the 2001-2002 season when he was the consensus MVP, and could have easily got Duke another repeat until Indiana decided to take a trip down memory lane… He scored 2079 points in three seasons in Duke, and if he stayed for 02-03, he would’ve probably broken Dawkins’ record and got Duke to another Final Four or perhaps even better.
G: JJ Redick – Duke – He was a split national player of the year in 2005 and spoiled Andrew Bogut’s coming out party, but he was the consensus POY in 2006. We all know him as a three point shooting bomber, but he also became better defensively and also better as a point guard when he had to play the role as he continued on with college, along with Shelden Williams who did the dirty work. He was the leading scorer at Duke when he was done, surpassing the men’s record by Johnny Dawkins (2556), and the overall school record by women’s star Alana Beard (2687), ending up with 2769 points good for the ACC All Time Record, though he lost it to Psycho T only three years later. And duh, he is the NCAA All Time Three Point King. JJ made one final four in 2004 with Chris Duhon, Luol Deng, and Shelden Williams plus he led the Dukies in the Sweet 16 every year.
F: Nick Collison – Kansas – He did not win any national player of the year awards, but he was a nasty rebounder and was a great scorer for the Jayhawks, along with Drew Gooden and Kirk Hinrich, as Kansas got to the 2002 and 2003 Final Fours. He was a 1st Team All American in 2003, after getting KU to the final game against Syracuse.
F: Tyler Hansbrough – North Carolina – He was the core of the second wave of Roy Williams’ time at UNC after their 2005 title team basically got dismantled by early defections to the NBA. While there, he got UNC to the 2008 and 2009 Final Fours, and won the 2009 National Championship. He was the 2008 National POY and would’ve been the 2009 POY too if Blake Griffin just wasn’t quite as good.. But Psycho T has this on everyone on this list. He was an All American EVERY YEAR at UNC, becoming the leading all time leading ACC scorer along the way.
C: Emeka Okafor, Connecticut – His college years were directly in the shadow of the women’s basketball team’s threepeat, so they had (and deserved) the bulk of the national attention in Storrs. Instead of pouting about this like his coach did back in those days, Emeka shotblocked and rebounded the Huskies to at least the Sweet 16 every year along with future NBA stars like Caron, Ben Gordon, and Charlie Villanueva, and was able to finish his career by winning the 2004 national title with his women counterparts, including an awesome clutch performance against Duke in the semifinals. He gets some more points for being the Academic All American POY as well in 2004, as he graduated with a 3.8 GPA in 2004 in Business Administration, not some “fluff” major like “Communications” or “Sports Management” that many athletes take if available. He was probably the best shot blocker and rebounder of the decade, in my opinion. Okafor also came to UConn as a sophomore academically, and is a true winner in the court and the classroom, which makes him even more remarkable.
Coach of the Decade:
Roy Williams (Kansas and North Carolina)
Coach Williams led his teams to four final fours, two each with the Jayhawks and Tar Heels, and two national championships with UNC, and no team he had finished worse than the 2nd round in the Big Dance. Williams also completely revived the men’s basketball team from mediocrity, since they went through two straight years without a berth in the NCAA tournament before he came, and after coming, Williams was able to use the talented yet inconsistent stars recruited during the Matt Doherty era and win a title only in his second year at his alma mater. I’d say his most remarkable year was the 2005-2006 season when he led a very young team after losing all of his major contributors to graduation or the Association, because many, including me thought they’d miss the dance, but instead they got a 3 seed in the tourney and could have very well made at least the Sweet 16 if George Mason didn’t end up in their way.
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