Favorite Player of All Time (College Edition)

I'm back with my college version of favorite players of all time.

To be honest, I've been a huge fan of college basketball and football for years. I remember first getting interested in both sports in the late 80's, and then being a pretty big diehard fan by the start of the 90's. Ironically enough, I even remember being pretty damn amused at Texas being ambushed by an aggressive and brash Miami Hurricane team in a Cotton Bowl in which the 'Canes set a record for most personal foul penalties! Yes, it's safe to say I'd think differently about an outcome like that nowadays!

In college basketball, I remember latching on to a Michigan Wolverine team in the 1989 March Madness tourney that ran the table despite their coach bailing on them right before the tournament started. So, Steve Fisher just took over and guided a team led by Glen Rice to victories over Illinois and Seton Hall in the Final 4. The next thing I knew, the Wolverines were champs, and they had found themselves a new fan in Houston, Texas.

Years later, it's obvious that the Texas Longhorns, my alma mater, are far and away my favorite college team. The Michigan Wolverines are sort of my adopted second favorite team after years of cheering for them as a young buck, and then finally getting to visit Ann Arbor a few summers back with my friends Mark and Jenna. However, my favorite players have come from a variety of teams over the years. Let's start with the round ball.

It goes without saying some Longhorns are going to make this list....T.J. Ford for helping Rick Barnes get Texas to the Final Four for the first time in the modern era, Kevin Durant for being an uber-talented man amongst boys on the court, D.J. Augustin for keeping Texas afloat and taking them to one game away from the Final Four in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year this past season. However, there have been plenty of others, as well. Back when the Houston Cougars were my team above all teams, Sam Mack was the man that had the talent to deliver victories for the Coogs. In later years, a young Shaquille O'Neal owned the court at LSU, Tim Duncan dominated both ends of the floor at Wake Forest, and was followed years later by a dominant stud running the point we all know as Chris Paul. LJ, Stacey "Plastic Man" Augmon, Greg Anthony and Travis Bice were a seemingly unbeatable force for the UNLV Runnin' Rebels...until they ran into Duke in the Final Four the second time around.

I'm sure I could go on forever with people like Paul Pierce at KU, Vince Carter at UNC, Byron Houston at Oklahoma State, or even my man Reggie Freeman for keeping it real under Tom Penders at Texas. But the bottom line is, the team that captured my interest more than any other was the Fab 5 at Michigan. Although ridiculously referred to as the "most underachieving team of all time" by Bill Walton, the Fab 5 did more than redefine fashion and attitude on the college level- they caused coaches across the country to re-evaluate how they viewed and played freshman. With a starting lineup that eventually included five freshman, the Fab 5 advanced to the National Title game against Duke and then North Carolina in successive years in the early 90's. Unfortunately, they never won it all, but in that time, Chris Webber became my favorite college basketball player of all time. At the time, Chris represented a healthy dose of attitude and brashness, but he had the game to back it up. As intense a player as you're likely to find, Webber provided a mix of all-around ability with a relentless ability to finish at the hoop with ferocity. Furthermore, for a player his size, he was quite adept at passing, too. All in all, he was the complete package, and might be remembered as such if it weren't for that fated timeout against UNC in the 1993 title game.

Nowadays, after an up and down pro career recently affected by knee injuries and reports that he accepted money from boosters while at Michigan, Webber still remains one of my all-time favorites in college. I guess that's because he fits the mold of a sympathetic character to me- often misunderstood, often defined by one poor moment that seems to overshadow so many great ones. And with college, it's also a case where I define that player as what they did in those years as ONLY a college athlete, not what came after. So, for all the memories of Webber throwing someone's shit in the paint, grabbing the rebound and finishing the break with a behind the back pass or a wicked dunk, he earns my vote as my favorite college player.

Long live the long shorts, black socks and bald heads! Long live the Fab 5....



In college football, my favorites are all over the place as well.

We can start with the two-sport talented Charlie Ward, who led the FSU Seminoles to a national title over Nebraska and captured the Heisman Trophy. Not bad for a first round draft pick....in the NBA!

Going back to my Michigan connection, Desmond Howard and Charles Woodson both won the coveted Heisman trophy, but while Howard was able to dazzle as a kick returner and wide receiver, Woodson brought his talent to the defensive side of the field, too, as a cornerback in leading his Wolverine team to a share of the national championship.

Julius Peppers, Clinton Portis, Donovan McNabb, Andre Ware, Larry Fitzgerald, Charles Rogers, Warrick Dunn, and obviously the Texas players who could make an appearance, including Derrick Johnson, Roy Williams, and Ricky Williams. In fact, I had the joy of watching Ricky Williams develop into a record-breaking, Heisman trophy winner over 3 years as I first started attending Texas, and I still haven't seen a running back with his combination of speed and power in the Big 12 since. However, like many Texas fans, the arrival of Vince Young on campus (from my hometown of Houston, nonetheless) as a player who could take over a game like no other takes the cake.

It didn't take long for Vince Young to show flashes of brilliance as a player in burnt orange. However, it was the end of his sophomore season against Kansas and Michigan when he started to demonstrate how special of a player he could be. With his legs, at least. So, when teams tried to eliminate that element of his game his junior year, he burned them, repeatedly, with his arm. In fact, over time, it was easy to see that VY was one of the rare players who could control a game seemingly on his own, and somehow even will his team to victory. (See: Rose Bowl, 2005 and 2006.) He, too, had that supremely ridiculous ability to look like a high school kid playing with toddlers on the field when he tucked the ball in and took off. (See: Woods, Donovan, and his jock strap, of Okie State.) All in all, he took a talented Texas team on his back, and provided the leadership and talent needed to take them from a top ten team to a champion. For all those reasons, he earns the nod as my favorite college football player of all time.