Lots of Division One College Basketball Teams - Part One

Lots of Division One College Basketball Teams

    How many top tiered schools are there now, in 2022-3?

    It rhymes: 353. That is a lot. (Wrong, there are 358. Even more.) There are many more Division II, Division III, and NAIA men's and women's basketball teams. Probably adds up to over one thousand. I am going to talk about the closest D-1 ones that I have lived next to, and then I will feature some new schools I am not familiar with.

    Indiana: 

    I grew up in Bloomington, considered by some a "Mecca" of college hoops. We have had some great players, teams, and coaches. More than one coach, yes. Before Bob Knight, there was the two-time champion of the NCAA, Branch McCracken. How classic is that name? Branch. McCracken. Awesome. Indiana is a place of true basketball history and lore.

    I am somewhat lucky, blessed, and cursed. I have bemoaned the lack of winning for the last thirty years for the Hurry'n Hoosiers. Yes. But the past is glorious.

    What surrounds B-town in each direction?

    To the north, we have the IUPUI, or Ooie Pooie Jaguars, on the south side of Indy, maybe 45 miles away. I have a step-niece who attended there. My friend Evan Thomas used to get a kick out of saying "Ewie Poohie!". Yeah, the Jags of the Horizon League. They made the Big Dance once or twice.

    To the west is the Indiana State team, a 1979 Larry Bird special Sycamore squad. They have smacked the Hoosiers in some odd years over time, especially as the Big Ten favorites have floundered. The Sycs have competed in the Missouri Valley Conference, just as the team to the south, the

    Evansville Aces. They have had a couple competitive teams, one of my favorites being when they upset the Kentucky Wildcats not too many years ago. They had a former IU player Marty Simmons as a player and coach, but that man put on more weight than Bob Huggins, which mean a person and a half, not just a person. 250 pounds? A former UK champion from Evansville, Walter McCarty, was coach there before messing up with sexual shenanigans. He upset his old alma mater. I wish he would have played for IU. History would have been changed.

    History. Anyway.

    The next D-1 school, to the east, is probably Cincinnati before Xavier. One or the other. Both of those schools are big time. They are in the same city. One is technically closer to my hometown; I am not sure which. The Bearcats won it all back win they had all-time great Oscar Robertson. I heard he thought it was too racist or discriminatory at IU. Perhaps. But to IU's credit, they took Bill Garrett in 1948, an African-American Hoosier, when the Big Ten officially did not accept Blacks in athletics.

    Way to go, IU! Our Jackie Robinson, if you will.

    Next I lived in...

    Chile: 

    This South American country is very south of North America, but is also east of the United States. So, the closest four D-1 teams would be:

    University of Miami Hurricanes, in the Big East. Have had some highly ranked teams.

    Next to that is the Florida International Panthers of the Conference USA, East Division. Nothing notable about them that I know of. Close to Miami. (FAU Owls below). Hard to find their conference! Oh, wait. They are both in the same conference, same division.

    To the other side of the state on the southernmost quadrant is the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles of the Atlantic Sun Conference. They had one super run to the Elite Eight, I remember that. They were running and dunking. I forget the exact nickname, but it was sweet.

    The Florida Atlantic Owls are farther up the Atlantic Coast, they of Boca Raton in the Conference USA East Division. Not sure if they do much in the way of b-ball there.