The changing nature of championship roster construction
Will college programs need older teams to win in the future like they do in basketball?
One of the mega-fails of my 2024 March Madness bracket was my selection of 3-seed Kentucky to make the Final Four. The Wildcats’ top six players in minutes per game included a senior shooting guard averaging 1.6 assists per game, a senior center, and then four FRESHMAN guards.
Three of those freshman guards were averaging at least three assists per game, hence my decision to put them through multiple rounds, but they proved to play like freshmen under fire, the senior was never a distributor, and the overall talent level was squandered.
On TV afterwards, former title-winning Villanova coach Jay Wright offered some insight that was obviously key to his success back in the Philly suburb.
“The era of taking these young freshmen and trying to play against older players is over,” said Wright. “I think he did a phenomenal job with these guys all year, getting to be as successful as they were. You can see they’re playing against grown men. The guys on Kentucky will be far better pros than any of these guys on Oakland or any of these guys in the tournament. But they’re not as good college basketball players.
“At this point in their careers, they’re not as disciplined yet as the guys from Oakland. It’s not Cal’s fault; it’s their 18 years old. And they’re in this era where everyone’s telling them how great they are — just show up in college, and you’re going to win. It doesn’t happen that way. And the more the guys stay in college because NIL, is going to be tougher for young teams like this to be successful.”
Back at Villanova, Wright was always building veteran teams with guards who knew how to win college games. I remember seeing one of his teams live in Austin when they came to Texas in 2008 which put multiple experienced guards on the floor. They were thwarted by a semi-veteran Longhorn squad who had a senior PJ Tucker and 2nd year guys with NBA futures in LaMarcus Aldridge and Daniel Gibson.
In college football, building an older team with NIL and the transfer portal is an increasingly viable strategy. We almost had a Final Four football team last year built with that strategy in the Florida State Seminoles. We may have one next year in Ole Miss or Oregon.
Here’s a few factors influencing the changing tactics around roster construction.