Your Pac-12 Alumni Tournament

Yesterday, most of the Good Guys went to the Husky alumni basketball game.  It was a great environment and a great event for a school that has a growing history of fantastic players.  After the event, Joe, Matthew and I were talking and were wondering how the top players on the floor would fare against other teams alumni today.

Unfortunately, they aren’t going to have this tournament in real life.  That would really be something.  Instead, the Good Guys are going to bring it to you.  Over the next few days, I will be putting together each school’s alumni team.  If there are any oversights, please leave the players in the comments and I will add them to the team before we start bracket play.

Once the teams are assembled, we will make a bracket (with seedings) and put the teams up against each other.  The four Good Guys will vote on the winners of each matchup and will try to leave our bias out of it.  Again, these matchups are based on if these players were facing off against each other today.  There won’t be any UCLA legends in here because they are old and wouldn’t be able to play with guys from the last 10 years.  In fact, I plan to only go back 10 years in assembling the rosters (although I may make some exceptions).  Each roster will consist of 10-12 players.

Today, I’ll start with the rosters for the Arizona schools, Colorado, and California.  I’m just going in alphabetical order.  I’ll give a little explanation of what each player has done of late.

Arizona Wildcats:

F Chase Budinger – Budinger has played in the NBA since 2009.  He played for Minnesota last year.
F Andre Iguodala – Iguodala was drafted in 2004 and has been in the league ever since.  He played for Denver last year  
F Derrick Williams – Williams was drafted in 2011 (2nd overall) and currently plays for Minnesota.
F Solomon Hill – Hill in projected to be a late 2nd round pick this year in the NBA draft.
G Jerryd Bayless – Bayless was drafted in 2008 and played for Memphis last season.
F Jordan Hill – Hill was drafted in 2009 and played for the Lakers last season.
F Richard Jefferson – Jefferson was drafted in 2001 and played for Golden State last season.  He is one of the oldest players on this team.
C Channing Frye – Frye was drafted in 2005.  He retired last year, due to a health problem (I’m not sure if he should be included in this tournament or not, we may revisit this).
G Jason Terry – The oldest player on the team, Terry was drafted in 1999 but still plays in the NBA.  He played for Boston last year and has average double-digit points every season since 2000.
G Hassan Adams – Adams was drafted in 2006 and has bounced around different leagues ever since.  He currently plays in a Venezuelan league.
G Salim Stoudamire – Stoudamire plays on the same team in Venezuela as Adams.  He was drafted in 2005.
G Gilbert Arenas – Arenas makes the cut, as this team needs a few more guards.  He was drafted in 2001 and currently plays for Shanghai in the Chinese Basketball Association.

Overview of Arizona:  This team has a wealth of good forwards.  The guards aren’t as prominent but there are plenty of them playing professionally.  Overall, this is a very good team and one of the favorites.

Arizona State Sun Devils:

F Ike Diogu – Diogu was drafted in 2005 and now plays in a Puerto Rico league.
G James Harden – Harden is easily the best player on this team.  He was drafted in 2009 and is currently a Houston Rocket.
F/C Jeff Pendergraph – Pendergraph was drafted in 2009 and has been in the NBA ever since.  He has played with the Pacers most recently.
F Michael Batiste – Batiste played his last season with Arizona State all the way back in 1999 but is still playing with a Turkey league team and has done quite well overseas.
G Eddie House – House was drafted in 2000 and retired from the NBA last year after a long career.
F Tommy Smith – Smith was drafted in 2003 and has been around a few different leagues since.  This year he played for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (I’m not joking).
G Derek Glasser – The last thing I can find on Glasser is that he was playing in an Israeli league.
G Ty Abbot – Abbot seems to have played in a European league this year, after graduating in 2012.
F Richard Kuksiks – Kuksiks played for ASU until 2011 and now plays in Ukraine.
G Kevin Kruger – Kruger played for ASU and UNLV but we’ll count him because this team needs players.  He has played in a few different leagues and was in the NBA D-League last year.

Arizona State overview:  Arizona State has one of the best players, but is lacking after that.  To be honest, it was hard just to come up with 10 guys.  If you know of anyone else who is playing professionally from Arizona State please add them in the comments.

California Golden Bears:

F Ryan Anderson – Anderson was drafted in 2008 and currently plays for New Orleans.
Jason Kidd – Kidd is the oldest guy on any team, so far.  Kidd was drafted in 2004 and played last year for the Knicks.  He is now the coach of the Nets, but I think he’s still probably one of this squad’s top players. 
Leon Powe – Powe was drafted in 2006 and stayed in the NBA for about 5 years.  He now plays in a Puerto Rico league.
Francisco Elson – Elson was drafted in 1999 and played in Iran last year after spending most of his time in the NBA.
G/F Allen Crabbe – Crabbe may be the best player on this team and will be drafted this year, in the NBA draft.
G Jerome Randle – Randle finished at Cal in 2010 and currently plays in Belgium.
G Jorge Gutierrez – Jorge graduated from Cal in 2012 and played in a D-League last year.
C Max Zhang – Zhang played with Cal through 2010 and currently plays for the Shanghai Sharks.  He’s 7’3″ if you forgot.
F Harper Kamp – Kamp graduated in 2012(?) and is currently playing in Europe.
F Jamal Boykins – Boykin graduated in 2010 and plays in Europe currently.

California overview:  Cal is a bit depleted because of injuries to alums (Theo Robertson comes to mind).  This team doesn’t have many NBA players on it, but they are relatively young even if they have Kidd and Elson on the team.

Colorado Buffalos:

G Chauncey Billups – Probably Colorado’s most famous basketball alum, Billups is finishing up his NBA career after getting drafted in 1997.
G/F Alec Burks – Burks was drafted in 2011 and is still with the Utah Jazz. 
F Chris Copeland – Copeland graduated from Colorado in 2006 and played in D-leagues but made his debut in the NBA with the Knicks last year.
G Cory Higgins – Higgins graduated in 2011 and has played in the D-League since , with a short stint in Charlotte.
F Andre Roberson – Roberson declared for the NBA draft and is hoping to be drafted this year.
G Sabatino Chen – Chen graduated this year and is hoping to play professionally somewhere.
G Carlon Brown – Brown graduated in 2012 and is playing for the Idaho Stampede (D-League).
C David Harrison – Harrison was drafted in 2004 and has played on several D-league teams since then.
G Richard Roby – Roby played for Colorado until 2008 and now plays in Venezuela.  I’m really struggling to find these guys now.
G Marcus Hall – Hall finished at Colorado in 2008 and now plays in Europe.

Colorado Overview:  Admittedly, I don’t know much about Colorado because I didn’t grow up watching them.  If you come across this and know more please fill me in.  These were about the best 10 players I could find and this team is fairly guard heavy.  Some of them are combo guards so there is still some size on the team. 

That’s it for today.  If you have any quibbles with the rosters, please let me know in the comments!

Andrew