Our picks for an all-time, in-state starting five.
OUR CRITERIA
- NCAA tournament performance
- Historical impact
- Positional necessity
Joe Caldwell
Guard-Forward, ASU
(1961-1964)
Arguably Arizona’s first bona fide post-season star, Caldwell led Arizona State to the NCAA Tournament (then a 24-team affair called the “NCAA University Division basketball tournament”) in each of his three varsity seasons, including two Elite 8 appearances. Averaging 18.2 points and 11.2 rebounds a game over his career for transformative head coach Ned Wulk, the physical, 6-foot-5 swingman later shined for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and ABA’s Carolina Cougars, making the All-Star team in both leagues.
Lionel Hollins
Point Guard, ASU
(1973-1975)
A smart, defensively gifted point guard, Hollins led a resurgent Sun Devils program on arguably its most dominant run in school history, culminating in a 25-4 record and Elite 8 appearance during his senior season. Averaging 15 points and 6 assists a game in the 1975 NCAAs, the 6-foot-3 guard – who played two years at Dixie College in St. George, Utah, before joining Wulk’s Sun Devils – was subsequently drafted No. 6 overall by the Portland Trailblazers, winning an NBA championship in 1977 and making the All-Star team a year later.
Sean Elliott
Small Forward, UA
(1985-1989)
An immediate Pac-10 terror in Tucson after averaging 15.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game as a freshman, the fleet 6-foot-8 forward was a Wooden Award winner and two-time All-American for Lute Olson. But his greatest feat as a collegian was propelling the Wildcats to their first Final Four in 1988, averaging 23.2 points and 5.8 rebounds over five games. He left as the school’s all-time leading scorer and went on to have an All-Star career in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons.
Miles Simon
Shooting Guard, UA
(1994-1998)
The silky smooth guard’s credentials as the greatest March Madness player in Arizona history rest on one fact: He was the best performer on the state’s lone national championship team (1997). In fact, Simon’s numbers from that tournament – 27 points and 4 rebounds per game in the Final Four, double figures in all six tournament games, including 30 points in the final – place him squarely in the conversation for greatest tournament performer ever. Naturally, he was named the 1997 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Currently, Simon is a part of Frank Vogel’s coaching staff with the Phoenix Suns.
Loren Woods
Center, UA
(2000-2001)
Gilbert Arenas was the unquestioned star of the great UA teams of the early 2000s, but our all-time squad needs a center – and the 7-foot-1 Missourian was a beast for the 2000-2001 Wildcats team that advanced all the way to the NCAA championship. Defending the rim and dominating the middle for Olson, he posted tournament averages of 16 points and seven rebounds, including a 22/11 line in the championship game itself – an 82-72 heartbreaker against a Shane Battier-led Duke team. After a brief spell in the NBA, Woods went on to play a decade in Europe and Asia.
Head Coach
Lute Olson
UA (1983-2007)
Arriving from the University of Iowa, the silver-haired North Dakotan inherited a Wildcats team coming off the worst season in school history. Within two years – two years! – Olson had transformed the program into a March Madness fixture. The Wildcats never failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament between 1985 and Olson’s last season in 2007 – a span of 23 consecutive appearances in which he compiled a 46-27 record.
