The 2000s’ All-Decade College Hoops Team

College basketball is a sport of change. Basketball players play, on average, significantly less in college than any other sport. Because of that emphasis on transition, it can be hard to think of who is among the best.

Even though we've only played nine-and-a-half seasons for this decade, I think the best players of the 2000s have proven they will not be overtaken by a stellar second-half by anyone playing in 2009. Note: players who only played one season will not be considered. True, that takes away great players such as Carmelo Anthony. But I'm looking to group together the best of those players who contributed something more significantly to their alma mater.

First-Team All-Decade Team

G Dwayne Wade, Marquette
G J.J. Redick, Duke
F Joakim Noah, Florida
F Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina
C Nick Collison, Kansas

Second-Team All-Decade Team

G Stephen Curry, Davidson
G Jay Williams, Duke
F Adam Morrison, Gonzaga
F Luke Harangody, Notre Dame
C Emeka Okafor, Connecticut

Wade and Redick were two of the most dominant players of their day in the college game. Wade was an incredibly accurate shooter, scoring on 49% of his career shots for the Golden Eagles. But it isn't his proficient shooting that made him all-decade worthy, but the fact that his presence on the Marquette team just simply made them better. In his first season on the team, he led the Golden Eagles in scoring with 17.8 ppg, led the conference in steals at 2.47 per game, and accumulated averages of 6.6 rebounds per game and 3.4 assists per game. Marquette finished with a 26–7 record, the school's best record since the 1993–94 season.

Anyone who watched Redick in the middle of this decade could see the man's uncanny ability to find open spots on the perimeter. His four years at Duke were marked by incredible improvement. As a freshman, he scored 15.0 points per game. By the time he was a senior, he was scoring over 27 points a game. This progression won him the 2005 and 2006 ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year. Sadly, Wade and Redick's professional careers are in stark contrast. Wade won a championship in 2006 and is a five-time NBA all-star. Redick is a role player for the Orlando Magic, scoring an average of less than 10 points per game.

The best players of the decade are the best players in the postseason and it's because of Noah's and Hansborough's play in the paint that Florida and North Carolina won a combined four championships this decade. He was the 2006 Final Four tournament's Most Outstanding Player and was named an All-SEC player for 2006 and 2007, Florida's two national championship seasons.

Hansbrough is a model of consistency as his four years at North Carolina were dominant from start to finish. Hansbrough averaged 20 points and 8 rebounds a game over four years. Yea, we know. But it's the way he got his points that was legendary. He out-muscled opponents, sometimes leaving them to look like little children. Some would argue Hansbrough's place in the talk of greatest basketball players of all-time, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who would argue that he's the best player of the 2000s.

Oh, and by the way, for a North Carolina men's player to have his jersey retired, he must win at least one of six national player of the year awards: the Associated Press, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, Sporting News, the Naismith Award, and the Wooden Award and wait until his class has graduated. Hansbrough won all six. His jersey's been retired.

And why should Collison be honored as the best center of the decade? Apart from helping Kansas reach two consecutive Final Fours (2002-2003; Collison finished his career as the leading scorer in the history of the Big 12 Conference and averaging a double-double with 18.5 points and 10 rebounds per game).

Why aren't Stephen Curry and Jay Williams first-team, all-decade players? Curry is a great story: overachieving athlete that was repeatedly a stone being thrown at Goliath's (or Duke's, or North Carolina's) head. Yes, he was in the top 10 of scoring all three years at Davidson, but if helping his team get to the Elite Eight once in four years is your claim to fame, you're not All-Decade worthy. And Williams is a phenomenal player, but his offensive success is more likely caused by his being surrounded by an entire team (Chris Duhon, Mike Dunleavy, Dahntay Jones, and Carlos Boozer) of future NBA players.

Why did Gonzaga's Morrison and Notre Dame's Harangody only make it as second-teamers? Aside from his junior year where he led the nation in scoring with 28.1 points per game, Morrison wasn't an All-Decade player. Many credit him to putting Gonzaga on the map, but didn't Matt Santangelo, Richie Frahm, and Casey Calvary do that a couple of years before Morrison arrived? Harangody is probably the only player on the list who could benefit from having this article written after the tournament. Aside from holding most of Notre Dame's shooting records, the only way Harangody can crack the first team is by leading the Fighting Irish to a national championship this season, which probably won't happen.

And Emeka Okafor was good in his three years at Connecticut, but his play was more a product of all the great big men going straight to the NBA more than any other position. He did not have to face Dwight Howard, Amare Stoudemire, and many more and that helped him look more dominant than he may have actually been.