It is only technically correct to say that the ambitiously ponytailed big man Keegan Records has been eliminated from the men's NCAA Tournament. It is true that Records and the rest of his Colgate University Raiders teammates were eliminated from the field early Thursday afternoon, but no one who saw Records running around out there looking like Prep School Scot Pollard—or saw his brawny backup Jeff Woodward emoting and pivoting furiously, for that matter—will soon forget it. The NCAA markets its flagship tournaments by the One Shining Moment, but they pile up in the memory, one College Basketball Guy after another, in a sort of slow parade of lumpy, imperfect, hopeful humanity. The shorts are more or less billowing, the hairstyles ascend and descend, but on the ground, on the court, that wild and tumbling accumulation is just what college basketball is. It comes and goes, by design and by its nature, but also it sticks, and stays.
Here, for instance, are some College Basketball Guys that the Defector staff remembers:
- Peyton Siva
- Scottie Reynolds
- Jamelle Horne
- Lucas O'Rear
- Spike Albrecht
- Perry Ellis
- Aaron and Andrew Harrison
- Patrick O'Bryant
- Matt Stainbrook
- Josh Boone
- Marshall Henderson
- Tate George
- Sean Higgins
- Levance Fields
- Gerry McNamara
- Tonye Jekiri
- Marcus Hatten
- Lorenzo Mata
- Dugan Fife
- Jon Brockman
- Acie Law IV
This weekend, as you enjoy this abundance of janky basketball and oblong striving humanity, please take a moment to think—who are some College Basketball Guys that you remember?
Thank you for your continued support of Defector. Enjoy the rest of the games this weekend.
