Would Wofford College still be in the tournament if they had Duke all-star Zion Williamson? You could say having Zion on any roster would improve their chances of staying alive in the tournament. What if these Big schools like Duke, North Carolina, and Kentucky could not gobble up all these superstar players? Most of these big schools can land these talented players year after year. They even know most of these players are there at their school for one year and off to the draft the next season.  These big schools have their own money tree of talent in the backyard as they pick another player off the tree to replace the talent that just left after a year and guess what it is… money. It’s like a well oiled machine in a factory producing NBA talent. The Duke, the Kentucky, the North Carolina make the cars. The NBA is the dealership to show the car when it’s ready and obviously drive the car. Could smaller schools benefit for these one and done players?

The Wofford College Terriers are most likely a school you never heard of. Perhaps you have but have no idea where this school is located. The school is located in South Carolina.  Spartanburg, South Carolina to be exact. The same town where Duke’s Zion Williamson played his high school basketball at. Wofford College had Zion right in their backyard. The coach of Wofford, who has been at the school for 30 years and head coaching for 17 years there, probably dreamed of landing a Zion Williamson. Even for one year to have a player with his talent makes everyone around you a bit better. I’m sure Wofford even made a pitch… a call or even a text to Zion. I’m sure these car salesmen who call themselves coaches at these big schools who reek of reptilian cologne, had Zion signed in the 5th grade. Most of these small schools don’t stand a chance to land a guy like Zion.

Schools like Wofford have their work cut out for them. They have to think outside the box and constantly be in searching mode for some kind of talent. Talent that hits but mostly probably misses. Schools like Wofford have to make it to the big dance to be on national television. If they lose they are forgotten about again until they come back years later like Haley’s comet and make it back to the March Madness tournament. Wofford had never won a tournament game in their history coming into this March Madness. This year they finally achieved their first ever tournament win. Seton Hall was their first ever victim. The team came in with their highest seed ever, a number seven. When they beat Seton Hall they won their 30th game of the year which is a new record. They won 21 in a row until the next round versus Kentucky. It was a close game.

Schools like Wofford need time to grow. The team gets better when their players stick around and play many games together. If players stuck around and played all four years, college basketball would be even better than it is. Wofford’s success definitely came down to playing as a team. One guy did stick it out on this Wofford team. His whole career actually. He was a big part of why the team got far. Why the team won their first ever tournament game. It was Fletcher Magee who broke the NCAA division one all-time record in three pointers made. It was the game versus Seton Hall where he broke this record and had a total of 509 for his career. He broke Seth Curry’s record from Davidson. Yes, the same Seth Curry who leads the Golden State Warriors. In that Kentucky game, Wofford played the Wild Cats very tough. However Fletcher Magee set a record he wishes he did not in that contest. He went 0-12 long distance. The game before, he drained seven three pointers. Wofford lost by six points. If Fletcher would have hit three long shots, Wofford would be moving on. At least two three point shots and the game is going to overtime.

If Wofford had a Zion Williamson with a Fletcher Magee, could they have prevailed over Kentucky? Having a two star tandem like those two and let’s not forget about the rest of the roster which is pretty damn impressive. Two or three shots made and Wofford would be talked about in the sweet 16 and that is without Zion. To go back to the beginning, if somehow these small schools could get these players like Zion, we could be talking more than sweet 16 for Wofford. A player like Zion in that one year could probably put a small school like Wofford on the map. Then when a team like Wofford makes it back to the tournament, no one would ask where the hell that school is from. If College basketball had the same rules as the new football league, the AFF, where players are chosen regionally. Perhaps a Wofford would have gotten the superstar from their own backyard. Maybe smaller colleges need to hire the oil slick hairdos as their coaches.To get down and slime these young players from the mother’s womb. Some of them do hire these types and they use the small college as just a stepping stone to go coach at a bigger program. See Billy Selfish from Kansas. Perhaps if these schools can get more scholarship money to offer. I think they need to find a way to get these smaller schools an advantage in fishing in the deep waters. Everything comes down to big business. TV rights plays a factor because these players want the spotlight. If they can’t get the spotlight so they can leaf frog into the NBA, they do not want any part of a small potatoes school like Wofford. That’s why the Dukes, North Carolinas and the Kentuckys are still standing tall in the sweet sixteen. Meanwhile the smaller schools get the credit they deserve, but than disappear from the basketball landscape until they rebuild years from now. Pro sports have gone from trying to have every team having a chance with a salary cap. Could College Basketball make the court much leveler? Balancing the budget in the state of Illinois seems a lot easier.