In college basketball two main ways of winning and success are culture and talent. Talent in this sport is where programs and coaches get the most talented guys often straight out of highschool and rely on these young, mostly freshmen players to win. Culture is where programs take existing players who might not be as talented and they develop them for multiple years. This is not the NBA, talent does not always lead to sucess in college ball.
Talent. Think about Duke and Kentucky over the years who brought in high level players who were one and done and off to the NBA. These 2 programs have made runs in march with this style. These programs also have a strong culture but compared to most other programs they have relied more heavily on talent. While having a talented team is every coaches dream, young freshman often lack leadership ability that tenured players and coaches possess. An example of talent not leading to success in college basketball is with Rutgers. They have Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper who are both top 5 projected picks in the 2025 NBA draft. Rutgers is 9-8 and 12th in the BIG 10, not currently projected to make the tournement. Part of Duke and Kentucky’s popularity are the 5 star recruits/NBA talent they bring in.
While talent comes and goes with players transfering and going on to professional basketball, culture stays. Players that stay 4 or 5 years at a program understand culture and can better lead. These players along with a tenured head coach understand the importance or team culture. Fans help culture as well. Look at purdue last year. They made the national title game lead by Matt Painter who has been their a while and developed a strong culture. Leader senior Zach Edey was a great leader paired with senior Mason Gillis and a couple of sophmore guards. The impact coaching has on program culture is emmense because it starts with them and their assistance with recruiting and developing. The way the coaches coach makes its way to tenured players who understand what the coaches want.
Which is more successful winning in march and going to the final 4?
Ultimately a combination of culture and talent is best for teams who want to make it far in march and april. Coaches untimately want both, but culture is more important to team success. Different programs have different versions of what they believe culture is, but some common cultural aspects include patience with developing young players that are planning to stay all 4 years, teaching discipline and teaching responsibility with academics. Looking at final 4 teams in recent history will show that Freshmen heavy rosters dont make it to the final 4, rather teams with some freshmen and some upperclass men or no freshmen at all are in the rotation of these rosters. 2023-2024 Alabama had senior Mark Sears, senior Grant Nelson, senior Nick Pringle, senior Arron Estrada, Sophmore Rylan Griffen, Senior Latrell Wrightsell, Senior Nick Pringle, freshmen Sam Walters, and freshman Jarin Stevenson. 2022-2023 Miami had a couple of NBA players but no large contributing freshmen. 2021-2022 North Carolina had no freshmen large contributers and were lead by Junior Armando Bacot, Sophmore Caleb Love, and Senior Brady Manek.
Historically great teams built around talent
2015 Kentucky: Finished the year 38-1. Were lead by freshmen Karl-Anthony Towns, freshmen Devin Booker, and freshmen Trey lyles to name a few. This team produced 9 future NBA players.
2012 Kentucky: Went 38-2 and won the national title. NBA hall of famer Anthony Davis took his talents to Lexington. This team produced 7 future nba players, most notibaly michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague. All the best players on this version of a Kentucky powerhouse were either freshmen or sompmores with the exception of Darius Miller.
2019 Duke: The 32-6 team made the elite 8. This version of Duke produced 7 NBA players. Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Cam Reddish are the most notible players.
2016 Villanova: 35-5 This team more so than the previous teams had talented upperclassmen future NBA talents in Josh Hart, Ryan Arcidiacono. Freshmen on this team Jalen Brunson, Donte Divincenzo, and Mikal Bridges stayed for multiple years.