In the spring of 2017, Zavier Simpson came face to face with an unpleasant truth. In the wake of an unproductive freshman season during which he played just 8.6 minutes per game, his coach at Michigan, John Beilein, called Simpson into his office and informed him that he was going to bring in a graduate transfer to compete for minutes at point guard. In many cases, a conversation such as that would result in the player transferring, but Beilein delivered the message anyway. “He was making the same mistakes during February and March that he was making early in his freshman year, and it was concerning,” Beilein says. “We had to protect ourselves in case it didn’t work out. If I have to worry about people transferring because I tell them the truth, then they weren’t going to be good anyhow.”
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Looking back on that difficult day, Simpson admits that the idea of leaving crossed his mind. But he had always prided himself on having a competitive mindset, and despite his shortcomings he still had faith in his ability. “I didn’t want to take the easy way out,” Simpson says. “That’s not what I’m about. So I had to be mentally strong and keep grinding through it all.”
Matisse Thybulle’s moment of truth came at the end of his sophomore season at Washington, when the school fired coach Lorenzo Romar. Thybulle, who is now a 6-5 senior guard, had spent his first two seasons trying to make his mark alongside heralded recruits Markelle Fultz, Dejounte Murray and Marquisse Chriss. He, too, wondered if he should look elsewhere, but he felt reassured when the school brought in Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins. “I could see he wanted to create a family here the way Coach Romar did,” Thybulle says. “I figured that was no time to jump ship. I had given so much to the school already.”
If those moments of uncertainty feel like they are in the distant past, it’s because Simpson and Thybulle never stopped living in the present and looking toward the future. Neither player naturally excels at the most glamourous part of the game, which is scoring. Thybulle averages 9.5 points per game and Simpson averages 9.1, which ranks fourth and fifth on their teams, respectively. Yet, they are arguably the biggest reasons why their teams have had such successful seasons. Washington won the Pac-12 regular-season championship by three games, its first outright league title since 2012. Michigan finished a game behind co-champs Michigan State and Purdue in the Big Ten, but the Wolverines finished 25-6 overall and were ranked in the top 10 for most of the season despite losing three of the top four scorers from the NCAA Tournament runner-up.
Thybulle and Simpson might not get as much attention as some of their high-scoring teammates, but there is one way in which their unselfishness, intelligence, toughness, leadership and versatility can be properly recognized: They have been named co-captains of my 20th annual All-Glue team.
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The All-Glue tradition began in 2000, when I worked with my then Sports Illustrated colleague, Alex Wolff, to produce an NCAA Tournament preview story for the magazine. I picked up that sticky mantle and have carried it ever since, first with SI.com and now, for the second season, with The Athletic. Each All-Glue team gets a captain, but this is the first time I have selected co-captains from different teams. (In 2011, I made Notre Dame teammates Tyrone Nash and Carleton Scott co-captains.) I did so because I could not choose between this year’s honorees. Simpson and Thybulle embody the true spirit of this all-important honorific. They both deserve their share.
In some respects, being called a Glue Guy is classic damning with faint praise. Nobody goes into college basketball trying to be an important “piece.” It’s much more fun being a shooting star. The path from uncertainty to Glue Guydom requires accepting one’s limitations and embracing the role one can play to help his team win. Evolving into a first-rate Glue Guy requires maturity, dedication, and most of all, a lot of hard work.
Beilein might have questioned Simpson’s decision making back then, but never his work ethic. “We’ve had some famous gym rats over the years, guys that if anything spent too much time in the gym. He would rival all of them,” Beilein says. Simpson and his family have talked openly about the so-called “anger issues” he had as a child, but in time he learned to properly channel his drive. Though Simpson’s long-range shooting has yet to come around (he is making 28.3 percent from 3 this season), he spent many hours perfecting an unconventional running hook shot that has become one of Michigan’s most effective offensive weapons.
Beilein says that Simpson still struggles with the idea that he needs to sublimate his offense – this is, after all, a young man who scored 65 points in a high school game – but Simpson has become an efficient pass-first point guard. He ranks second in the Big Ten in assists (6.3), and he leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.2). But it is on defense where Simpson truly shines. He has a knack for making opposing point guards disappear. He averages 1.4 steals per game, which is the fifth-most in the Big Ten, and his ability to communicate to his teammates and serve as a quarterback at that end of the floor is the biggest reason why Michigan ranks second in the country in defensive efficiency. “I’ve always been 100 percent locked in on defense,” Simpson says. “That has never been a problem for me.”
Thybulle shares that same commitment, which is why he is the heavy favorite to win his second consecutive Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award. The turning point came during the preseason before his junior season. Following a scrimmage against Boise State, Hopkins decided to try using Thybulle at the top of his 2-3 zone. At first the coach was reluctant to make the switch because it meant moving a smaller player, 6-4 guard Jaylen Nowell, to the back of the zone, but it quickly became apparent that Thybulle’s agility and seven-foot wingspan, combined with his knack to anticipate passes, made him especially disruptive from that vantage point. Hopkins compares his ability to intercept passes with former Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed. Also Spiderman. “He steals balls with his web,” Hopkins says.
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Thybulle says that once he moved to the top of the zone, “I felt like I belonged.” For all of his physical gifts, Thybulle’s greatest basketball asset is his mind. It’s as if he knows what the opposing players are going to do before they do. That’s why he leads the nation in steals at 3.47 per game and ranks second in the conference in blocks with a 2.2 average. (He’s also averaging 2.2 assists.) “If you read the scouting report and pay attention, you know to a certain extent what the other team is trying to do,” he says. “I have a good feel for where they’re trying to get the ball. My favorite thing to do is let them think they can get the ball there, wait for them to throw it a little soft, and it’s mine.”
When I asked Thybulle and Simpson if they were familiar with each other’s games, each said no. They’re too focused on their own teams to do much casual channel surfing. Yet they speak the same Glue Guy language. “I just want to do whatever it takes to win,” Thybulle says. Adds Simpson, “I feel like my job is to keep my team together.” That is much easier said than done, but if Thybulle and Simpson didn’t put those thoughts into authentic action, then their teams wouldn’t win nearly as much.
Here are the other members of my 2019 All-Glue team, followed by the Honorable Mentions and winners from the previous 19 years.
Zylan Cheatham, 6-9 senior forward, Arizona State
Cheatham grew up in South Phoenix, about a 20-minutes drive from the ASU campus. When he was in high school, he often drove there to play in open gyms with the Sun Devils’ varsity. He attended many home games, even once participating in a court storm following a win over Arizona. Yet, when it came time to choose a college out of South Mountain High School, Cheatham was determined to leave home. “I was hellbent on getting out of Arizona,” he says. “The neighborhood I grew up in is pretty troubled. There’s a lot of gang violence. I just wanted to get away and experience something different.”
Cheatham signed with San Diego State, and after having to redshirt his first year because of an injury, he had two productive seasons, starting 48 games while averaging 8.4 points and 5.8 rebounds. In the spring of 2017, he transferred in hopes of finding a place that would allow him to develop his perimeter skills. Once again, Cheatham was inclined to play away from home, setting up visits to Marquette and St. John’s. He changed his mind, however, after visiting with Bobby Hurley, who had just finished his second season in Tempe. “I knew he was a players’ coach, and we talked about some of the things he would let me do on the court,” Cheatham says. “It just made sense.”
Hurley was taken with Cheatham’s engaging personality. “He’s one of the few kids I’ve ever had on an official visit where I didn’t have to work hard to generate conversation,” Hurley says. The coach knew that Cheatham would add some badly needed size and athleticism when he became eligible, but he immediately injected the program with toughness and energy, even as he sat out under NCAA transfer rules. “He had a huge impact on our workouts last year because of how he conducts himself,” Hurley says. “His charisma, his passion for playing – he’s a big reason we had a breakthrough season.”
Playing hard has always come naturally to Cheatham — “Being called soft is unacceptable where I’m from,” he says — but this season he has evolved into a versatile defender and gifted playmaker. His ability to grab a defensive rebound and lead a fast break has been pivotal for a team that has a tendency to stagnate in its halfcourt offense. Besides being the Pac-12’s leading rebounder at 10.4 per game, Cheatham is averaging 11.6 points and 3.3 assists. He is the only player in the country besides Wisconsin senior forward Ethan Happ to average those numbers in all three categories.
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Though much of the attention from the outside has been lavished on the Sun Devils’ dynamic backcourt of Luguentz Dort and Remy Martin, Cheatham has thrived in his glue-guy role. In ASU’s two meetings with Arizona, he was assigned to guard both Chase Jeter, the Wildcats’ 6-10 junior power forward, as well as 5-10 senior point guard Justin Coleman. When Martin was sidelined by an ankle sprain early in the season, Cheatham played backup point guard. That included a win on Dec. 12 over Texas Southern, when he notched the second triple-double in school history with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. He has had three games with seven assists or more, and he pulled down 20 rebounds against UCLA and 22 against Arizona, becoming just the second Pac-12 player in the last 40 years to have two 20-plus rebound games in a season. He unleashed an epic rim-rattling dunk over Oregon’s 6-9 sophomore Kenny Wooten on Jan. 19, and because he is so thoughtful and well-spoken, Cheatham goes to almost all of Arizona State’s postgame press conferences.
Alas, Cheatham’s season included one very low point. It came a few hours after Arizona State lost at home to Princeton on Dec. 29, when he learned that his brother, Wanyaa Stewart, had been shot and killed back in their hometown. Cheatham writes his brother’s name on his shoes before every game and carries the program from his funeral with him wherever he goes. “It makes me feel like he’s still here in a certain way,” Cheatham says. “He was really proud of what I was doing.” That feeling extends to the ASU faithful, who have adopted Cheatham as one of their own. He may be leaving campus this spring, but Arizona State will always feel like home.
Nojel Eastern, 6-6 sophomore point guard, Purdue
Eastern did not start a game for Purdue last year as a freshman; he averaged 2.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 12.6 minutes per game. He made a grand total of three 3-pointers. Based on those numbers, it was unclear whether Eastern was going to become an effective college player, much less a professional one. Yet, he decided to enter the NBA Draft but not hire an agent.
Eastern’s decision brought considerable bemusement and derision from fans and the media. After failing to get invited to the draft combine and working out for two teams, he announced in late May he would return for his sophomore season. Now, Eastern says he knew all along he was coming back. He just wanted to go through the draft process and get some feedback from NBA teams about where he stood and what he needed to improve on. “I got a chance to see what it takes to play at that level,” he says. “I learned that it’s not just about all the skills you have. You have to have a mindset to be an intelligent player.”
Normally, such unconventional maneuverings would augur a disruptive sophomore season in which the player tries to impress NBA scouts more than help his team win. That, however, has not been the case with Eastern. Though he remains a suspect shooter – he is the team’s fourth-leading scorer at 7.6 points per game and has not made a 3-pointer all season – Eastern has embraced his Glue Guydom to the core. Serving as the point of attack for the Boilermakers at both ends of the floor, Eastern is routinely assigned to guard the opponent’s best perimeter player and gets 1.2 steals per game. He also averages a team-best 5.7 rebounds and ranks second on the squad with 2.5 assists.
Like everyone else who plays for Purdue, Eastern knows his primary responsibility on offense is to help create scoring opportunities for junior guard Carsen Edwards. Or at the least, get out of Edwards’ way so he can create those opportunities for himself. Eastern’s prudent shot selection is reflected in his 49.4 field goal percentage on 2-point attempts. He also only averages about 1.5 turnovers, an area upon which Purdue coach Matt Painter places paramount importance.
Eastern’s willingness to be an effective, versatile, disciplined Glue Guy enabled him to fit in with the culture at Purdue and help the Boilermakers earn a share of the Big Ten regular-season title despite losing four starters (including All-Glue team honoree Dakota Mathias) from last year’s Sweet 16 squad. This is the sixth year a player from Purdue has been named to the All-Glue team. Eastern’s teammate, 6-6 senior forward Grady Eifert, was named honorable mention this year as well. Eastern’s decision to come back and to play both unselfishly and efficiently has paid big dividends for him and his team.
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“I know that offense wins games but defense wins championships,” Eastern says. “I go into every game trying to do what I can to help the team win. I don’t want to be a player who only does one thing. I want to get as many rebounds, steals and assists as I can. Once you take ownership of that, it becomes a habit.”
Trent Forrest, 6-4 junior guard, Florida State
Glue guys typically march to the beat of their own drum. In Forrest’s case, that is literally true. His mother, Barbara Lee, is pastor of a church in their hometown of Chipley, Fla. Whenever Forrest is home, he plays drums for the church choir. Forrest’s father, Lester, used to coach Trent in Little League baseball, and he continues to coach and mentor young kids in his community.
Forrest’s parents both played basketball for Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Fla. So from a very young age, he was taught that the game should be a vehicle for serving a greater good. That meant acting as a de facto drummer on the court, creating a beat for his teammates and doing whatever needed to keep everyone’s steps simpatico. “My parents always emphasized to me that I should know all the positions on the floor,” Forrest says. “That made it natural for me to become a point guard in college. I can keep telling my teammates where they’re supposed to be, and at the same time know what I’m supposed to be doing.”
That helped him morph into a full-time point guard after leaving Chipley High as the school’s alltime leading scorer. Forrest was a valuable reserve during his first two seasons in Tallahassee, and he was instrumental in Florida State’s run to the Elite Eight last year, averaging 9.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.5 steals in the Seminoles’ four NCAA Tournament games.
This season, Forrest has thrived as the starting point guard. He is capable of scoring more than his current average of 9.1 points per game, which is third on the team, but he knows he is more valuable as a playmaker. He leads the squad in assists (3.8) and steals (1.9) while also grabbing 4.6 rebounds. His 1.88 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks fifth in the ACC. Forrest has done all of this while being hampered by a chronic toe injury he suffered at the start of ACC play.
To hear coach Leonard Hamilton tell it, Forrest’s contributions off the court are even more significant. His maturity, intelligence and commitment to service make him a natural leader. He is also an impressive student. Forrest graduated Chipley High School with a 4.3 GPA, and three times he has been named to the All-ACC academic team. He has accrued so many credits that he will only require a part-time schedule to complete his undergraduate degree this fall, whereupon he will begin pursuing a master’s in sport management.
Hamilton is 70 and has been a college head coach for 31 seasons. It says a lot that even at this advanced age, he appreciates the chance to step back and watch his point guard serve as the drummer, maestro and glue guy for one of the best teams he has coached at Florida State. “You very seldom have an opportunity to coach this kind of a guy in a lifetime,” Hamilton says. “He’s extremely bright. He’s a self-motivated, high-energy, hard-working guy. He never makes excuses, and he’s a great teammate. And whenever we have team meetings and I give the guys the opportunity to speak up, he gives an in-depth evaluation that sounds almost like a coach. He just does everything the right way.”
Ashton Hagans, 6-3 freshman point guard, Kentucky
Kentucky looked mighty impressive while beating North Carolina, 80-72, in Chicago on Dec. 22. Four of five starters scored in double figures that day, led by freshman forward Keldon Johnson’s 21 points. During the postgame press conference, however, Tar Heels coach Roy Williams wanted to give the most credit to the one starter who had a single digit in the scoring column. “The amazing thing is I look down (at the stat sheet) and Ashton Hagans is 2-for-6, seven points,” Williams said. “And I thought in some way he was more dominating in the game than anybody.”
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Williams knows a Glue Guy when he sees one. Hagans tied a school record that day with eight steals, to go along with four rebounds, three assists and a block. It was a breakthrough performance for a player who was still striving to recover from a disastrous performance in a season-opening loss to Duke. Ever since then, whenever Kentucky coach John Calipari sees Hagans’ production dropping off, he will show video of the Carolina game to his players to remind them what their point guard is capable of. “It’s not the whole game, it’s like 10 clips of him stealing, diving, falling into the seats, pushing the ball in transition. I’m like, where is this guy?” Calipari says. “Our defense starts with him, and our offense starts with his ability to create shots for his teammates. He has as big an impact on our team as anybody.”
As is so often the case with Glue Guys, Hagans’ impact does not have to include scoring. He ranks fifth on the team at 7.8 points per game, and he has made just 30 percent of his 3-point attempts. But he is an absolute demon on defense, and his ability to push the ball in transition is vital to the Wildcats’ ability to go on game-breaking runs. Hagans ranks third in the SEC in steals (1.83), seventh in assists (4.3) and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.75).
A native of Cartersville, Ga., Hagans originally committed to Georgia, but when the school fired coach Mark Fox, he reopened his recruitment. He could have stayed home and played for new coach Tom Crean, knowing that no matter how poorly he played he would remain the focal point of the offense. But he was willing to take on the challenge of elbowing his way into the lineup in Lexington.
Things did not look so promising at first. Hagans only started in one of Kentucky’s four exhibition games in the Bahamas over the summer. He lost his starting spot after scoring just two points in the blowout loss to Duke. “The way we do it here is to let the players figure out who should play,” associate head coach Kenny Payne says. “There’s an uncomfortableness that you have to fight through. Ashton fought through that.”
Once he made it back into the starting lineup on Dec. 8, Hagans never relinquished it. Calipari says Hagans had a good work ethic when he got to Lexington, but over the course of the season, he learned from some of his more driven teammates just how much time is required to perfect his craft. The extra time in the practice gym is starting to show. During the final six games of the regular season, Hagans averaged 10.3 points on 59.4 percent shooting while making 8 of 13 from 3-point range.
As for the plucky defense, Hagans credits that attitude to the games of one-on-one he used to play on his driveway with his brother, Byron, who is four years older. “He used to bully me,” Hagans says. “He’d score on me and say, ‘What’s wrong with you? Play some defense.’ That made me mad. So when I got into my own games, that’s how I tried to make a name for myself.”
Hagans is able to flourish as a Glue Guy because he understands his purpose as well as his limits. He undoubtedly could score more if he wanted to, and at certain points during the postseason the Wildcats will need that from him. If that was his top priority, however, he could have gone elsewhere. He came to Kentucky to grow as a player and accomplish something important as a teammate. “I don’t want to make it seem like I’m cocky, but I can get by my man when I want to,” he says. “But I like to pass more than anything. I feel like I’m a team-first guy. We all know this team can do something special. That’s the most important thing.”
Galen Robinson, 6-1 senior point guard, Houston
He lost count the number of times he heard those four miserable words. Galen, on the line. At Westbury Christian High School in Houston, Galen Robinson was an uber scorer who led his team to three state championships. When he got to Houston for his freshman season, however, Robinson struggled to match the expectations of coach Kelvin Sampson when it came to playing defense. Every time Robinson let his man blow by, Sampson would stop practice and make the freshman run wind sprints. “Sometimes I caused my whole team to run, and everyone would get mad at me,” Robinson says. “It was the coach just pulling strings on the old freshman.”
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It wasn’t easy for Robinson to find his role that first year alongside high-scoring guards Rob Gray and Damyean Dotson. Besides making him run, Sampson showed Robinson video of NBA players whose games he should emulate, players who were ball-movers, playmakers and hard-nosed defenders. “You’ve got to find out how you’re going to impact winning,” Sampson told Robinson. “And it’s not going to be by scoring.”
That remains true, as Sampson’s 7.9-point average, the highest of his career, ranks fourth on the team. He has made 29.1 percent from 3-point range over his career. But as a senior, he ranks second in the American Athletic Conference in assists at 5.3 per game, and his 2.87 assist-to-turnover ratio leads the league and ranks 19th nationally. He is also averaging 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals.
True to Sampson’s prediction, Robinson has worked himself into a hard-nosed glue guy and emotional leader who has helped bring a remarkable level of success to his hometown university. During his four years, Robinson has led the Cougars to a 89-31 record, 54-18 in the AAC. Last year, Houston made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in eight years and got its first victory since Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler lost in the 1984 final. As a senior, Robinson has spearheaded a season for the ages. By virtue of their win at Cincinnati on Sunday, the Cougars won the AAC title by two games, finished the regular season with an astounding 29-2 record and earned their highest ranking in the AP poll since 1984.
The freshman who used to run wind sprints in practice has grown into a senior whom Sampson calls “the best point guard on-ball defender I’ve ever coached.” As evidence, he points to the Cougars’ recent home loss to UCF, when Robinson held Knights guard B.J. Taylor, the AAC’s preseason player of the year, to just one made field goal. “He has really become a man,” Sampson says. “When he got here, there was a spoiled immaturity about him. He fought me on so many things early. But now he impacts winning the right way. He defends. He moves the ball. He’s our emotional leader. I told him in front of everybody the other day, ‘You went from fighting the system to making the system work for all of us, and I thank you for that.’ ”
Four years ago, Robinson became Sampson’s first significant recruit. The coach sold Robinson on the idea of staying at home and helping to change the program’s culture. Now Robinson is on the verge of leaving as one of Houston’s most accomplished players. His 99 career victories ranks second in school history, and he is fourth with 554 career assists. He has the most conference wins in school history (54), and he’s just the second player to have four seasons of 100 or more assists. He is also second in games played, just four behind record holder Michael Young.
Robinson came up with the team slogan and hashtag #ForTheCity, which took on a special currency when the school helped the city recover from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in the summer of 2017. As he puts the finishing touches on a stellar career, he is determined to provide the glue for a team ready to make a new kind of history this month. “I appreciate everybody who helped me get to this point,” Robinson says. “To do this in my hometown, man, I can’t even put it into words. I just hope that our story is far from over.”
Honorable mention: Corey Kispert, Gonzaga; Brad Davison, Wisconsin; Grady Eifert, Purdue; Nick Weiler-Babb, Iowa State; Justin Simon, St. John’s; Dwayne Sutton, Louisville; Kyle Alexander, Tennessee; Kenny Goins, Michigan State; Darryl Morsell, Maryland; Devonta Jordan, Buffalo
Previous All-Glue teams
2018: Theo Pinson, North Carolina (captain); Isaiah Wilkins, Virginia; Rashard Kelly, Wichita State; Rawle Alkins, Arizona; Dakota Mathias, Purdue; Silas Melson, Gonzaga
2017: Jordan Bell, Oregon (captain); Landen Lucas, Kansas; Dakota Mathias, Purdue; Ben Moore, SMU; Nathan Adrian, West Virginia; Isaiah Briscoe, Kentucky
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2016: Matt Costello, Michigan State (captain); James Farr, Xavier; Landen Lucas, Kansas; Kaleb Tarczewski, Arizona; Raphael Davis, Purdue; Marshall Plumlee, Duke
2015: Rico Gathers, Baylor (captain); Alex Barlow, Butler; Josh Gasser, Wisconsin; Dustin Hogue, Iowa State; Tekele Cotton, Wichita State; Raphael Davis, Purdue; Briante Weber, VCU (honorary member)
2014: Patric Young, Florida (captain); Tekele Cotton, Wichita State; Josh Gasser, Wisconsin; Justin Jackson, Cincinnati; T.J. McConnell, Arizona; Akil Mitchell, Virginia
2013: Mike Hart, Gonzaga (captain); Kyle Anderson, UCLA; Melvin Ejim, Iowa State; Roosevelt Jones, Butler; Nate Lubick, Georgetown; Travis Releford, Kansas
2012: Darius Miller, Kentucky (captain); Quincy Acy, Baylor; Travis Releford, Kansas; Toure’ Murry, Wichita State; Anthony Marshall, UNLV; Jorge Gutierrez, Cal; Zack Novak, Michigan
2011: Tyrone Nash and Carleton Scott, Notre Dame (co-captains); Terrell Bell, Virginia Tech; Brady Morningstar, Kansas; Draymond Green, Michigan State; Zack Novak, Michigan
2010: David Lighty, Ohio State (captain); Chris Kramer, Purdue; Reggie Redding, Villanova; Willie Veasley, Butler; Rick Jackson, Syracuse
2009: J.T. Tiller, Missouri (captain); Taylor Griffin, Oklahoma; Jermaine Dixon, Pitt; Garrett Temple, LSU; Travis Walton, Michigan State
2008: Stanley Burrell, Xavier (captain); Tory Jackson, Notre Dame; Dave Pendergraft, Gonzaga; Derrick Jasper, Kentucky; Justin Mason, Texas; Wisconsin Badgers (team)
2007: Dane Bradshaw, Tennessee (captain); Kyle Shiloh, Nevada; Dominique Kirk, Texas A&M; Othello Hunter, Ohio State; Marcus Landry, Wisconsin
2006: Sean Dockery, Duke (captain); Dane Bradshaw, Tennessee; Mike Hall, George Washington; Sean Marshall, Boston College; Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, UCLA; Kenton Paulino, Texas
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2005: Jamaal Levy, Wake Forest (captain); Louis Hinnant, Boston College; Erroll Knight, Gonzaga; Christian Moody, Kansas; Ellis Myles, Louisville; Roger Powell, Illinois
2004: Jaron Brown, Pittsburgh (captain); Tyrone Barley, Saint Joseph’s; Erroll Knight, Gonzaga; Roger Powell, Illinois; Nick Robinson, Stanford; Robert Tomaszek, Texas Tech
2003: Rick Anderson, Arizona (captain); Jaron Brown, Pittsburgh; Justin Hamilton, Florida; Chuck Hayes, Kentucky; Robert Johnson, Oregon; Ellis Myles, Louisville; Tony Robertson, Connecticut
2002: Gerald Fitch, Kentucky (captain); Dahntay Jones, Duke; Billy Knight, UCLA; Byron Mouton, Maryland; Jarrad Odle, Indiana; Antoine Pettway, Alabama
2001: Sergio McClain, Illinois (captain); Nate James, Duke; Luke Walton, Arizona; Justin Hamilton, Florida; Marcus Toney-El, Seton Hall; Jason Capel, North Carolina
2000: Lavor Postell, St. John’s (captain); Alex Jensen, Utah; Nate James, Duke; Brian Beshara, LSU; Stevie Johnson, Iowa State
(Top photo of Michigan’s Zavier Simpson: Rick Osentoski/USA Today Sports)