Four straight state championships at Christopher Columbus High School. Three consecutive Nike EYBL Peach Jam titles on the 15U, 16U and 17U circuits. Two gold medals — one at the 2023 FIBA Americas U16 Championship and another at the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup. Both players are McDonald’s All-Americans and national champions. Cameron’s a two-time Gatorade National Player of the Year. Cayden’s the 2025 Chipotle Nationals All-Tournament MVP. And they’re both headed to Duke this fall to helm yet another stacked recruiting class. 

The post Behind the Brotherhood: Cameron and Cayden Boozer Break Down Their College Commitment and Bringing Their Winning Ways to Duke  appeared first on SLAM.

The night started rough for Florida. Houston’s bruising defense swallowed their early offensive rhythm, and Clayton, the Gators’ human torch all season long, was completely bottled up. Scoreless at the break. This is, simply, not a recipe for success.

Florida was trailing at halftime.

Then the dam nearly broke. Houston’s three-point edge swelled to 12 right out of the break. And for the briefest of moments, it felt like the Gators might unravel. Instead, they rose, just as they had all season whenever their backs were against the wall. When the margin for error vanished and the moment demanded greatness, it was Florida that delivered. On both ends.

FLORIDA GATOR COLLECTION IS AVAILABLE NOW.

They locked in defensively, forced contested shots and willed their way to stops. They made shots—not many, but enough. Clayton, dormant through 20 minutes, caught a bit of fire—scoring 11 in the second half, hitting tough jumpers, finishing through contact and controlling the tempo like the seasoned vet he is. And with every deflection, rebound and dive on the floor, Florida chipped away at Houston’s lead, eventually tookthe lead and ultimately secured the victory with a gut-wrenching, last second stop as time expired. Florida wins, 65-63.

Anybody who’s even vaguely familiar with team sports knows the old adage: offense wins games; defense wins championships. And yes kids, that still rings true, even in the Stephen Curry era. But when it comes to college basketball, if you want any chance at cutting down the nets, you better have at least one killer in the backcourt. As it turns out, Florida had the best guard in the country this year: Walter Clayton Jr.

“We did what we did all year: We stayed the course,” head coach Todd Golden said after the game. “We have the best backcourt in America. I think we have the best frontcourt in America. And like we’ve done all year, we made plays when we needed them the most. We guarded our butts off down the stretch, made every 50-50 winning play.”

“It’s a feeling I can’t even explain, man,” Walter Clayton Jr. said in the aftermath, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player still visibly awed by what he and his team had just accomplished.

Collective confidence was Florida’s identity all year. Unlike the 2010s, when Final Fours were often bloated with McDonald’s All-Americans and one-and-done prospects, today’s most competitive teams veer to the older end of the spectrum. This Florida squad was a blend of high-IQ veterans, under-recruited gems and a fearless leader in Clayton Jr., whose journey from three-star recruit, to two-year mid-major standout at Iona, to March Madness and Florida Gators icon is a testament to both patience and purpose.

It’s hard to overstate Clayton Jr.’s rise. In a tournament teeming with NBA prospects, it was Clayton Jr. who emerged as the best player on the floor game after game. His March was the stuff of legend: 134 total points over six games (22.3 per game). He had a flair for the moment, stamped with Curry-esque shots, fearless drives to the cup and a control of pace that can’t be coached. He was cold when the pressure got hot.

“[Clayton’s] put together the greatest individual campaign in the history of Florida basketball, and it’s a campaign for the record books,” Jonathan Safir, Florida’s director of basketball strategy and analytics, told ESPN.

That’s not hyperbole. Florida’s basketball lineage is deep—NBA All-Stars like Bradley Beal, NBA champs like Al Horford and Mike Miller, defensive savants like Joakim Noah, and playground legends like Jason Williams all wore the orange and blue. But none of them authored a tournament run quite like this. None of them carried a team the way Clayton Jr. did.

His accolades from this year alone: NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player, NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team, NCAA West Regional Most Outstanding Player, NCAA West Regional All-Tournament Team, Consensus 1st-Team All-America—and more.

Walter Clayton Jr. very likely played his way into the first round of the 2025 NBA draft. Once considered a fringe prospect with questions about his size and position fit, Clayton Jr. used March to silence every doubt. Scouts marveled at his poise, his ability to shoot from NBA range and his knack for scoring in isolation against elite defenders. More importantly, he’s shown he can carry a team on the biggest stage. Most mock drafts now slot Clayton Jr. as a mid-to-late first-round pick.

And yet, ask him, and he’ll still deflect credit.

“I’m just thankful to even be in this position,” Clayton Jr. said on Good Morning America a few days after the game, humbly, as if he hadn’t just put the program on his back and walked them to immortality.

Florida was a squad that was battle-tested, learned how to win, stayed together, and never wavered. They played connected. Trusted each other. Believed in the guy next to them—whether he was a transfer from a mid-major or a homegrown Gainesville talent.

And while Clayton was inarguably the face of this team, he’d be the first to let you know this championship run was an all-around effort. “[M]an, we got multiple guys on this team that can go…You never know who’s night it’s gonna be. And we showed that as a team, he said.”

“I do think what separates us and has separated us all season long is our team talent, how our guys have played together and for each other all year,” Golden said in his postgame presser. “Because of that, we can call each other national champions for the rest of our lives.”

Meanwhile, Golden’s coaching job deserves its own chapter. In an era when young coaches are often chewed up by the pressure cooker that is the Big Dance, Golden looked unfazed. His ability to blend egos, manage rotations, and make late-game adjustments was exemplary. (This is a great time to note that Golden coached them to a 36-4 record—surviving the SEC gauntlet, from which a record 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament this year.)

At just 39, Golden’s name is now etched into Florida’s lore forever. He joins coaching royalty as the youngest man to win the NCAA Tournament since Jim Valvano guided NC State to a Cinderella title in 1983. Golden curated a roster that was, frankly, a masterclass in portal-era roster construction. Golden is the face of a new generation of coaches—sharp with the analytics, relatable to his players, and completely locked in on culture. He got this group to buy in from Day 1. And now they’re champions for the third time in program history, and the first time since 2007.

It’s hard to imagine a more perfect tournament run—because perfection, in March, doesn’t look like blowouts. It looks like resilience. It looks like Florida.

Florida wasn’t the biggest, or the flashiest, or the preseason favorites. They didn’t have the highest-ranked recruiting class. But they had the best player, and they had the best team when it mattered most.

The post Walter Clayton Jr. PUT ON FOR FLORIDA by leading the Gators to a National Title | SLAMU Cover Story appeared first on SLAM.

“I feel like people kind of forget that it’s normal to lose, you can’t win them all,” MiLaysia Fulwiley said to us in February. “I mean I wish we could, but it’s been a year. It’s coming. It’s been years, like, we just keep winning so easily. These losses ain’t gonna do nothing but prepare us more for when it matters the most.” 

Prior to winning the SEC Championship, we sat down with MiLaysia Fulwiley, Chloe Kitts and Joyce Edwards to talk about this season, their preparation, the meaning of legacy and so much more. Because really, who better to speak on where this team is at right now? And if the Gamecocks can win another national championship and go back-to-back, they’ll be the ones to say I told you so…

WSLAM: From the first time y’all got to play on the court together, what kind of growth have you seen from then to now? 

Joyce Edwards: It’s just surreal, kind of full circle. You play these girls in high school—you think you’ll never really see them again. They’re gonna go their ways [and] you’re gonna go your way. But the fact that we’re all on the same team, and we’re literally three McDonald’s All-Americans—we’re so tough. Like Lay said, I just feel bad for our opponents because it’s crazy to think about.

MiLaysia Fulwiley: Definitely. Everything she said.

WSLAM: When did you realize this team was ready for this season? When did it all click? 

Chloe Kitts: I feel like we knew right away. Some workouts this year were really good. Everyone was hooping. We were like, Dang, we’re gelling really good. Because last year, we didn’t really see that, but it ended up working out good for us. But this year, from the beginning, from the get-go, everyone was ready, everyone was excited. You can see everyone’s main focus is winning. You can just see it.

MF: I agree, because last year, some workouts was pretty bad. We had a lot of hard days, and I
feel like this year, it was completely opposite. We came in knowing what we wanted to do and what we wanted to execute. I feel like we did that every practice, and that helped us grow into who we are now. We’re still trying to find us as a team, as a whole. So I also feel like our freshmen played a big role in that. They came in ready to hoop. Joyce Edwards, Maddy McDaniel, they came in ready to dominate, ready to fill in. And Joyce did a great job with just being confident in herself and remembering who she is as a player. Because coming into college, that can be the hardest part about it, and having a freshman that plays like a senior is really good for us. That really gels us together, helps us be confident and believe who we are.

JE: For me, I wasn’t really here last summer. I came late from [Team] USA, but this is by far the best team I ever played on, so I can’t say if I knew we [were] ready for that, because I didn’t know what we were getting ready for exactly; I never experienced it before. I just knew that everybody on the floor had a huge impact on what we did in practice, and we were all talented. So I knew that anybody who’s going to face this is gonna have a hard time beating us—that was really my mindset.

WSLAM: What does South Carolina mean to each of you?

MF: To me, it means a lot. I came from South Carolina, born and raised in South Carolina.
Growing up here, it means a lot to me, but not only me, with my family and my friends, putting
a jersey on for any college level, it means a lot. So just saying that I can be able to represent my hometown, my home state, it means a lot to me, and I love it. I appreciate [Coach] Dawn [Staley]
and the University of South Carolina for giving me the opportunity to play here.

CK: For me, growing up, South Carolina is your dream school. I’m from Seattle, and everybody’s like, That’s a dream school, South Carolina. I mean, South Carolina, and UConn, but it was just different, and it just means a lot. Coming here and playing in front of 18,000 fans, and you go into the grocery store and people ask for pictures, you’re walking down the street and people are like, Can I get your autograph? I mean, that’s really cool. A lot of people don’t get to experience that in college, so I appreciate that a lot. And of course, winning. I mean, South Carolina, we’re winners over here, and we get held to a higher standard. 

JE: South Carolina is really just home. You know, I feel like my basketball career really took off in South Carolina, just from high school to college, being able to do what I wanted to without any limitations. And having the support of people from South Carolina being there—my family being there for me—to grow up in South Carolina and play basketball here. Like they said, playing for Dawn Staley, who’s the embodiment of head coaches in women’s basketball. South Carolina is this school [that] every female basketball player wants to come to because we’re just winners, our culture. Being in South Carolina, it’s like being a part of a big family, not even just in university, but outside as well.

WSLAM: What do you all think is the “it” factor that makes this place what it is?

JE: Us people, literally us three, the whole team. It’s the people that make South Carolina, South Carolina. We want the best for each other. We literally love each other, we support each other and everything. I feel like that’s the it factor, because you can have statues anywhere, you can have championships anywhere, but it’s really all about the people. 

CK: I also feel like a lot of us come from different backgrounds. Everybody’s kind of different. We all are one big family, and we all want to learn about each other, their culture and everything like that.

WSLAM: What’s one word to describe this team at the beginning of the season, one word to describe the team right now and one where you hope to be at the end of the season?

JE: I want to say anxious, but not in a bad way, like, we were just itching to play, wanting to show the world what we could do. We just wanted to play, like, just anxious. We just wanted to play. 

MF: Determined. Everybody is so determined.

JE: That’s perfect. We had our setbacks in the season, but the way that we come out of them
is crazy.

CK: It’s just the early season. I think at the end of the season, hopefully we can say winners.

MF: Champs. 

CK: It’s exactly what we want.

MF: I also feel like people kind of forget that it’s normal to lose, you can’t win them all. I mean, I wish we could, but it’s been a year. It’s coming. It’s been years, like, we just keep winning so easily. I feel like these losses ain’t gonna do nothing but prepare us more for when it matters the most. 

JE: The way that we come out of losses, it’s really insane. We go on, we just destroy everybody else in our path. 

CK: I mean, we’d rather lose now than later on. People try and play their best game against us, people scout [us] forever just to play against us because they want to beat us so bad. I mean, it’s
OK to lose. We’re not going to lose when it matters, and that’s all that matters.

WSLAM: This team carries a lot with them: the pressure of everyone watching, people rooting for you, people rooting against you. How do you keep your composure through the season?

CK: You have to realize that you go through highs and lows. Everyone goes through highs and lows. You might have a good stretch of games, you might have a horrible stretch of games. You just have to find a healthy balance and know that everything’s gonna be OK. That’s for me, especially because you can’t get too high with the highs [and] too low with the lows. Just try your hardest to stay consistent. 

MF: I agree. When you’re playing basketball, it’s a mental thing, and if your mental is not there, then your game, your play, isn’t going to be there. I feel like it’s very important for all of us to keep our mental together. Just always remember that the main goal is winning a national championship, and you win some, you lose some, but we just all need to be locked in on that one goal. And I feel like that’s what keeps us together and keeps us able to get through the pressure.

JE: I feel like we’re composed because we have to be. I mean, you get uncomposed after the season, after you win the end goal. But the end goal is still the end goal, and you haven’t reached that yet. So there’s no need to be happy or sad because you haven’t reached that yet. You have to be composed, because every team in the SEC is there trying to kill you every single time. You don’t have time to get high with the highs or get low [with the] lows, because at the end of the day, nobody’s gonna care about your emotions or how you’re feeling. You have to stay composed to get to the end goal. And if you’re not, then you’re not gonna succeed.

WSLAM: Can you talk about legacy and what it means to you individually, for each other and for the future of this program?

MF: I feel like we’re doing a great job of creating legacy. Last year was a historical year. I don’t think no team in South Carolina history has ever went undefeated and won a national championship. Things like that would be how we create our legacy. Every single person who’s on that team last year has now created a legacy just because of that. So doing things like that, just being great people, not only on the court but off the court, too, helps create legacy. It’s not all about what you do on the court or what we do as a team. 

CK: What you do in the community…

MF: We did a whole lot of community things, giving back, donations and stuff, and I felt like that helped play a big role in the legacy that we created not only last year, but this whole past decade.

JE: We understand legacy is important because it inspires the next generation of little girls who want to play basketball. So we uphold ourselves to a certain standard on and off the court that we have to be consistent with. And that’s what we do. So every day we go out there, we work hard on the court. We donate, like they said. We do charities and stuff, because we want to uphold that legacy, to inspire the next generation.

WSLAM: Playing for a national championship, the path to back-to-back, what does it mean to you? How do you prepare for the big stage, and how do you make sure the whole team knows what’s about to happen?

CK: We have to all be on the same page, like we kind of just talked about before. We’re gonna go through highs and lows, and that means wins and losses. But we’re gonna win when it matters and try and get through this hump, and we’re gonna come out as strong as we can.

MF: Yeah, and I feel us as a team, we do a great job with understanding—everything she just said—and actually understanding, not just hearing it. And the freshmen, they seem to catch on very quickly, and they understand that assignment, from what I see. They know that we really want it and how much it will mean to us if we have it. It’s all up to us now. 

JE: We prepared for the national championship game in the beginning of the season. So the preparation isn’t necessarily any different than it was for the first week of the season. It’s all about being consistent, all about having that same mindset and that same goal, and all about all of us being determined.

WSLAM: In 10 years, when you look back at your cover, at everything you all have been able to accomplish at South Carolina, what do you hope to see?

CK: I hope I reached my goals, everything I wanted to do since I was younger, since I was at SLAM in high school. And hopefully I can look back then in New York, when I played [at] Rucker Park in the SLAM Summer Classic, and hopefully I can see in 10 years how far it came.

MF: Hopefully I can be proud of my younger self and basically tell my younger self that I did everything that I work hard for.

JE: Yeah, hopefully, it seems I’m still playing—I’ll be 29— I probably wouldn’t look back that early, but let’s say I retired, something happened. I don’t know if I look back, I want to know that I’ve reached my potential. Looking back at all the things I did when I was younger, I want to look at myself and not be disappointed in what I did when I was older. That makes sense, because I was younger, I was ambitious, I worked hard. I got the goals that I wanted. I got the goals that I wanted to get to. So to me, I just hope that I don’t disappoint myself.

Get ready for March with exclusive South Carolina women’s hoops merch.

Portraits by Diwang Valdez.

The post MiLaysia Fulwiley, Chloe Kitts, Joyce Edwards and the South Carolina Gamecocks are DEFYING THE DOUBTERS | SLAMU 8 Digital Cover   appeared first on SLAM.

After an 18-point comeback win over No. 5 Iowa State and dropping both No. 12 UNC and Memphis by double digits, Auburn walked away trophy in hand and with a lei around head coach Bruce Pearl’s neck. That’s when National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome said, “Everybody was like, Yeah, we’re legit.”

SHOP THE AUBURN COLLECTION

Not just legit but purely dominant. So dominant that they’ve been the No. 1 team in the country for over two months straight. They’ve played the strongest strength of schedule in the country while serving up nonstop Ws in a conference that’s projected to send 13 teams to the Big Dance. After amassing the nation’s most Quad 1 wins (16), the Tigers sit at 27-3 with a season’s worth of tests and challenges etched into their résumé. 

They’ve got students pitching tents outside of Neville Arena five minutes after an away game. And the night before the Auburn faithful are let in, you can catch the guys handing out pizzas and sandwiches to their fellow students while Johni and Miles Kelly sneak in a few games of poker. 

Bruce Pearl hasn’t just returned Auburn to prominence, he’s built a spectacle in the SEC. The sheer amount of toilet paper cast across Toomer’s Square is more than enough evidence. And just moments after our early February shoot with the team’s star forward and eccentric freshman point guard, Jay Bilas walks into the practice gym looking to film one of his iconic 94-foot-long interviews with Johni. Twenty minutes later, the two are walking through the sea of tents in Pearlville. All eyes are rightfully centered on The Plains this season. 

Broome falls into more Top 10 rankings than MF Doom’s Madvillainy. No. 4 presides over the SEC with an iron fist and has 17 double-doubles on the season. No one has found an answer for his 18.1 points, 10.7 boards and 2.4 blocks a night. The freshman phenom standing to his side is putting on for a long lineage of New Jersey-bred ballers, unafraid of the moment, the challenge and the deep ball on broken-down plays. Alongside the brilliance of Chad Baker-Mazara, Miles Kelly, Denver Jones, Chaney Johnson, Dylan Cardwell and a cast of other contributors, each night is a confirmation that we’re looking at one of the best teams to ever step across campus. 

“We know the situation we’re in. We just try not to dwell on it, focus on it. We just take it day by day,” Tahaad says. 

For the past two seasons, two-time All-SEC selection Johni Broome has been doing just that. After transferring from Morehead State for his sophomore season, the 6-10 Florida native has been steamrolling the limitations placed upon him ever since he was in high school, now ranking top 10 in the nation in blocks, rebounds and double-doubles. 

“I always had that chip on my shoulder, that edge. Growing up, I just had the utmost confidence, because where I’m from you’ve got to have confidence or you’re gonna get eaten alive,” Johni said. “I just grew up and I took it wherever it went with me. I went to college, my mindset was to kill whatever was in front of me. And that just carries on today, because the person I’m playing probably had more exposure, had more offers than me. So each and every night I go in looking to dominate.”

He led the team in scoring in his first season. He became the program’s 18th All-American in his second. The 2024 SEC Tournament MVP catapulted the last few years of momentum into one of the best individual campaigns this collegiate season. Twenty-six and 16 boards at LSU. Against Ohio State: 21 and 20. And twenty-three and 19 against North Carolina. On top of collecting double-doubles like vinyls, he’s swatted away four or more shots in four games.

With one of the best players in the nation back for his senior season, Coach Pearl says it was all about empowering his returning players with a “less is more” approach. Instead of going out and collecting as many five-star recruits and transfers as possible, Coach Pearl asked for more from his guys.

Johni’s managing more minutes (nearly 29 a night) and starting alongside Dylan for the first time in their careers. And freshman Tahaad Pettiford’s dropping haymakers off the bench on a nightly basis. Instead of backfilling the departure of graduate senior Jaylin Williams, Chaney Johnson and Chad Baker-Mazara are finding—and delivering—even more opportunities to shine. The staff was selective when it came to the portal, too, offering the opportunity to win championships instead of promising playing time. SMU transfer Ja’Heim “Turtle” Hudson was more than game. So was Georgia Tech transfer Miles Kelly. “And the pieces fit really nicely together,” Coach Pearl said. 

The No. 1 team in the country for eight weeks straight knows that everyone is gunning for them. They’ll willingly walk into your trap and then take it over, shouts to the BankRoll Fresh song that’s blasted after every dub on the road. All the while, the goals remain the same; SEC Championship followed by confetti in March. 

“You can’t get complacent. You can’t get comfortable because each and every night they’re coming. We have a target on our backs,” Johni said. “Obviously everybody wants to beat the best. We know that, we’re aware of that, so we’re going to bring it every night. So you better bring it, too.”

That sense of confidence stems from each player’s belief in the guy next to them. As Johni and Tahaad acknowledge their ranking, they’re adamant that the contributions from the entire team are the reason Auburn’s enjoying the success they’ve had.

“I just feel like we have players that don’t get enough recognition,” Tahaad says. “We have players that without them, we wouldn’t be in the position that we are now. If they didn’t come here, we might not be No. 1 because of what they do for us. I just feel like their time is going to come, and when it comes, I feel like they’re going to be ready.” 

Guys like Denver Jones, one of the best defenders in all of college basketball whose name is beyond deserving of being in the Naismith All-Defensive team convo for locking up the opposing team’s best bucket-getter. Guys like Miles Kelly, the Tigers’ go-to sharpshooter who will pull out the team-wide “Call God” celly after draining a step-back three. Guys like Chad Baker-Mazara, the Dominican Republic native who’s posting 13.1 points and 1.2 steals a night and on the Julius Erving Mid-Season Award watch list. Guys like Chaney Johnson who’s scored in double digits for five straight games for the first time in the Auburn blue and orange. Guys like Ja’Heim Hudson, Chris Moore and true freshman Jahki Howard coming off the bench, injecting the right amount of energy whenever they check-in.

The roster is loaded with experience between the portal and returning players who experienced last year’s SEC Tournament Championship. But the squad isn’t built solely off seniority. As one of two true freshmen on the roster getting tick, Pettiford has quickly become one of the most impactful point guards in the nation.

The Jersey native torched Georgia in mid-January for his career-high, 24. He dropped a 21-piece in just his second game of the season, against No. 4 Houston no less. He’s fearless in every regard. Pull up the clips from his 20-point performance at Duke if you’re curious. Or his bombardment of last-second threes that routinely find the bottom of the net. 

“Growing up, to be honest, I always played with older people. So coming in, I kind of expected it to be the same to how it’s always been, just being around guys that are more experienced, played the game, played in the tough games. Just having their energy behind me, knowing they had my back in the low times, I feel like that just gives me confidence,” Tahaad said. “And without them, I feel like my season wouldn’t be going the same as it is now.”

Windmills and no-look drop-offs to the post are complimented by 11.3 points, 2.9 assists and nearly a steal a night. He’ll skip up court into a pull-up three during the biggest game in SEC history, silencing the crowd with a smile. The 6-1 freshman lives for the road. The entirety of the team does. 

“We care about being No. 1 in the nation, but, like, we don’t really feel like that,” Johni said. “We’re normal. Every day we come in, having fun. We’re just being us. Everybody else sees us as a fun team to be, but we’re just acting how we normally act. I think we’re just embracing the moment with each other, and instead of feeling pressure to be No. 1, I think we’re just embracing the journey of being No. 1.”

If there’s anything more certain than Auburn’s locks on the No. 1 ranking, it’s their commitment to joy while doing it. And they often find it on the road, sitting at 7-0 in SEC play after defeating No. 2 Alabama inside Coleman Coliseum on February 15. 

Surrounded by hostilities and the Crimson Tide faithful, the inner state rivalry was turned to a 10 as the first-ever No. 1 vs No. 2 matchup to take place in the SEC. Through the 40-minute battle, the thousands in attendance did everything they could to disrupt Auburn’s chemistry. Instead, the Tigers tightened the screws on the brotherhood that they’d constructed, coming together for a 9-point win. As the final buzzer sounded, they reminded everyone why you don’t poke the bear, waving goodbye to the opposing fans and doing the Crimson Crane in unison right on the cursive A logo. Even a brown leather belt made an appearance in the locker room. 

“Knowing that when we get the chance to come to your spot, dominate and do what we do, I just feel like that just gives us more confidence, more energy that we need,” Tahaad said.

In practice, in the film room, on the court, off the court, that’s just who they are. At the end of the bench, after a blocked shot, following a top 10 win, “We’re like that all the time,” Johni says. They know they’re cold and they know everyone’s watching them enjoy the hell out of the journey, from Tik Toks to the end of the bench. They know they’re the favorites, and they know the Maui Invitational isn’t the only trophy they want resting in The Plains this season.

“I know this, we can be excited to play, and with the schedule that we still have, we’re gonna lose some games. I get that, but this team’s been ready to play, I think because they got something to prove,” Coach Pearl says. “This team’s got a chip on its shoulder. I don’t look at us as where we’re ranked right now in the country. I look at us as who we are, [a] collection of who we are.”

Portraits by Diwang Valdez

The post Johni Broome and Tahaad Pettiford on Auburn’s Dominant Run, Taking Over the SEC and What It Takes to Win it All appeared first on SLAM.

The Cyclones, up by 2 points, went crazy with excitement after the play, from the bench to head coach Bill Fennelly to sophomore guard Kelsey Joens and forward Addy Brown, who gave a smiling Crooks a celebratory chest bump.

Through the highs and lows of this season, Crooks has been the force propelling the Cyclones forward when they’ve needed it the most. The previous time Iowa State played K-State, in late January, Crooks had a double-double of 28 points and 11 boards in a down-to-the-wire OT thriller, with Iowa State coming out on top, 79-87. This time around, she finished with 36 and 10 in the 85-63 upset win.

“If we throw it in there, we know it’s going up and it’s going in,” sophomore forward Addy Brown told us earlier this season. “That’s a good thing to have inside, and we kind of play around her.”

Crooks has been dominating in the post since her high school days at Bishop Garrigan High School in Algona, IA, where she led her squad to back-to-back state titles and inked her name in the state record books. She broke the tournament record by dropping 49 points in the state championship game, doing so while ducking the haters who tried to call her a one-hit wonder, like she does her defenders. “The critics say sometimes that all I do is get baskets right under the basket,” she told The Gazette in 2023. “I mean this in the most humble way: It works.”

It’s at Iowa State that Crooks has perfected the art of posting up. The minute the Cyclones get possession of the ball on the offensive end, Audi is always right there, scheming under the basket and boxing out or dancing with her defenders. Sometimes she’ll take a few dribbles and then either push right past her opponent or go right under them for a smooth layup finish. 

What’s even scarier for everyone is that this season, Crooks has been challenging herself to knock down jumpers from the mid-range, too. After earning All-Big 12 honors as a freshman, she locked in on it during the offseason. “I took the time to appreciate what I did my first year, but also improve,” Crooks tells us. “[I] focused a lot [on] turning up [on] the defensive end of the floor, being a better defender, being a better shot blocker, and then also coming out of the paint a little bit [with my] mid-range game, trusting myself with the rock and trusting myself to be able to handle the ball.” 

It’s that trust—in herself and from her squad—that’s led Crooks to emerge into a college basketball star as just a sophomore. “I chose Iowa State because it made me feel cared for as a person, not just for what I do on a basketball court,” Crooks told us when asked about her decision to play for the Cyclones. During her recruiting process, Fennelly and his staff worked hard to make sure she felt that way, from dining at her favorite restaurant, Cinco De Mayo, a local Mexican spot in Algona, to sending her a picture of her future locker. They even defended her against the aforementioned critics, including on the night that Crooks led her high school squad to a state title. 

As a disgruntled fan questioned whether she could play at the next level in college, Fennelly remembers snapping back at them then. “We’re not recruiting somebody to sit on the bench,” he told them then per The Des Moines Register. 

That so-called fan, and really anyone who has doubted her ability to compete in college, couldn’t have been more wrong. As a freshman, Crooks played in every game, and by the fifth, became a starter. She then broke records, became the first Cyclone freshman ever to be named an All-American and captivated the world while leading the Cyclones to the NCAA tournament, where she had a monstrous 40-point performance in the first-round win against Maryland. Then Crooks held her own in the paint against future WNBA first-rounder Cameron Brink when Iowa State played Stanford in the second-round. Despite the loss, it was the first time the Cyclones had made it that far in the postseason since 2020-21. 

Now in her sophomore campaign, Crooks has upped her numbers across the stat sheet and is currently averaging a career-high 23 ppg on an even more efficient 60 percent from the field. Anytime she’s on the floor, you can see she plays with joy—and an ever-present smile—that her teammates feed off. It’s been the case from the moment she arrived, recalled senior guard Emily Ryan. 

“I just remember when she came on and [visited] the first time, just her personality stands out right away,” Ryan explained. “She’s a light, and she lights up every room she walks into.”

That energy has been needed, especially this year as the Cyclones have had to grind their way through a tough season. By the time this SLAMU digital cover appears on your feed, their record is 21-10. Expectations are high, especially coming from Fennelly, now in his 30th season coaching in Ames. “He’s going to be tough on you,” Crooks told us, adding: “But at the end of the day, you know that he loves you and that he supports you.”

While the Cyclones have yet to make it past the second round of the tournament, they’ve got all the pieces to make a run this March. Their top three scorers include Ryan, a poised and elite veteran leader who helps set up the offense, as well as Brown, who is averaging 15 points and 8 rebounds a game. They have plenty of other experienced bucket-getters, too, and just two freshmen on their entire roster. 

Audi is their anchor, though, and where she goes—or posts up—they all follow. As the Cyclones gear up for the BIG 12 conference tournament, they’ll all need to show up for every possession and every match up.

”She just dominates,” Ryan said of Crooks. “It’s what she does, and being able to have that enforcer in the paint is huge for us both on the floor. You know what to expect from her every day. She’s super consistent.” 

For No. 55, consistency is “key,” she says, not just right now at Iowa State or in the tournament, but throughout her playing career. When asked how she wants to elevate her game, Crooks elaborated: “I think a part of my game that I like to elevate is not necessarily going to show up on the stat board. I’d like to be a better communicator. I’d like to be a better leader and just more consistent overall, whether that be in the paint, at the mid-range, setting screens, whatever it is, even on the defensive end,” Crooks said. “After Iowa State, I would like to play professionally somewhere. We’ll see.” 

It’s with those words that a smile appears on her face yet again. Only time will tell whether she’ll be the one having the last laugh…

Portraits by Matthew Coughlin

The post Iowa State’s Audi Crooks is the CENTER OF ATTENTION | SLAMU 6 Digital Cover appeared first on SLAM.

It all started in Baton Rouge. Flau’jae “Big 4” Johnson and Mikaylah “12” Williams are on campus at Louisiana State University for a visit when they enter the Pete Maravich Assembly Center (PMAC). They both look up into the rafters. The winning heritage and history of LSU can be felt throughout the arena, where legends like Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles, Joyce Walker and so many others set the foundation. 

“We’re gonna be here together, and we[’re] basically gonna take over,” Williams, who is a year younger than Johnson and from Boosier City, remembers them saying to each other at the time. Williams committed to the Tigers in June 2022, and by that August, Johnson unveiled her college decision, too. In her music video for “All Falls Down,” which featured Lil Boosie and Mikewillmadeit, Flau’jae announced that she too would be suiting up for the Tigers. 

The post Flau’jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow and Mikaylah Williams on Expectations, Growth and What it’ll Take to Run it Back in the Tournament appeared first on SLAM.

Barely 12 hours after an emotional win vs Marquette, the head coach and three best players on the No. 12-ranked St. John’s Red Storm strut into their classic on-campus venue, Carnesecca Arena, and suit up for, as some of the other St. John’s athletes walking around say excitedly, “a SLAM cover shoot!”

The wild disconnect in the whole scene and story of St. John’s basketball is that to some of the old heads on the scene (*writer most definitely included), the old coach (72-year-old Rick Pitino) and even the players (in this case, the uber-talented and tough trio of Zuby Ejiofor, RJ Luis and Kadary Richmond), St. John’s is supposed to be good. Top-15? Favorites to win the league regular season? To win the conference tournament on the program’s other home court, Madison Square Garden? Expecting a deep run in the NCAA Tournament? What’s the big deal? This is one of the 10 winningest programs in the history of men’s DI hoops. The home of legends like Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Malik Sealy. Being in the mix for the aforementioned achievements feels like it should be commonplace. 

And then you look at the banners on the far side of the court and the reality of things out here in Queens hits you in the face. The program’s last conference title was *squints* 2000! The last regular-season title was *shakes head in disbelief* 1992!! These players were literally not even alive for any of that.   

We don’t need to re-litigate what has gone wrong with the Johnnies over the past quarter century—especially since they had enough dope players, compelling coaches and high-profile Garden games to somehow seem more relevant than they were, anyway—and will instead focus on the positive of this campaign: a well-coached crew of tough ballers who could probably blow your doors off with an offensive output if they weren’t so busy putting the clamps on you on defense to make the offense feel almost unnecessary.

“I can’t wave my magic wand and suddenly shoot the ball like Steph Curry, so you have to go with what you have,” says the peripatetic Pitino, now in his second year with SJU and his ninth head coaching job. “We wear these shirts that say PHD, which stands for Passionate, Hungry and Driven to succeed. I’ve coached some great three-point shooting teams in my time, but if that’s not your forte, you go with the areas where you can win.”

The previous night’s battle with Marquette encapsulated the season in many ways. The Garden wasn’t quite sold out, but the 16,521 in the building made it sound more than packed. The Red Storm shot 3-16 from distance and 17-31 from the free-throw line. And still won by 6! The defense was fanatical, as evidenced in a viral clip of the Johnnies chasing Marquette all over the court so that the visitors could not even get a clean shot off, despite being down 7 with less than two minutes to play. After the game, Marquette coach Shaka Smart said SJU had played with “incredible violence,” and he meant it entirely as a compliment.

The offensive struggles were real, but as has typically been the case, the Red Storm got enough from Richmond (18 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists), Luis (17 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals while playing all 40 minutes) and Ejiofor (13 points, 13 rebounds) to grind out the win.

It’s a trio that merges pedigree, experience and skills with visibly great chemistry and, paired with a supporting cast we’ll get to in a minute, should be enough to freshen some of the banners. Ejiofor is a 6-9, 240-pound junior (“he could be a stretch-4, but he the 5 for us,” Luis says with a smile) who was heavily recruited out of the Dallas area in high school and spent one season at Kansas before transferring to St. John’s for Pitino’s first year. His two most defining characteristics are probably his motor and his smile, both of which are on display even in this interview setting. Asked what his job on the team is, Ejiofor says, “bringing the toughness to the group. One thing you could say about me is that I play with a high motor and a lot of passion. And I play for my teammates. This is who I do it for—my teammates, my family, this whole community—that’s why I go hard every single day…getting offensive rebounds, some nights it’s scoring, some nights it’s defending—every night, actually—is bringing the defense and doing whatever it takes to win.”

Richmond, a 6-6, 205-pound combo guard out of Brooklyn, is the most “famous” player on the team, especially in this part of the country. He was the Big Apple’s Public School Player of the Year at South Shore in 2019, then spent a year at Brewster Academy before starting his college career at Syracuse. Richmond transferred to Seton Hall and led the Pirates for three seasons, earning all sorts of Big East honors along the way. A graduate student with one year of eligibility left, he was the prize of the transfer portal and chose to stay close to home, wrapping up his college career in the city that made him. “Kooks,” as he’s known, is on the quiet side with reporters but is clearly the heartbeat of the team, especially on offense. “He’s a silent killer,” Luis says. “A facilitator. Makes plays for others.” Richmond is the de facto 1 on this team, but his size and versatility speak to an NBA future pretty much wherever a team might need him. He’s averaging 12.1 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 4.9 apg, 2 spg and 1 bpg playing a team-high 32.5 mpg and shooting 50 percent from the floor in the process. Get this guy on your fantasy team yesterday! 

“I try to be the best person I can be, on and off the court,” Richmond says calmly. “Getting the best shot available for us as a team. Moving the ball. Getting the other guys confidence. Be able to make plays. Score, pass it and just bring whatever I can to the game to get a win.”

Luis is a 6-7, 215-pound swingman out of Miami who spent one season at UMass before arriving in Queens in 2023 alongside Ejiofor, who is now his roommate. Luis is the team’s leading scorer at 17.4 ppg, defends to the tune of 1.5 spg and has taken the second-most threes on the team, though he’s about as confused as everyone else about why more aren’t going in. “I try to come out every night with the same energy, the same intensity and taking pride on defense,” he says. “I feel like we’re hitting every aspect of the game except for three-point shooting. The energy’s there, the hustle’s there, we’re playing defense as a whole, collectively. It’s really just trying to work on getting better shots for everyone on the team, and when we get the shots, knock it down.”

This big 3 is complemented primarily by guards Aaron Scott, Deivon Smith and Simeon Wilcher, with additional support from international big men Vince Iwuchukwu and Ruben Pray (one downer in a mostly charmed season was the season-ending injury suffered by sharp-shooting forward Brady Dunlap, who could have helped with the long-range shooting problem but is now just being counted on for more of his great sideline celebrations.) Having a team with talent and size does not always equal good results, though, especially when squads are built on a season-by-season basis. How did this particular group mesh so quickly?

Ejiofor explains: “Our focal point this year was getting to know each other a lot sooner than we did last year, cause we got off to a slow start last year. So our main thing was try and get to know each other off the court a little bit and then on the court as well…we went to the beach and did beach workouts together. We went to the field and did workouts there. We’ve gone out to eat as a group. Just getting to know each other a lot more and a lot sooner than we did last year.”

FWIW, the influx of transfers turning into key players, while a newish phenomenon at many programs who didn’t traffic much in transfers in the pre-portal days, is actually a nod to St. John’s past as well. For every Malik, Mark or Mully who balled out here for four years, there was a Walter Berry, Michael Porter, Bootsy Thornton or Marcus Hatten who quickly won the hearts of SJU fans after transferring in mid-career from JuCo programs.

Whatever the mix or the reason, it’s working just like Pitino confidently predicted it would when he was hired less than two short years ago. “When you’re 72 years of age and you’ve coached for 50 years and you’ve coached the Celtics, the Knicks, Kentucky, Louisville, Providence, I think your confidence is established from the players you coach,” Pitino explains. “Coaches don’t win games; players win games. We had confidence going in that we could recruit the players necessary to win and, also, history repeats itself. If you have the right culture, be it Kentucky, be it Louisville, be it Providence, you’re gonna turn it around. It’s not false confidence, it’s confidence you’ll bring in the right players to fill the culture you want to present.”

One interested and excited observer to all this is Jackson, a native New Yorker who is St. John’s all-time assist leader and played for Pitino with the Knicks when they both entered the League for the first time. “I love Coach Pitino!!” Jackson tells us over text. “Absolutely genius!! He calls me his Rookie of the Year. I call him My Coach.”

Luis offers a lovely summary of where things stand right now for his team. “We got a nice, talented group. Very athletic. We just got some dogs, we just trying to win,” he says. “I feel like we’re waking up the city of New York, and we’re gonna keep on doing it. Playing under Hall of Fame coach, Rick Pitino. It’s pretty sweet.”

Portraits by Royce Paris.

The post St. John’s Trio and Rick Pitino Talk Establishing Confidence, Building Through Transfer Portal and the Red Storm’s Resurgence appeared first on SLAM.

This is Volunteer country. Where Uber drivers pull up proudly rocking their Tennessee orange and where stripes are always in season. Where high schoolers peek through the tempered glass of a closed-off gym trying to catch a glimpse of three of the best guards in the country. Where the Tennessee men’s basketball team has instilled a different type of energy throughout the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. That’s in part due to the dominant backcourt trio that led this year’s squad to tie the best start in program history, when it stormed out the gates to 14-0.

One member of that trio is leading the SEC in dimes with 7.6 a night. Another’s dropping 18.4 per game on anyone silly enough to drop back from the three-point line. And the third’s got a knack for silencing student sections and ending games with the flick of his wrist. Zakai Zeigler, Chaz Lanier and Jordan Gainey have got the Tennessee Volunteers sitting at No. 6 in the AP poll as they venture deeper into a stacked SEC conference lineup.

For the past two and a half months, they’ve been stitching their contributions to the cultural fabric of Tennessee hoops under the direction of legendary head coach Rick Barnes. The chemistry and connectivity that’s been witnessed through 19 games didn’t just click one day. The program’s star guards have been building toward this since the summer, featuring months and months of 1 on 1s. 

“Oh, me and JG, every single day in practice,” Zakai says. “I’m telling you, people don’t understand, we go at each other like we don’t know each other. Like, we be talking trash, we be talking crazy to each other. Start fouling, we’ll start doing stuff outside of basketball. But you know, just being that competitor, we understand that when we go against each other like that, when we go out on the court and play against somebody we don’t know, it’s gonna be like, Oh this ain’t nothin’.”

The runs are competitive. “Like very competitive,” Zakai says, while reflecting on the outcomes of their past intensity. The Vols are living by the mantra “iron sharpens iron.” The results are in the 17-2 record they’ve established and their respective moments of brilliance. Jordan’s game-winning layup on the road in Champaign. Chaz’s 29-piece against then-No. 23 Arkansas. Zakai’s 6 steals against Georgia. 

Alongside the commanding presence of both Igor Milicic Jr and Felix Okpara, with Jahmai Mashack, Darlinstone Dubar and Cade Phillips bolstering the rotation, the Vols are laser-focused on reaching the national championship. And to get there, the SEC’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year knows that his team’s energy starts with what he brings to the floor. For Zakai Zeigler, that’s baseline to baseline, surveying and attacking across all 94 feet of the hardwood.

“I feel like if I’m bringing that energy in the backcourt, picking up guys and slowing the ball down, it gives everyone else confidence on the defensive end and it just picks the energy up,” Zakai says. “I would say yeah, I put a little pressure on myself and expectations, but I wouldn’t even consider that as pressure. I would just say it’s something that I do every day and that I’m used to doing. I know if it’s going to help my teammates out, help my brothers out, then I’m gonna do it for sure.” 

The Long Island, NY, native has been orchestrating both sides of the ball for the Vols since the tail end of his sophomore campaign. Ever since then, it’s been a flurry of defensive masterclasses, perfectly timed passes and the necessary amount of heroics with the rock in his hands as the starting point guard. He can heat up instantly, like when he willed the Vols to a 4-point win over Texas after posting 6 points in the final minute of the game. He beats opponents to their spot with a single slide, picks their pockets and then flies past with ease before setting up a teammate for a wide-open look. 

Tennessee’s two-way stalwart is averaging 12.2 points. 7.6 assists and 2.1 steals a game. But the influence and leadership that exists through his play can’t be quantified, only felt.

“I would say Syracuse, that was a game where my energy was really high. I remember one point in time in the game, I told JG, Yo, I’m turnt up right now. I’m active right now. He remembers what I’m talking about,” Zakai says, while Jordan affirms. “Facts.” 

“Just moments like that I know I’m picked up or I’m turnt up whether I’m making a shot or not, it’s going to pick everybody else around me up,” Zakai adds.

Empowering his teammates extends to every aspect of the game, especially from the bench. Case in point, a mid-December slugfest against Illinois in enemy territory. Widely remembered in Knoxville as “the Jordan Gainey game.”

Chaz had put up 17 but fouled out with a little over three minutes remaining, while Zakai sat next to him after also fouling out. Nerves and stress didn’t exist, even with the score tied at 64 apiece with just 5.7 seconds left in the game. The two guards felt nothing but confidence as Jordan inbounded the ball and instantly received the rock back, going coast-to-coast in just four dribbles before laying it off the glass as time expired with a mob of Tennessee orange surrounding him on the baseline. Twenty-three on the night, 18 in the final 14 minutes. 

“Having moments of success like that, I look back at the first time I stepped foot on a college campus. My freshman year, I was at USC Upstate; just being able to see the journey that I’ve had and how I’ve come here. The path that I’ve gone through has helped me in moments like that,” Jordan says. 

The 6-4 former All-Big South First Team honoree spent the first two years of his collegiate career out in Valley Falls, SC, leading USC Upstate in points (15.1) and steals (1.9) as a sophomore. And for the past two seasons, he’s found a home in Knoxville as the sixth man off the bench playing starter minutes. The transfer portal’s been good to Tennessee. Like, real good. New means of buckets continue to be discovered, including the reliable scoring punch of fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier. 

After dominating the ASUN conference at North Florida last season, the former Tennessee Mr. Basketball finalist found his way back to his home state this past summer. The portal was chaotic, Chaz admits. But once the Vols got involved, the Nashville native knew the situation he was waiting for had arrived. 

“I knew the opportunity was going to be special. And then on my official visit, when I came to Tennessee, all the guys were surrounding me in the locker room. We had a good little celebration. I just knew it was home.” Chaz says. “I knew that I’d be joining something that was bigger than me.” 

We haven’t even hit the midway point of conference play and No. 2 has already cemented himself as one of the best scorers in the country. Less than an inch of space is needed for the 6-5 guard to have the confidence to launch it. Miami caught a clinic featuring 22 points strictly off jumpers. Baylor got scorched by seven of his threes. Fading one dribble pulls off the pick-and-roll are automatic. The averages: 18.4 points, 3.2 boards, 1.2 steals. Yup, he locks up too. 

“The standard for this team is definitely toughness,” Chaz says. “Knowing they’re in the foxhole with you and that you’ll do anything for your brother.”

The established feeling of a brotherhood is shared throughout the roster. It’s felt inside the gym of Farragut High School where Chaz, Jordan and Zakai pose for flicks and fall into bouts of laughter as they reminisce on their memories from the season. The scene is just a snapshot of a much larger picture that hangs 17 miles down the road. In between the soul food dinners, endless battles during practice and the countless 1s played afterward, they’ve laid the foundation for the team’s ultimate goal. Toughness and perseverance will light the way. 

“When the season’s closed, I want [us] to be remembered as a national champion and nothing less than that,” Zakai says. “Yeah, we want an SEC championship. We want an SEC tournament championship. But we’re going for the big trophy. We made history already with starting off the best in over 100 years, but we’re looking at something bigger than that.”

Portraits by Horizon Media Group.

The post Light the Way: Tennessee’s Star Guards Talk Building Confidence and Chemistry En Route to Matching Best Start in Program History appeared first on SLAM.

In the heartland of Ames, IA, a basketball symphony is reaching its crescendo. The Iowa State Cyclones, long overshadowed in the national spotlight, have emerged as a legitimate powerhouse, their sights set firmly on college basketball’s highest honor, a national championship. While every team in the country began the season with the dream of walking up the ladder and cutting down the nets in front of a sold out crowd in San Antonio on April 7, Iowa State is on a short list of programs with the means to actually do it. Orchestrated by head coach TJ Otzelberger, this year’s squad embodies a culture of resilience, camaraderie, toughness, discipline, authenticity and above all else, confidence. But to understand how this year’s Cyclones have gotten to within an arm’s reach of the pinnacle, you must first understand where they’ve been.

Last year’s Cyclones won the team’s most conference games since 2001, finished second in the Big 12 standings and capped it all off with a blowout win over the then-No.1 ranked Houston Cougars in the Big 12 Tournament Championship. Then came the NCAA Tournament. They’d make easy work of their first two opponents, before losing a nail-biter to Illinois in the Sweet Sixteen. Alas, it was back to the drawing board.

The scars of last season’s abrupt exit from the Tournament still linger. For many, such a setback could be the harbinger of decline, but not for Iowa State. Under Coach Otzelberger’s vigilant eye, the Cyclones turned disappointment into a silver lining. Every summer workout, every film session, was imbued with a singular purpose: the get back. And anybody who knows anything about college basketball knows this one thing: If you want to make a deep run with a chance to win it all, it starts with your guards. Luckily for Iowa State, they’re led by a pair of killers in Curtis Jones and Keshon Gilbert, who are proving to be one of the best backcourts in the nation.

Jones, a Minnesota native, is the epitome of what this Iowa State program represents. The 6-4 do-it-all swingman has a knack for putting the ball in the rim with his feathery touch and plays with a contagious joy and spirit that permeates the whole squad. He didn’t have a single offer coming out of high school and would end up starting his college career at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, IA. After one standout season, he’d take his talents to Buffalo University, where he’d play for two years, en route to becoming an All-MAC player, before ultimately transferring to Iowa State last year.

Jones’s backcourt partner, Gilbert, was similarly underrated coming out of high school, ranked as a 3-star recruit. He enjoyed modest success in two years at UNLV and would also enter the transfer portal after the ’23 season and become a Cyclone. The 6 -4 lead guard made his impact felt right away in his first season in Ames, leading the team in scoring on his way to earning a handful of honors: All-Big 12 Second Team, Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team and Big 12 Championship MVP. Simply put, he’s the engine that makes this team go.

Along with Jones and Gilbert, this year’s team had a couple of key pieces come back from last year’s Sweet Sixteen team—their All-Big 12 junior guard Tamin Lipsey, and their sophomore forward Milan Momcilovic, who earned a spot on the Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team. This year’s roster also saw another talented transfer class into the fold: former All-Missouri Valley guard Nate Heise (Northern Iowa), Joshua Jefferson (St. Mary’s), Brandton Chatfield (Seattle) and Dishon Jackson (Charlotte).

We’re halfway through this season with conference play well underway, and Iowa State has been flat out excellent. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Baylor’s Hall of Fame coach Scott Drew, who recently called them “one of the best two teams in the country” after suffering a blowout loss at the hands of the Cyclones. 

The AP polls are slightly less generous; as we go to press today, the AP Top 25 polls have Iowa State ranked third. Yet, somehow, the Cyclones still seem to be flying under the radar.

“That’s been a chip on our shoulder since before we got here. I don’t feel like me or [Jones] ever got the recognition we deserve,” says Gilbert. “But that’s just more motivation. That just puts more fuel in the tank, and adds more fuel to the fire. So, it is what it is.”

“You get the recognition when you win,” says Jones. “Whatever comes with winning, we’ll take it. We’re not really in it for the recognition, but that’s what comes with it.”

If anyone’s surprised by how dominant they’ve been, you can bet it’s not anyone in their locker room. They expected this. 

“Coming into this season, we knew how good we could be. Me and Keshon were always talking about what we were going to do and what we felt like we could do,” says Jones. “The results are coming now, but it all started because of how last year ended. We got to it right away this year; we already knew what it was.”

And if you let them tell it, they’re only just beginning to scratch the surface of their potential. Nevermind them convincingly winning the majority of their games thus far by double digits. 

“We ain’t even really playing our best. I’d say we’re playing good, we’re playing solid, but we still have improvements to make. And that’s exciting, because we’ve still been winning handily. But we have room for improvement, even in that. And that’s what great teams do. They find where they can improve and not just be content with winning games. We won the last two by like 20, but we wanna make that 30,” says Jones.

It’s not farfetched to envision Iowa State pulling off a few 30-point victories before the season’s out. Well, a few more 30-point victories I should say. They had a handful of wins by at least that much from their early non-conference slate, which goes to show that these Cyclones aren’t playing with their food. They know what’s at stake, and they’ve embraced everything it takes to reach their ultimate goal of a natty. Not a single moment can be taken for granted when they’re trying to do something that’s never been done in program history. To wit: Gilbert and Jones say they can’t even think of a time that Coach Otzelberger has even mentioned a Big 12 Championship, let alone the national championship; he makes it a point to take it game by game, brick by brick. 

The star backcourt makes clear that they’re keeping “the main thing the main thing.” They embrace the notion that their personal goals will be much more easily attainable if they take care of winning first. 

Every team who’s ever climbed that ladder as the last team standing has at least one thing in common: they ran toward the work, not away from it. In that regard, the Iowa State program, helmed by Coach Otzelberger, is well on their way. And we know the old saying: Nothing worth having comes easy.

“I ain’t gonna lie, Iowa State isn’t for everybody—if you don’t really love basketball, you ain’t gonna like it. You ain’t gonna fit here, because basketball is all it is,” says Gilbert. “We work hard as hell, so we know everything’s gonna fall into place.”

Portraits by Matthew Coughlin.

The post Led by Curtis Jones and Keshon Gilbert, How Iowa State Ascended on to College Basketball’s Radar appeared first on SLAM.

Out with some old, in with some new. This is the recurring challenge that many, dare I say most, programs face in today’s college basketball landscape. Case in point: this year’s Arizona Wildcats, a team that, despite its consensus top-10 preseason ranking, has still managed to fly under the radar. 

As is the case with every program of blue blood-esque caliber, Arizona entered this season with a single goal in mind: cutting down the nets at the Alamodome in San Antonio next April. But that’s a long way away from this November afternoon; the season just started and there’s a lot of basketball to be played between now and then. In order for Arizona to get where they haven’t been as a program since ‘01—the Final Four—and damn sure in order to accomplish what they haven’t since ‘97—a national championship—they know they have to stay rooted in the moment, committed to the work and focused on the journey, not the destination. 

In the transfer portal/social media/NIL era, staying focused on the task at hand is much easier said than done. But the culture they’ve been building under Coach Tommy Lloyd leaves little room for outside noise to infiltrate their solidarity. “We have a great group of guys who don’t worry about any of the off-the-court stuff,” says KJ Lewis, a sophomore guard who returned to Tuscon after testing the NBA Draft waters. “We’re such a tight team; all we wanna do is win.”

It’s one thing to express this team-first, win-by-any-means mentality; it’s another to actually embody it. But if you have any intentions of getting on Coach Lloyd’s court, you have no choice. 

It’s easy to forget this is only Coach Lloyd’s fourth season as a head coach. He’s accomplished more in his first three years than a lot of coaches will in an entire career: he’s amassed two Pac-12 Regular Season Championships, two Pac-12 Tournament Championships, two Sweet Sixteen appearances and has never earned lower than a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Talk about excellence. 

Arizona has always been one of the premier brands in college basketball, and Coach Lloyd is only raising the standards. “He wants us to be the best version of ourselves and he pushes us to be that each and every day,” says Caleb Love, the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year. “And he’s never really satisfied, so I think that’s what helps us keep going and keep getting better.”

With the former National Coach of the Year at the helm, the Arizona faithful can rest assured that they’ll always, at least, have the recipe for success…and while merely having the recipe means nothing if you don’t have the right ingredients at your disposal, recruiting is another aspect of Coach Lloyd’s brilliance. If there was a book titled How to Recruit in the Transfer Portal Era for Dummies, Coach Lloyd would be the author and a photo of this year’s team would grace the cover. The coaching staff pieced together a well-balanced group of highly-touted freshmen, high-level transfers and core veteran returnees. On paper, their roster can compete with any in the nation. And though a talented roster is hardly enough in today’s age of college hoops, it’s surely a great starting point. In that regard, this Arizona squad is ahead of the curve. And with roster churn as high as it is across the sport due to transfer rules, a team’s ability to develop chemistry can prove to be as vital to a team’s success as their ability to knock down a jumper. These guys seem to be ahead of the curve in that regard, too. 

“I think the biggest thing is just playing for your brother,” says former McDonald’s All-American, freshman Carter Bryant. “We come in every day and work our tails off to reach the mountain top this year.” It’s always a good sign when your star freshman is looking to the pinnacle of the game.

COP SLAMU ARIZONA COVER TEES

When a player puts on that Arizona jersey, suddenly the name on the back of the jersey falls by the wayside in favor of the name across their chest. “We’re playing for something bigger than ourselves,” says Caleb. “The national championship is always the goal here; that’s the standard at Arizona. And we hold each other to that each and every day, whether it’s practice, workouts, games, etcetera.”

The fifth-year senior combo guard is the engine that makes this team go. Caleb entered college as a heralded five-star recruit with one-and-done expectations and has experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows throughout his career, from the game-winner in the Final Four that ended Coach K’s career at Duke to navigating being the first preseason No. 1 ranked team in history to miss the NCAA Tournament. You name it, and he’s seen it. And through it all, one constant remains: “We have to keep the main thing, the main thing—which is putting wins in our win column” says Caleb. “Winning solves everything.”

Arizona knows a thing or two about winning. It’s a program with a rich history and storied tradition that spans decades. And the players are well aware. “The coaching staff does a good job of preaching who came before us and [talking] about the legacy,” says starting junior point guard Jaden Bradley. 

Jaden is a former five-star recruit who began his career at Alabama, where he was named to the SEC All-Freshman team before opting for a fresh start with Coach Lloyd in Tuscon for his sophomore campaign. After a steady and productive regular season last year, Jaden turned it up a notch when it mattered most. In their three NCAA Tournament games, he averaged nearly 13 points and four rebounds, while shooting 50 percent from three, adding two steals and two blocks per contest. Now, if your point guard is producing like this on both ends of the floor, your chances of success exponentially increase. As Jaden steps into a full-time starting role and prepares to “take on a new leadership role” with a year of experience in Coach Lloyd’s system under his belt, he plans to carry that momentum from the Tournament throughout this season. For Jaden, that doesn’t necessarily mean filling up the stat sheet.

“I just want to do whatever it takes to help my team get wins,” he says.

Wins in college basketball don’t come easy, let alone in the Big Dance. A lot has to go right to be the last team standing. Last year’s Wildcats came within an arm’s reach of a national championship, suffering a 5-point loss at the hands of Clemson in the Sweet Sixteen; this year’s team is (rightfully) confident they have what it takes to get over the hump. But what’s behind their confidence? It all goes back to an old team concept that they’ve seemed to embrace and buy into. 

“I think we have a lot of talented guys who understand that we’re playing for something bigger than ourselves,” says Trey Townsend, a fifth-year senior transfer from Oakland and the reigning Horizon League Player of the Year. “And on top of that, we have an elite coaching staff to guide us in that direction.”

Cover portrait by Arizona Athletics. Action photos via Getty Images.

The post Arizona is Ready to Turn Things Up a Notch: Wildcats Talk New Beginnings, Mindset and Mission for This Season appeared first on SLAM.