Again, the term âblue bloodâ is currently used out of context to indicated âelite.â If you go by the definition of the term, only the first dozen or so teams that originally played basketball, regardless of whether they won or lost, would qualify and maybe, and as I mentioned, some programs from the 30s, 40s and 50s when they still had a jump ball after each basket would qualify; I mentioned some and you mentioned some such as the Russell-Jones San Francisco teams or the Big O teams at Cincinnati, how about the DePaul teams with George Mikan?
Again, basketball as we know it did not start until the late 50s when the rules were standardize to be close to where they are today and most schools before them were not even integrated. Most teams that dominated before then are completely irrelevant now and most people donât even know about them or more importantly, donât care. Ask any one younger than 50 if they know who George Mikan was and you will get a blank stare, other than KU fans and some diehard college basketball fans, most will not even know who The Big Dipper was.
The dunk was reintroduced to college in 1976 and the 3 point shot who some conferences started using in 1981 was not standardized by the NCAA until 1986; Jordan played his entire college career without the 3 point shot and it took him 5 seasons in the NBA before he became a half way decent 3 point shooter. Can you imagine the game without those two plays. Modern college basketball starts in earnest in 1985 when the Tournament was expanded to 64 teams and term elite or a some people call it blue blood should be used from there on as the game as played today has very little resemblance to the game played in the earl days. Just my opinion.