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How many teams are in ncaa basketball
How Many Division 1 Basketball Teams Are There in the NCAA?
The NCAA basketball season is fast approaching. In fact, teams already began practice on September 28th and the season tips off on November 6th! As a huge hoops fan, I for one cannot wait for the year to begin. While the beginning of the year is always a great chance to see your favorite team finally back in action, it also gives you a chance to see some of the year’s top contenders for a coveted spot in the Final Four.
Obviously, not every team can make the Final Four, let alone the NCAA Tournament. With only 68 slots reserved for the tournament, there will be a lot of upset teams ending their seasons on a low note. The simple fact of the matter is that Division 1 basketball consists of several hundreds of teams all looking for success on different levels. For some, it may be trying to end the season with a winning record, for others the Final Four is there only measure on whether or not they had a productive season.
But exactly how many Division 1 college basketball teams are there? The number is pretty staggering and even I, as a self-proclaimed die-hard fan, was surprised at the total.
Yes, you read that right, 353!
These 353 teams are broken up in 32 total conferences with an average of 11 teams per conference playing to both win their conference regular season championship – an honor given to the team with the best in-conference record at the end of the year – and to try and win their conference tournament championship for a trip to the “Big Dance”, the NCAA Tournament. NCAA basketball has come a long way from their first season in 1924, when there were only 8 conferences total!
Let’s take a brief trip down memory lane, shall we? I want to take a look at the number of conferences at the beginning of each decade to show you the rapid growth of the sport over the years. Keep in mind, the first year of NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball was 1924:
1930: 9 conferences
1940: 11 conferences
1950: 17 conferences
1960: 18 conferences
1970: 19 conferences
1980: 29 conferences
1990: 34 conferences
2000: 32 conferences
2010: 33 conferences
2019: 32 conferences
One of the most attractive aspects NCAA Division 1 Basketball that draws in so many fans is that each of the 351 teams has a chance at making the NCAA Tournament at the beginning of each year. Yeah, they may not win it all but how many other college sports give their teams the right to play, and sometimes beat, some of the best teams in the country for a chance to win it all.
NCAA Division 1 Football gives what they call the Power Conferences (5 conferences total) the opportunity to play for a national title.
While it would be next to impossible to list all 351 schools, I still wanted to give you, the reader, a chance to do some research on this topic. So below is a link to each conference homepage, with a list of all of the conference champions from last season, so you can see all 351 of the teams somewhere in there and each respective conference champion.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the piece, the only way for a lot of these teams to make it to the NCAA Tournament is to win their conference tournaments. So while a team like Duke could technically lose their conference tournament, if they still have a good enough year otherwise, the tournament voters can reward them with what is called an “at-large bid” or a spot in the tournament based on the rest of their season resume. This can include different measurable aspects like strength of schedule, key wins, overall wins, etc.
Unfortunately, a team like North Dakota State from the Summit League just isn’t going to have enough opportunity to earn their spot in the tournament through any other way but to win their conference and earn an “automatic bid” which is given to each conference tournament winner prior to the tournament. A lot of teams live by the motto, “win and you’re in”, literally.
If you have a favorite team, what is their likelihood of making it to the NCAA Tournament each year? Are you a part of a tortured college basketball fanbase? Drop a comment below!
How Many D1 Basketball Teams are in the NCAA?
The NCAA Tournament is one of the most-awaited annual basketball events in the United States. How can you not? It’s always a chance to follow your school, do a little scouting of the next fleet of NBA stars, or do both. But you may have already thought about this: How many Division 1 basketball teams are in the NCAA?
We know that in the tournament alone, 64 teams occupy the seedings. And these 64 varsity teams came from 32 conferences. That alone should already give us a pretty good idea about NCAA Division 1 basketball teams. Let’s get into the subject a little bit deeper.
What Makes a D1 School?
Before going deep on Division 1 basketball, let us throw the total number of teams first. There are actually 353 Division 1 basketball teams. Yes, you’re not reading it wrong. It’s that many. On average, there are 11 teams per conference, plus there are three more from Division II teams that are in the process of joining Division 1.
Now, what is the basis of making a school part of Division 1? Here are some of the criteria:
Must field teams of seven sports for men and seven sports for women or six sports for men and eight for women.
Must sponsor at least one male and one female sport for each of the playing seasons, which is in autumn, winter, and spring.
Aside from football and basketball, a D1 school must play out all or 100% of their games against Division 1 opponents.
Basketball teams must play at least two games against Division 1 opponents.
For men’s basketball, 33% of the games must be played in their home arena.
Must meet the minimum criteria for financial aid awards and follow the maximum allowable financial aid awards for each sport.
Basically, Division 1 schools are just bigger than their D2 counterparts and can afford field teams in more sports, provide a budget for their student-athletes, and give out the most scholarships. All in all, there could be about 170,000 student-athletes under Division 1 of the NCAA and a total of over 6,000 teams across all sports.
What Colleges are in the NCAA Division 1?
As mentioned, there are around 350 Division 1 college basketball teams in the entire country (with the addition of three more teams). We could not possibly put them all here but we aim to include the most popular and the best D1 college basketball teams. Before the season ended unexpectedly because of the coronavirus pandemic, the most respected college basketball ranking bodies rated these teams in the top 25.
University of Kansas Jayhawks
Gonzaga University Bulldogs
University of Dayton Flyers
Florida State University Seminoles
Baylor University Bears
San Diego State University Aztecs
Creighton University Bluejays
University of Kentucky Wildcats
Michigan State University Spartans
Villanova University Wildcats
Duke University Blue Devils
University of Maryland Terrapins
University of Oregon Ducks
University of Louisville Cardinals
Seton Hall University Pirates
University of Virginia Cavaliers
University of Wisconsin Badgers
Brigham Young University Cougars
Ohio State University Buckeyes
Auburn University Tigers
University of Illinois Fighting Illini
University of Houston Cougars
Butler University Bulldogs
West Virginia University Mountaineers
University of Iowa Hawkeyes
Most of these teams are some of the most popular college teams in the NCAA and this did not include other stellar schools like University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of North Carolina, University of Indiana, University of Arizona, Notre Dame University, and St. John’s University. Incidentally, these teams are in the top 10 of the schools that produced the most NBA players.
If we go on the opposite end of the spectrum, some of the lesser-known Division I basketball schools include Presbyterian College, College of Charleston, College of William & Mary, Canisius College, Iona College, Marist College, and Merrimack College. College of the Holy Cross, La Salle University, and the University of Texas-El Paso have won NCAA championships in the 1940’s. All in all, there have only been 36 schools that won NCAA basketball titles.
How Many Scholarships Does D1 Basketball Get?
Since Division 1 Basketball is a headcount sport, a team can only give 13 full-ride scholarships. So even though the average number of players on D1 basketball teams go up to 16, only 13 of them have full scholarships. In total, there are 5,522 basketball athletes in the division, but only 4,589 have full scholarships.
Which States Have the Most D1 Basketball Team?
If we’re talking about NCAA Division 1 schools by state, there are only three states with at least 20 teams. These are California (24 teams), Texas (23), and New York (21). These states are also the most populous in the country, so it’s not exactly a surprise why they sport the most Division 1 basketball teams. The next states that have the most D1 basketball teams are North Carolina (18), Virginia (14), Pennsylvania (14), Ohio (13), Illinois (13), Tennessee (12), and Indiana (10).
Other interesting random notes about D1 basketball:
The only state with no D1 basketball team is Alaska, although it has two D2 schools– the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves and the University of Alaska Nanooks.
There are over 5 million people in Minnesota, but it only has one Division 1 basketball team, the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. That makes them the most populous state with only one or fewer D1 basketball teams.
The city with the most D1 basketball teams is Philadelphia with five. These are Villanova, La Salle, St. Joseph, Penn, and Temple.
The South Carolina city of Charleston has a population of around 130,000, but it has three D1 basketball teams. These are Charleston Southern University, The Citadel, and the College of Charleston.
Which States Have the Least D1 Basketball Team?
As mentioned, Alaska is the only state with no Division 1 basketball team. Additionally, four teams have only one D1 basketball team. These are Vermont, Minnesota, Maine, and Wyoming. After these four teams, the states that have only two D1 basketball programs are New Hampshire, West Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Several states have three D1 programs, and these are Kansas, Nebraska, and Idaho. Of all the states mentioned here among the ones with the least amount of D1 basketball teams, only two have captured a championship. These are Nevada (the University of Nevada- Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels in 1990) and Wyoming (University of Wyoming Cowboys in 1943).
Division 1 Basketball Teams with the Most Championships
Out of the 353 Division 1 college basketball teams, it’s surprising that there are only 15 schools that held national championships. The NCAA Tournament was founded in 1939, so to think that only 15 schools have won it in 80 years, is kind of mind-boggling. Here are the schools with the most NCAA basketball titles:
1. UCLA (11). Won 11 championships but the last one came years ago, in 1995. Its titles won in 1967-1969 was when Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was the main feature of the Bruins roster.
2. Kentucky (8). Eight championships with the last one in 2012, led by Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Terrence Jones.
3. North Carolina (6). The Tar Heels was famous for being Michael Jordan’s school, and indeed, MJ brought a championship to Chapel Hill in 1982. The last one came just three years ago, in 2017, bannered by Theo Pinson and Justin Jackson.
4. Duke (5). The Tar Heels’ crosstown rivals have won two championships in the last ten years. The 2010 team was littered with future NBA players such as Seth Curry, Miles and Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly, and Kyle Singler. The 2015 squad features Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Grayson Allen, Quinn Cook, and Tyus Jones.
5. Indiana (5). The Hoosiers haven’t won anything in the past 30-odd years. The last championship came in 1987 with Keith Smart, Steve Alford, Dean Garrett, and Rick Calloway leading the way.
6. UConn (4). The Huskies have won three of their championships in the past 16 years. The last one was in 2014 under the leadership of coach Kevin Ollie. Three years before that, in 2011, a guy named Kemba Walker led UConn to the title, along with Jeremy Lamb and freshman Shabazz Napier. Napier was also the main guy in the 2014 championship team.
Division 1 Schools That Produced the Most NBA Players
It would be no surprise to see traditional powerhouses in this list, so if you ever dream of making it big, playing basketball under these programs is not a bad start.
1. Kentucky Wildcats (111). Kentucky trailed to the number 2 team in this list, but the influx of former Wildcats in recent years closed the gap and eventually took the lead. The program produced 111 NBA players all in all, and before the 2019-20 NBA season started, there were 28 former Wildcats in NBA rosters. That includes Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, and Eric Bledsoe.
2. UCLA Bruins (98). UCLA has produced the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Reggie Miller, and Russell Westbrook. It seems like a couple of years ago, they had a comfortable personnel lead over Kentucky, but they relegated to second place in this list, which is not bad at all. Entering the 2019-20 NBA season, the Bruins have 14 representatives, including Westbrook, Kevin Love, the Holiday Brothers, Lonzo Ball, and Zach Lavine.
3. UNC Tar Heels (94). It’s neck and neck between North Carolina and UCLA, but in the end, the Tar Heels were four bodies down. They have had outstanding players before than now (Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Rasheed Wallace, Vince Carter, to name a few), although Harrison Barnes, Danny Green, and Coby White aren’t so bad. There are 14 former Tar Heels in the NBA right now.
4. Duke Blue Devils (81). Duke is a powerhouse of a squad in the NCAA, and they have some of the most popular young players in the NBA right now. Kyrie Irving, Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, and Marvin Bagley III are names that we can throw out there, and if we go further back, Grant Hill, Christian Laettner, and JJ Redick are all college basketball legends. If you skim through NBA rosters right now, you will see 29 former Blue Devils scattered all throughout.
5. Kansas Jayhawks (76). If the 2020 season did not end, the Jayhawks have as good a chance as any to win it all. Currently, they also boast a pretty good armada of players in the league. Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins, The Morris Twins, Devonte’ Graham, to name a few, are some of the 11 former Jayhawks on current NBA rosters.
With these five programs alone, they already have 20% of all players on NBA rosters before the 2019-20 season. Isn’t that amazing? If you meet an NBA player, there is a 1 in 5 chance he is from Kansas, Duke, UNC, UCLA, or Kentucky. That’s what an excellent Division 1 program does to you.
Wrapping Things Up: How Many Division 1 Basketball Teams are in the NCAA?
NCAA Division 1 basketball is an ocean of talent. There are precisely 353 teams with well over 5,000 athletes and a total of 4,589 full scholarships given out. Well, of course, it’s not easy to be categorized as a Division 1 school. The school needs to have the student workforce sponsor a lot of sports teams for both men and women, which means the institution should have the necessary funding to do it.
Without a doubt, NCAA Division 1 basketball is a source of great entertainment. All of the states, except Alaska, have at least one representative in there. California, Texas, and New York are three of the most populous states in the country– They have 68 Division 1 schools between them.
Coincidentally, UCLA did have the most NCAA championships with 11, followed by Kentucky (8), North Carolina (6), Duke (5), and Indiana (5). It’s also quite a surprising note that in the 80-year history of the NCAA, only 36 schools boast national championships. Fifteen of them won at least two. For states with at least three Division 1 basketball teams, and there are 14 of them, only two have captured national titles. These are the University of Wyoming back in 1943 and the hip UNLV Runnin’ Rebels back in 1990.
Needless to say, some of the recent champion NCAA Division 1 basketball teams like Kentucky, UCLA, North Carolina, and Kansas have produced 20% of current NBA players. These ranges from superstars like Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, and Kyrie Irving to up-and-comers like Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Coby White. So, if it occurs to you how many Division 1 basketball teams are in the NCAA, they are quite a lot. However, the programs right now that provide a strong basketball foundation are not as plenty.
Did you find this helpful? Then also check out other basketball FAQ articles here.
> Kansas NBA Players: Greatest of All Time
> Kentucky NBA Players: Greatest of All Time
> UCLA NBA Players: Greatest of All Time
> North Carolina NBA Players: Greatest of All Time
This season, 8 Russians play in the NCAA.
How are they? - The Interception - Blogs
Editor's Note: You are reading the user blog Interception, which talks about European basketball. Don't forget that pluses are still the best way to thank the author.
Before the start of last season, I wrote this text. Then I talked to almost all the Russians who were preparing to compete in the NCAA - there were 11 of them at that time - and tried to understand why Russian youth began to leave more massively for American universities. There have never been such a number of Russians in the NCAA.
A year and a half has passed since then, and half of the guys have parted ways: Konstantin Dotsenko is now playing in the Loko farm club, Zakhar Vedischev plays at the base of Krasnodar, Mark Tikhonenko signed a contract with Astana, Andre Toure recently played in Maykop in the second Super League, and Samson Ruzhentsev moved to the Serbian "Mega".
But some remained in America. They were joined by a few more guys who either just left Russia or got into the NCAA from American schools or the NJCAA. In this text, I will talk about all the Russians who play in the first division of the main student league in the world. If last season I wanted to explain why exactly they are leaving, now I have focused on their career.
If you prefer reading, then below is a large text with comments from the players themselves; but this time you have the opportunity not only to read, but also to watch a video about all of our in the NCAA. Inside is my story and a video interview with the guys.
If you watch a YouTube video, don't forget to thumbs up and leave a comment. This will help promote the channel. Subscribe if you love Russian basketball and want to know more about it.
And now - the promised text about our guys in America.
What is the NCAA
The NCAA, or NCDA, is the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States and Canada. It includes almost 1300 schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions. The teams of these universities are represented not only in basketball - the NCAA also has competitions in American football, wrestling, fencing, bowling, softball, gymnastics, tennis and God knows what else.
But basketball is a very popular sport in the association. Both guys and girls have three divisions, which are ranked by strength. This text is only about those Russians who compete in the first, strongest, division.
The NCAA has a playoff called March Madness. When knockout games start, the whole country switches from professionals to students. Although during the season, the teams also have enough attention from fans: the clubs play in large and good arenas, many people come to the matches, the games are shown on television, and sometimes on national television. There are even universities whose fans spend the night in front of the arena in the hope of having time to buy a ticket.
So the NCAA is a really serious tournament, albeit a student one.
How many Russians are there
I have spent an hour and a half of my life checking the composition of all the colleges that are represented in the first division. There are 358 of them. I broke my eyes, learned about the existence of several countries and even about the presence of basketball in these countries, but still I counted all the Russians.
I got eight people, and now we will get to know them better. The sequence on my list doesn't mean anything, it's just that way because I talked to the guys in that order.
I hope I haven't missed anyone. Please write in the comments if you know someone whom I have overlooked.
Evdokimov is the newest member of the NCAA Division I. He joined the Charleston Cougars - the name of the team of the University of Charleston from South Carolina - in early December last year.
This university belongs to mid-major. In the American system, there is a gradation of universities by strength - from low-major to high-major. Mid-major is the middle level. Most Russian guys perform at universities that fall into this category.
Before moving to the USA, Nikita played for the youth team of Lokomotiv-Kuban and for the national team. Last summer, the defender represented the Russian under-20 team at the Euro Challenger, although he himself was only 18.
Evdokimov has an interesting story about how he fell in love with basketball. In fact, it is strange that he did not go to handball, because his dad is the famous Russian handball player Yegor Evdokimov. Six-time champion of Russia, champion of Spain, champion of Belarus, champion of Ukraine, participant of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. At the dawn of his career, Yegor Viktorovich played in his homeland, in the Chelyabinsk region, the city of Snezhinsk. Nikita was born there.
- I fell in love with basketball when I was 9 or 10 years old. My cousin and grandmother and I went on vacation to the Crimea. There was a playground where I constantly ran and played. Grandma suggested trying to sign up for basketball. And before that, I didn’t consider basketball as a sport at all ... But I went to a training session and instantly fell in love. Didn't miss it at all. Then Lokomotiv saw me at the Russian Championship. Together with a team from my city, from Chekhov, we took fourth place, and everyone was very surprised. I was seen by coach Petar Marinkovic, who called me to Loko, ”recalls Evdokimov.
He says that he could have been in the red-green system even earlier. He was invited to the Yug-Basket camp - this is a camp organized by the club and within which it looks for players in its youth system - but then Evdokimov was with relatives in the United States and could not come.
He ended up in the Loko system in 2017. True, Evdokimov says that, even while playing for Krasnodar, he often thought that he actually wanted to try his hand at American basketball. He has relatives living in the USA, he has been there more than once, and when the chance to move to the university appeared, he did not hesitate for a long time.
Evdokimov learned about the university's interest in him in advance, so he spent the summer with benefit: he trained individually with personal trainers in Moscow and Cyprus, where his father plays handball. There, the defender, at the request of the university coach, worked hard on three-pointers and performed at least 500 long-range shots a day.
Evdokimov will be coached at the College of Charleston by Pat Kelsey, a strong specialist who is widely known in college basketball. He once worked with Jeff Teague and Chris Paul.
Alex is not short for Alexander, but his passport name. He was not born in Russia, but in Canada, his parents went there to give birth to Alex. In this country, he lived the first year of his life, after which he left for Moscow. In memory of Canada, Alex has citizenship (he has a double one).
But he started playing basketball in Russia.
— I started playing basketball at Gloria when I was 10-11 years old. People came to my school - and I studied at an ordinary secondary school - who were looking for young guys who were ready to play basketball. They came into my class, saw that I was tall, did a couple of tests, asked me different questions and invited me to practice. I studied at Gloria for a long time, then I got into the MBA Junior Junior League, from there I was taken to the Super League. I played there for literally a year, and after graduating from high school I decided that it would be wise to go to the United States. I contacted Skryagin (Alexander Skryagin, ProFuturo Sports, - note "Interception"), because he was the only person who knows more about moving to the USA than me. We talked to him, I dropped my highlights to him, and he helped me find a school, - says Kotov.
Alex arrived in the US in 2017 and entered the Montverde Academy. This is a very famous program that prepares players for the NCAA. Kotov spent a year in Montverde and won the championship with this team, the result for the season is 35-0. Alex's partners then included, for example, RJ Barrett, who now plays for the New York Knicks in the NBA, and Turkish Efes center Philip Petrushev.
Alex left Montverde not immediately for the NCAA, but for the NJCAA. It is an association of junior colleges and is also often referred to as Juko. A common story for those who feel like they're not ready for the NCAA yet, but want to play hard and improve. Kotov spent two years in this association, after which he moved to the NCAA, to the Illinois State Redbirds team. This is also a representative university of the mid-major category.
Alex has six months left to study at the university, but he can play in the team for another two and a half years. This happened because the players have the right to use the redshirt option. In fact, this is the right of the player to extend his career at the university, even if he has already graduated from the university. Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA).
In general, these rules are very complicated.
- Due to an injury in my second year at the NJCAA, I opted to save the year. That's plus one season. In addition, this year I had a lot of misunderstandings with the coach, it all started last year. I thought that it would be possible to influence it somehow, to establish relations with him in the summer, but it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. Therefore, after a huge number of meetings, we came to the conclusion that this year it would be easier for me to also take the option to save the year. So this year I'm graduating from university, getting an education, but I still have, roughly speaking, two seasons to play in the NCAA, - says Kotov.
Lakhin is the only Russian who represents a high-major university. This means that the university where Vitya plays often goes to the "March Madness" and has a tangible chance of winning the NCAA.
And the story of Lakhin began in Anapa. The parents wanted to send their sons - Vitya and his brother Vasya - to some kind of team sport so that they would play together. And chose volleyball. But because of the coach, they did not last long in the volleyball section and eventually went to basketball.
Lahin started in fourth grade but quickly rose to the city team. And in the Krasnodar Territory, if you play for the city team, then you are in full view of the Lokomotiv scouts. Vitya did not play Loko on a permanent basis, but by the 7-8th grade he was regularly on the team to participate in the Russian championships. The Railroaders took him as a reinforcement player - this is a common practice in children's competitions.
Further - a matter of chance. Loko juniors played in the final stage of the Russian championship and met CSKA twice - in the group stage and in the semi-finals. Lakhin gave two good games and ... received an invitation from the "soldiers".
At first he did not think of moving anywhere and stayed to finish the season in the south. But summer came, and he still went to see it. He was offered to stay after the first practice. Vitya talked to his parents and a month later he arrived at CSKA.
- The first season was probably the most emotional, full of some moments, memories. Because my brother and I arrived for the first time in a big city. On the one hand, this is a great freedom, because there are no parents nearby, but, on the other hand, this is also a great responsibility. Because you have never done the things that your parents did for you before, like laundry, cleaning, all sorts of small things. Even a waste of money: you never thought about it before, you were given - you spent it. And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya.
Lakhin reached the final stage of the youth Euroleague with CSKA and spent a pretty good season overall. Alexey Zhukov, the head coach of the “army” CYBL, left to work as an assistant in Nizhny Novgorod, and Maxim Sharafan came to CSKA from Lokomotiv. He worked with Vitya for three years, and during this time Lakhin managed to understand that he wants to play in Russia only at the highest level - in CSKA - and if it doesn’t work out, then it’s better to leave.
- I realized that it would be very difficult for me to get into the base. This is a top club with the highest goals, and as a young player I need to be not even the same as everyone else, but better, because I have no experience. It was necessary here and now to show some level and bring results. Let's be realistic, there were no players who can immediately enter the CSKA system and show something like that for a long time. Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya.
But not everything was so simple. Back in Russia, Lakhin managed to get injured. He fell in the game moment, and his knee hurt. The medical staff did not suspect anything, and Vitya continued to train. The state of health worsened, but then the pandemic came, everyone went into self-isolation, and the center just went home. The knee was still swollen, but the pain was slowly receding. Vitya did not train and therefore did not feel any signs of deterioration. He already knew that he was leaving for America, and just waited for all the permits.
The injury happened in February and the departure was due in September. In the summer, Lakhin himself did an MRI, which showed that he had ... a torn meniscus. He took the results of the examination to the surgeon who scheduled the operation. Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee.
Everything should have been fine, but when he started running, the pain returned. Lakhin did another MRI, and it showed that the same meniscus was completely torn. The doctors said that it would take six months to recover. Therefore, Vitya simply missed his first season in the NCAA.
— All this time I didn't train, but I was always with the team: in scouting, in the locker room, in training. All lessons were online, and we lived in an apartment with the team. So that year helped me a lot, because even though I didn’t play, I was in the system and I knew the guys. It was my year of adaptation - to a new culture, to people, to new faces, to food. I had the same feeling as when I came from a small town to Moscow. You leave Russia for any other country - even to America, even to Italy, even to Spain - and you go through the same thing, Lakhin believes.
He adds that the Cincinnati had a new head coach at the end of last season and it was a difficult moment. A new specialist was appointed the day before Lakhin's departure to Russia, when he did not yet understand whether he would remain in the team for the next season or not. Whether to leave it, decided the new head coach. But in the end, the center managed to meet with him before departure and find a common language. The coach wanted to protect the Russians in the squad.
During the summer Vitya worked in the USA on his body and improved his skills. The season began in October, and in December, Lahin was the best freshman of the week in his conference. By the way, he has a situation similar to Alex: academically, Lahin is a sophomore, but he is considered a rookie in the team.
Andrey Savrasov, Georgia Southern Eagles
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 23.7 minutes average
11.9 points (51.5% 2-point, 30% 3-point, 73.1% free throws), 6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.4 block shots, 0.9 interceptions, 1 loss Andrey's first coach is a well-known Russian specialist Oleg Aktsipetrov.
— I remember that at first I had very different hobbies: football, basketball, taekwondo… But after the first two or three years of training, I realized that basketball is really mine, that I want to do just that. Slowly, I began to play for the sports school of the Admiralteisky district, for the Zenit Junior Junior League, played for the Russian national team U16, U18. We went to different tournaments, and somewhere the scouts saw my game and invited me to the USA, says Savrasov.
Andrey moved to America three years ago - in January 2019of the year. Now he is finishing his third year at the university, in the American education system it is possible to start studying in the middle of the academic year and, accordingly, then graduate also in the middle of the academic year.
Savrasov managed to play for the Texas Tech team, where he spent a year and a half. The first six months he did not play, he spent in redshirt mode - he trained, worked on his body, was with the team, but did not play for it. But the next season already played in the status of a freshman, that is, a freshman.
Andrei didn't get much playing time, but he still wanted to stay at the university. It was a high-major, and Savrasov wanted to prove that he deserved another role.
But then I talked to the head coach, and together they decided that it would be better to change the university in order to continue their career. The coach even helped find a new team, and that's how Savrasov ended up in Georgia, in the Georgia Southern Eagles team. This is a mid-major university.
Now in his second year with the new team, he is in the starting five and generally has a good role on the court. In theory, Andrei can play for the university for another two years, although he graduates from the university in a year.
Vladislav Goldin, Florida Atlantic Owls
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 16.5 minutes average
5.7 points (47.9% 2-pointers, no 3-pointers, 52.2% free throws), 5. 5 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 0.6 block shots, 0.4 interceptions, 1.3 losses He played with his 2001, but at some point the team just fell apart and disappeared.
Goldin was sent to play by the year 2000, and the coach of this team turned out to be familiar with the coach of CSKA-DYuBL. Vlad and another guy were offered to the "soldiers" - just to look at them. But the screening went well, and after one of the training sessions, Vlad was offered to move to Moscow. New school, new surroundings, heavy loads, training twice a day - Vlad says that the first six months in the capital were the most difficult time in his life.
- At that time, I probably did not quite understand where I was moving and how much it changed. To be honest, I didn't even really know what DUBL was. Wasn't very knowledgeable. Youth League, Junior Team, Superleague… I knew the tournaments where we played: first the Southern Federal District, then the Russian Championship. When I found out that I was already in Moscow and had to go to the CYBL team for a tryout, I even got scared. But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin.
Prep school is short for preparatory school. In essence, this is an opportunity to play basketball in the USA before going to university.
In October 2019, Vlad entered Patnam School in Connecticut. This is a small private school about an hour from Boston. Together with the team, Goldin became the champion of America in the championship among preparatory schools.
After that, Vlad was called to Texas, to the Texas Tech team - to the same team where Andrey Savrasov played for a year and a half. Goldin saw that this was a big and serious high-major team, saw the conditions for training and accepted their invitation without hesitation.
— In Texas, things are a little different. The way we played there was not like the way I played before, so the first experience was difficult. And then the head coach left us, replacing TexasTech with Texas. Most of the coaching staff left with him, and our team did not quite understand what to do. Only the assistant coach remained with us. And in the end, I decided to move to another team, to Florida, - say Goldin.
Due to the coronavirus, Vlad has the same situation as most student athletes: academically he is a sophomore, but the last sports season did not count, so he is a freshman in the team. Goldin has three years left to study, and he can play four more.
He himself says that his current team plays more European basketball, so he feels great there.
Alexander Glushkov, Appalachian State Mountaineers
2021/22 stats: 7 games, 4.7 minutes average
2 points (60% 2-pointers, 0% 3-pointers, 33.3% free throws), 1 .1 rebounds, no assists, 0.1 blocks, 0.1 steals, no losses
Born in Vladivostok, Glushkov started playing basketball at the age of 13 when he went to summer camp. I came home and told my father: "I want to play basketball." Parents sent Sasha to the section.
Glushkov's first coach is Eduard Sushko. After a year of working with him, Sasha was invited to the Spartak-Primorye system. He played in the Junior Junior League for a year, after which the entire management of the team and almost the entire squad moved to the PSC Sakhalin. At the same time, the base of the club remained in Vladivostok. Glushkov spent a year in the new club, after which he received an invitation from Moscow, from the IBA. His coach Alexander Antipov invited him.
And then it was a matter of chance, and a year later Sasha was already flying to the USA to study at school.
— I came to Moscow and played there for a year. When we were preparing for the Summer Spartakiad in Krasnaya Pakhra at the Trinta base, a coach from the USA arrived there. He was familiar with Alexander Antipov, because before that our guy had already played at the same school. He came just to relax, but he also wanted to look at the players. He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov.
Now Sasha is in his second year, but as you know, last year doesn't count. So Glushkov is considered a “freshman” in the team and can play for the university for another three and a half years, while he has two and a half to study.
When Sasha arrived at the university, he weighed about 90 kg. But now he has noticeably added muscle mass. He began to grow muscles during the last season, but he did the main work in the summer. Due to problems with visas, he could not go home to Russia, and he went to a friend in Houston. There he lived for a month, ate a lot and rocked. As a result, he entered the new season in excellent physical shape. True, the coach still does not really trust him.
Glushkov University is a mid-major who, last year, entered March Madness for the first time in 20 years. Sasha was not released then, but he nevertheless felt the atmosphere of the main student event of the year. Here's what he says about it:
- It was ... unbelievable (unbelievable - approx. "Interception"). Very cool feeling. 64 top teams, all at the highest level. We had two or three hotels, each floor was dedicated to a specific team. I don’t know how much it could be called the same “March Madness”, because, of course, all the measures were taken anyway. We had a quarantine, we had to be tested every day. And so everything was at the highest level,” recalls Glushkov.
David has probably the most atypical fate among all our guys who now play in the first division of the NCAA.
Didenko was born in the north, in the city of Yakutsk. He remembers his childhood quite vividly: he says that the city authorities allowed not to go to school at -45 degrees Celsius, and if the thermometer was only -43, you had to pull yourself together, stick yourselves into a thick down jacket and stomp to school.
— I had a healthy down jacket, maybe five centimeters. I walked around like a big bubble. When I was 8 or 9 years old, we had -57 degrees in winter. Very cold. I didn’t leave the house for two days,” Didenko recalls.
In 2010, David ended up in the USA even before he started playing basketball. He was 10. His older sister was leaving for New York to study English, and David just went with her for a month.
While still in Russia, they found him something to do in the USA. On the classifieds website, the family looked at a message from a Russian coach who lived there, his name was Boris Karebin. The coach was needed so that David would not just mess around in the States.
But the boy got so caught up in basketball that he eventually wanted to stay. Parents allowed, and he went to an American school. Karebin trained him in Brighton Beach, this is a Russian-speaking area, so immersion in American culture was gradual.
— I first lived in New York, where I arrived, and then I traveled. Lived in Florida, then studied in Georgia, in Tennessee. I travel a lot around the country - sometimes I live there, sometimes there. Somehow I quickly learned English, apparently because I was still young. Literally in a year. In Russia, I studied English for three classes, but could not learn it. Here I first lived with my sister, she pushed me to talk to people, and somehow everything turned out by itself, - says Didenko.
David spent his first year after school in Juko. Remember the story of Alex Kotov? This is the same league that prepares players who have not yet grown up to the NCAA. But already in the second year, Didenko ended up in the first division, at the University of Georgia.
He is currently a UT Martin Skyhawks player, where UT is the University of Tennessee. Accordingly, David now lives and studies in this state. He has a year and a half left at the university, and he can still play the same amount at the university level.
At the same time, he is 21 years old and automatically enters the NBA draft next year. In mocks - that is, expert predictions - he is not drafted, but he still has to play the whole season, so everything is in his hands.
Last on the list - not by value, but simply because he is the only Russian I could not contact - Pavel Zakharov from California Baptist Lancers.
Zakharov was born in Sør-Varanger, Norway. In Russia, Pasha played for the Zenit youth team and helped CSKA play in the youth Euroleague, and in 2018, after playing for the Russian U18 team at the European Championship, he left for the Montverde Academy. We talked about it a little earlier.
He was considered a four-star recruit. In American sports, when they want to talk about the prospects of a particular player, they talk about him in terms of stars, and four stars is very good. Such an assessment helped him get into the Gonzaga College in the NCAA - this is one of the top programs, which, for example, reached the NCAA finals last season, having suffered its first loss of the season in this very final. Pasha then did not go to the parquet. A year before, the team did not get into the "March Madness" only because the championship was stopped due to a pandemic.
Zakharov spent two seasons at this university and moved to the California Baptist Lancers in the summer of 2021. Most likely due to playing time, because, obviously, it was much more difficult to get it in Gonzaga. But even at the new university, he still has an average of 10 minutes on the floor and one and a half rebounds. By the way, about playing on the shields: the height of the Russian center is 213 centimeters, in America these guys are called seven-footers.
This is almost all I know about Pavel Zakharov.
It seems that the Russians in the first division of the NCAA are over. If you know someone else that I forgot, please write in the comments.
Thank you for your attention! I will be glad if you share the text or video with your friends who are interested in young Russian players. Well, thumbs up, comments, subscriptions to YouTube - everything is traditional.
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Photo: official websites of clubs, personal archives of players; twitter.com; instagram.com; cskabasket.com
NCAA basketball championship betting features
In addition to the most popular basketball championships, such as the NBA and the Euroleague, you can find a very strong NCAA student league in the betting line. It does not attract attention, but is worthy of a separate study. The features of bets on this championship will be discussed in our material.
Most bookmakers quote American college basketball. The schedule is the same as for other championships, but the odds are higher, there are quite a few games, which in turn attracts forecasters. However, students have their own specifics of the game, so you need to adhere to certain principles before you start betting in this market segment.
Game pace
Speed characteristics in NCAA fights change much more often than when the pros meet. NBA teams have a lot of different tactics, but the pace is generally kept at the same level. Students, on the other hand, have a difference in the level of basketball players even in a single team. For example, there are physically more powerful and hardy players, while the rest are significantly inferior to them in this.
Students score 80 points in one game, barely reach 40 in the second. The squad differs by a maximum of one or two players throughout the season. The intensity during the first half is admirable, after the break it turns into a terrible sight. Physics and speed sit down very strongly and there is an imbalance.
Small handicaps
Beginning bettors are often led by tempting handicaps. They are significantly less in matches of the strongest NCAA teams than at the professional level. Often, such rates in the absence of high-quality analytics result in a loss of funds. It must be remembered that every point in this league is not easy for teams. That's what really sets students apart from NBA pros. The most gifted students in the league still score fewer points on average. As a result, handicap and "total" break through not so often.
Unreliability of players
A player who has spent several seasons in the best league in the world, the lion's share of matches is at the same level. The condition of each basketball player is monitored by specialists: coaches, medical staff, psychologists. All this allows you to be in optimal tone. Students lack experience in such situations. Also, they do not know how to approach every game so responsibly.
During the off-season, professionals work on themselves using individual programs in the gym in order to be better next season. Young players are much more vulnerable. Basketball may take a backseat to them due to the characteristics of teenagers. All this leads to more failures. It is very difficult to make predictions for the NCAA match, even knowing that the teams have full lineups.
Team level
There are many strong clubs in the NBA and weaker ones, but there is no total difference in the class. When a leader loses to a weaker team, this, of course, is surprising, but it is not perceived as a sensation. The NCAA is different from the professional league. Here the difference can be incredibly large. The best teams play several dozen matches during the season, which they most often win.
In other words, very often basketball players lose their motivation and mood without demonstrating their best qualities. The level of the duel of students essentially depends on how ready both teams are at once. That is why it is vital for a bettor to pay attention to the general heat of passion before the match. It is necessary to understand whether the opposition will be fundamental or not.
Unknown players
Everyone knows NBA stars. We often hear their names in various programs or news. The best NCAA players are only visible to sports agents and very experienced bettors. Data on student groups is much more difficult to find. However, such information will become a real treasure for you.
In order to win bets on this market, you need to find more than a dozen organizations. On the site you need to study the players, view the reviews of the games. We must not forget about social networks. They have pretty good college communities. Actually, there are often discussions of basketball games. All these things are not easy to find. These data will be much more effective than banal statistics from sports sources.
Yeah, they may not win it all but how many other college sports give their teams the right to play, and sometimes beat, some of the best teams in the country for a chance to win it all.
So while a team like Duke could technically lose their conference tournament, if they still have a good enough year otherwise, the tournament voters can reward them with what is called an “at-large bid” or a spot in the tournament based on the rest of their season resume. This can include different measurable aspects like strength of schedule, key wins, overall wins, etc.
How can you not? It’s always a chance to follow your school, do a little scouting of the next fleet of NBA stars, or do both. But you may have already thought about this: How many Division 1 basketball teams are in the NCAA? 
We could not possibly put them all here but we aim to include the most popular and the best D1 college basketball teams. Before the season ended unexpectedly because of the coronavirus pandemic, the most respected college basketball ranking bodies rated these teams in the top 25.
John’s University. Incidentally, these teams are in the top 10 of the schools that produced the most NBA players. 
These are California (24 teams), Texas (23), and New York (21). These states are also the most populous in the country, so it’s not exactly a surprise why they sport the most Division 1 basketball teams. The next states that have the most D1 basketball teams are North Carolina (18), Virginia (14), Pennsylvania (14), Ohio (13), Illinois (13), Tennessee (12), and Indiana (10).
These are Charleston Southern University, The Citadel, and the College of Charleston.
The NCAA Tournament was founded in 1939, so to think that only 15 schools have won it in 80 years, is kind of mind-boggling. Here are the schools with the most NCAA basketball titles:
The 2015 squad features Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Grayson Allen, Quinn Cook, and Tyus Jones.
The program produced 111 NBA players all in all, and before the 2019-20 NBA season started, there were 28 former Wildcats in NBA rosters. That includes Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, and Eric Bledsoe.
That’s what an excellent Division 1 program does to you.
Fifteen of them won at least two. For states with at least three Division 1 basketball teams, and there are 14 of them, only two have captured national titles. These are the University of Wyoming back in 1943 and the hip UNLV Runnin’ Rebels back in 1990.:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/11706519/ncaawhatisthis.jpg)
How are they? - The Interception - Blogs 
In this text, I will talk about all the Russians who play in the first division of the main student league in the world. If last season I wanted to explain why exactly they are leaving, now I have focused on their career. 
The teams of these universities are represented not only in basketball - the NCAA also has competitions in American football, wrestling, fencing, bowling, softball, gymnastics, tennis and God knows what else. 
There are 358 of them. I broke my eyes, learned about the existence of several countries and even about the presence of basketball in these countries, but still I counted all the Russians. 
Most Russian guys perform at universities that fall into this category. 
And before that, I didn’t consider basketball as a sport at all ... But I went to a training session and instantly fell in love. Didn't miss it at all. Then Lokomotiv saw me at the Russian Championship. Together with a team from my city, from Chekhov, we took fourth place, and everyone was very surprised. I was seen by coach Petar Marinkovic, who called me to Loko, ”recalls Evdokimov. 
Kotov spent a year in Montverde and won the championship with this team, the result for the season is 35-0. Alex's partners then included, for example, RJ Barrett, who now plays for the New York Knicks in the NBA, and Turkish Efes center Philip Petrushev. 
Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA). 
1 minutes average 
And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya. 
Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya. 
Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee. 
A new specialist was appointed the day before Lakhin's departure to Russia, when he did not yet understand whether he would remain in the team for the next season or not. Whether to leave it, decided the new head coach. But in the end, the center managed to meet with him before departure and find a common language. The coach wanted to protect the Russians in the squad. 
But the next season already played in the status of a freshman, that is, a freshman. 
5 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 0.6 block shots, 0.4 interceptions, 1.3 losses He played with his 2001, but at some point the team just fell apart and disappeared. 
But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin. 
And then the head coach left us, replacing TexasTech with Texas. Most of the coaching staff left with him, and our team did not quite understand what to do. Only the assistant coach remained with us. And in the end, I decided to move to another team, to Florida, - say Goldin. 
I came home and told my father: "I want to play basketball." Parents sent Sasha to the section. 
He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov. 
Sasha was not released then, but he nevertheless felt the atmosphere of the main student event of the year. Here's what he says about it: 
He remembers his childhood quite vividly: he says that the city authorities allowed not to go to school at -45 degrees Celsius, and if the thermometer was only -43, you had to pull yourself together, stick yourselves into a thick down jacket and stomp to school. 
Parents allowed, and he went to an American school. Karebin trained him in Brighton Beach, this is a Russian-speaking area, so immersion in American culture was gradual. 
Accordingly, David now lives and studies in this state. He has a year and a half left at the university, and he can still play the same amount at the university level. 
We talked about it a little earlier. 
It does not attract attention, but is worthy of a separate study. The features of bets on this championship will be discussed in our material. 
The squad differs by a maximum of one or two players throughout the season. The intensity during the first half is admirable, after the break it turns into a terrible sight. Physics and speed sit down very strongly and there is an imbalance. 
All this allows you to be in optimal tone. Students lack experience in such situations. Also, they do not know how to approach every game so responsibly. 
The level of the duel of students essentially depends on how ready both teams are at once. That is why it is vital for a bettor to pay attention to the general heat of passion before the match. It is necessary to understand whether the opposition will be fundamental or not. 
