Roughly 3,000 college basketball players have stepped on the hardwood to represent their schools in a Final Four since the first March Madness tournament in 1939. Of those 3,000, we’ve seen hundreds of future NBA players and dozens of Hall of Famers get their One Shining Moment.
But that’s not what we’re after here. We’re after something a little more … meaty. We’re after players who had their One Flexing Moment.
Sure, the buzzer-beaters and late-game heroics of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are great. And the legendary tournaments of Christian Laettner and Carmelo Anthony and Kemba Walker will live on forever.
However, at almost every Final Four, one or two dudes stand out for both their play and their power; for shredding defenses and shredded biceps; for their dunks and their delts; for their…OK…you get the idea.
The rules for picking this team were simple: The athlete had to have played in a Final Four.
Without further adieu, here is our all-muscled-up March Muscle Madness Final Four squad:
Westbrook is one of the all-time greatest athletes to pick up a basketball. Speed. Quickness. Strength. Vertical leap. Fearlessness. The man has it all. He’s also, without question, one of the most shredded athletes we’ve ever seen in the tournament. Try to find a single ounce of fat on him. It’s just another reason why Russell “All Muscle” Westbrook is our starting point guard.
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Courtesy of Georgia Tech Athletics
Jarrett Jack, Georgia Tech, 2004 Final Four
Position: Guard
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 200
Jarrett Jack? More like Jarrett Jacked. Jack was only a sophomore on Tech’s ’04 team that made it to the Championship Game before losing UConn, but he had the upper body of a 30-year-old light-heavyweight boxer.
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Courtesy Michigan State Athletic Department
Jason Richardson, Michigan State, 2001 Final Four
Position: Guard
Height: 6’6”
Weight: 230
J-Rich would eventually be known as one of the NBA’s best dunkers in the early 2000s, winning the Slam Dunk contest in 2002 and 2003. (He’d also become famous in the Finkel household for me losing a long-running bet that Richardson would make an NBA All-Star team in his career. Despite playing in the NBA for 13 years and averaging over 21 points per game three different seasons, he shockingly never made the squad.) However, in 2001, he showed off his leaping ability and his powerful frame in the Final Four, leading Michigan State with almost 15 points per game.
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Courtesy of Butler Athletics
Shelvin Mack, Butler, 2010 Final Four
Position: Guard
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 245 pounds
Mack’s official height and weight varies depending on where you look. He’s either 6’2”, 215 pounds or 6’3” 245, or anywhere in between. While we acknowledge that schools typically add a few pounds and inches to their official rosters, from the eyeball test, we can verify one thing: Mack was a monster in the Final Four, helping then-Cinderella Butler go toe-to-toe with Duke in the National Championship game.
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Courtesy of larryjohnsonnba/Instagram
Larry Johnson, UNLV, 1990, and 1991 Final Four
Position: Forward
Height: 6’7”
Weight: 235 pounds
Five years before the world would be introduced to Larry Johnson as “Grandmama” in the now-legendary Converse commercials in which Johnson dressed up as a grandmother and dunked on people, he was a ferocious scorer in the Final Four. Snarling. Tough. Aggressive. And yolked.
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Arkansas Athletics
Corliss Williamson, Arkansas, 1994 Final Four
Postion: Forward
Height: 6’7”
Weight: 250 pounds
Williamson received the nickname “The Big Nasty” from his AAU coach … when he was only 13 YEARS OLD! He was an athletic swingman who played like a pissed off grizzly bear. During the Razorbacks’ run to the National Championship, The Big Nasty was downright unstoppable, muscling his way to the Most Outstanding Player in the tournament.
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UNC Athletic Communications
Julius Peppers, UNC, 2000 Final Four
Position: Forward
Height: 6’7”
Weight: 290 pounds
Yes, Peppers was just a role player off the bench for the Tar Heels 2000 tourney squad, but so what? He looked like a professional bodybuilder when he was on the floor and throughout the tournament. And whenever he entered the game he was like a bull being let loose on the streets of Pamplona. He only played two years of college hoops before focusing on football, where he’s sure to be elected into the Hall of Fame.
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Houston Athletics
Elvin Hayes, Houston, 1968 Final Four
Position: Forward
Height: 6’9”
Weight: 240 pounds
Hayes, aka “The Big E,” might not stand out for his size in the modern college game, but back in the late ‘60s, he was a flat-out force with natural brute strength and athleticism. Need proof? In the 1968 Tournament semifinals, Hayes dropped 39 points and grabbed 15 boards against a guy you may have heard of, Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), long-considered the greatest college player ever. Hayes shut Alcindor down, holding him to just 15 points.
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UNC Athletic Communications
Sean May, UNC, 2005 Final Four
Position: Forward
Height: 6’9”
Weight: 260 pounds
Sean May was the centerpiece of North Carolina’s 2004-2005 team in stats, size, and appearance. When you looked at the floor, you simply couldn’t take your eyes off this truck of a man. At times it was like he had the horsepower of a bulldozer, plowing through defenders. He scored 26 points on 10-of-11 shooting with 11 boards in the title game to help UNC win its fourth national championship and win the Most Outstanding Player award.
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Courtesy of Duke Athletics
Carlos Boozer, Duke, 2001 Final Four
Position: Center
Height: 6’9”
Weight: 280 pounds
Carlos Boozer’s teammate, Shane Battier, was a large college forward standing at 6’8”, 220 pounds, but as his frontcourt partner, Boozer dwarfed him, standing an inch taller and weighing 60 pounds heavier. In college, Boozer was the definition of a man-child. He was tough on offense, punishing on defense, and he used his physicality to maul his opponents. A true hooper after M&F’s heart.
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courtesy of Oklahoma State Athletics
Bryant Reeves, Oklahoma State, 1995 Final Four
Position: Center
Height: 7’
Weight: 300
Bryant “Big Country” Reeves was a complete hoss. Born in Fort Smith, AR, Reeves was a country boy who took up a ton of space in the paint and whose mass and wingspan swallowed up smaller defenders. He averaged 21.5 points per game as a senior and was taken as the sixth overall pick in the draft.
Honorable Mentions: Mark Madsen, Stanford; Tyler Hansbrough, UNC; Joey Dorsey, Memphis; Joey Graham, Oklahoma State, Corey Maggette, Duke
