Matthew Mounkes NewsChannel 36 Director

The Big Boys -- It's not an allusion to tall men who play in the paint, but to the five universities, the High Brotherhood of College Basketball.

Quite simply they are UCLA, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana and Kansas. Each one makes its resume clear as to why they belong.

UCLA and Wooden. 10 titles. An era of dominance.
Kentucky and Rupp. Legendary status, most wins all time.
Indiana and Knight. Perfect season. Hoosiers.

And then the Brothers who started it all... Kansas, the birthplace of North Carolina Basketball.

I don't mean that as disrespect to North Carolina or to Kansas. But look at the history. Where did Dean Smith win his First National Championship? At Kansas as a player. Where did Roy Williams play and coach before going to Kansas? North Carolina. Larry Brown... yep, he won it all at Kansas and was a Tar Heel. Both schools have had legendary coaches.

Kansas had the inventor of the game as coach. (Trivia. Naismith is the only coach in Kansas history with a career at Kansas losing record. 55-60) Naismith was followed by the "Father of Basketball Coaching" Phog Allen. Under the instruction of Allen included four future hall of fame coaches, including Rupp and Smith.

The amount of ties the two schools have could fill more than one blog. These two schools are brothers... and brothers occasionally fight. Refer to previous "Nothing But Nets" for more info.

These are the five schools where coaching changes are lateral moves. Maybe you make like Brown and Pitino and bolt for the NBA. Maybe you go from one great program to another. But there is a kinship among these five, something that goes beyond one coach, one era, one anything.

Week in Review. Heels were good against a decent Penn team even without Hans. Davidson looked good even in their third game a defeat at Oklahoma. Kansas did well against cupcakes. Duke looked weak squeaking out their second win and Kentucky might need another year before they can compete. All in all no real surprises and no upsets, but the season is young.

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