I see you are regarded too. In the other year Barnes had the NPOY (I said #1 pick but regardless), he fucking went to the Final 4. What do you think might have been the difference? Same coach.
so besides naming a bunch of players that played for Duke and Carolina and Kentucky and Michigan that mostly lost in the round after Durant did, you’re left with a Utah player who won a whole extra game, a dude from Ohio State that won a whole extra game, and Blow U. All of which are better basketball programs than we ever were before or since Barnes.
after you cut your list off you have a player at Creighton who lost in the 2nd or 3rd round, kaminsky who was great and on a hell of a team, Hield who lost in the sweet 16 (and I loved watching him play), Mason at KU, a national champion at Villanova, a first round or 2nd round loss at Dayton, Zion - elite8 I think at Duke, Cunningham at OSU. I’m sure I missed one or 2. In other words more than half did “better” than Durant but almost all played at better basketball schools. And Ford made the Final 4. So I’d pretty much call that par for the course for those types of players. Oh, the other thing. We never GOT those kind of players before Barnes.