While there’s still hope for the NBA to crown a 2020 champion, the same cannot be said for college basketball. When professional sports organizations put their seasons on hold in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the NCAA canceled all winter tournaments — including the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
Since there won’t be any bracket busting or Cinderella stories this year, Nets Wire will try to help fans get their March Madness fix by looking back at performances and runs that featured current Brooklyn Nets players:
Garrett Temple and Theo Pinson are Brooklyn Nets teammates now, but by no means did the two start their NBA careers at the same time. Temple’s last year at LSU was 2008-09. Pinson wrapped things up at UNC nine years later.
In their time at their respective colleges, Temple and Pinson helped their teams make deep tournament runs in March. Pinson even won a title with the Tarheels.
But before UNC was crowned champion in 2017, Pinson and the Tarheels made a push in 2016. Along the way, they met up with Indiana on March 25, and cruised to a 101-86 win (full box score).
Pinson came off the bench for UNC, finishing with four points, two rebounds, two steals and two assists in his 14 minutes.
Oddly enough, exactly 10 years before Pinson celebrated the Sweet 16 win over the Hoosiers, his future Brooklyn Nets teammate was advancing to the Final Four after an Elite Eight win.
Temple and his LSU teammates went to overtime in their March 25 game against Texas back in 2006. The Tigers took the overtime period 18-8 to secure a 70-60 win (full box score).
Temple scored two of his four points in overtime. He also logged one of his two assists in the extra period of play.
Temple finished with two blocks, two rebounds and one steal in LSU’s win.