Westbrook is the biggest name in this group, but way back when the UCLA combo guard averaged nine minutes a game as a freshman and played a valuable but still supporting role alongside Kevin Love as a sophomore. See also: Russell Westbrook (UCLA, 2006-08) Jared Sullinger (Ohio State, 2010-12) Thomas Robinson (Kansas, 2009-12) D'Angelo Russell (Ohio State, 2014-15) Gilbert Arenas (Arizona, 1999-2001) Jayson Tatum (Duke, 2016-17) De'Aaron Fox (Kentucky, 2016-17) Jaylen Brown (California, 2015-16). In other words, these very low numbers are in large part a celebration of the 21st century: 1 (Zion Williamson), 2 (Cam Reddish), 3 ( Tre Jones) and 5 (RJ Barrett), with a stray extraneous 20 (Marques Bolden) thrown in for good measure. In fact, attentive fans last season might have noticed Duke's exceptionally youthful starting lineup consisted of jersey Nos. That's just how the young people roll nowadays. Note how the lion's share of these low-number-sporting players are from recent years.

Now that the double-zeros are out of the way, we are officially into the single digits. 00 remains, somewhat surprisingly, a rather underutilized jersey option. See also: Cliff Robinson, Connecticut (1986-89) Eric Montross (North Carolina, 1990-94) Brendan Haywood (North Carolina, 1997-2001) Michael Gbinije (Syracuse, 2014-16).Ī first-team All-American and the leading scorer on the 1996 UK squad known as The Untouchables, Delk won most outstanding player honors at the NCAA tournament and led his 34-2 team to a national title.

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Tony Delk, Kentucky (1992-96) Editor's Picks Still, some numbers in particular remain way more popular than others. With such a small population of permissible numbers, great players have, inevitably, sported the same exact look on their jerseys as many other great players. The rule was instituted to simplify hand signaling by officials to the scorer's table when a player is whistled for a foul. (Scroll to the bottom.) But by the late 1950s, the 0-through-5 rule already held sway from coast to coast, as revealed by the team photo for North Carolina's 1957 national championship team. 6 for San Francisco six-plus decades ago while winning back-to-back national titles.

Bill Russell, for example, famously wore No. Conversely, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are prohibited. Any single-digit rendering or double-digit combination of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 is acceptable. Thanks to the NCAA rule book, players have only 37 options when it comes to choosing a jersey number.

1989 uk basketball roster