No. 15: San Diego Padres
Are the Padres about to pull a Ralph Sampson?
From 1980 to ’83, Ralph Sampson basically broke college basketball. Nobody had ever seen anything quite like him back then, a 7-foot-4 superathlete with point guard skills. He is the only men’s college basketball player—and will forever be the only men’s college basketball player—to be named the Associated Press player of the year three times. Nobody since him has even won it twice.
In his senior year, Virginia was crazy loaded—they were everybody’s preseason No. 1 (even though Michael Jordan and North Carolina was defending national champions) and the runaway choice to win the title. Not only did they have Sampson, they also had star Othell Wilson, future NBA player (and coach) Rick Carlisle and a gritty little guard named Ricky Stokes, who drove everybody absolutely bonkers with his ferocious on-the-ball defense.* There were those ready to dub them the greatest college basketball team ever.
*Stokes would win an award called the Frances Pomeroy Naismith, which was given out to the most outstanding men’s player who wasn’t 6 feet tall (and an outstanding women’s player who wasn’t 5-foot-8). As a lifelong short person myself, I loved this award dearly, and cherished Muggsy Bogues and Tony Bennett and Tyus Edney and Boo Harvey and other winners. Alas, they stopped giving out the award in 2014, probably for very good reasons.
Anyway, that Virginia team did not end up being the greatest ever. They famously lost to Chaminade in Hawaii in what might still be the biggest upset in college basketball history, and while they finished the regular season with only two losses (North Carolina was the other), they lost in the ACC Tournament AND in the Elite Eight to Jim Valvano’s charmed N.C. State team.
The next year, though, without Ralph Sampson, they went to the Final Four.
This has happened other times. Georgia went to the Final Four the year after Dominique Wilkins left. Seattle won 116 games the year after Alex Rodriguez left (and two years after Ken Griffey Jr. left). There are other examples.
I can’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, the Padres—one year after they watched their super team crash and burn, and after dealing Juan Soto and losing Blake Snell—might be primed for their magical season.
Here’s why I wonder that: