The American College Basketball Teams I am mad about marching on to glory

I have been following basketball more closely since I went to the USA in 2001 to continue my journey to MIT from Presec. During my 10 years in the US, I fell in love with the game of basketball. #ILoveThisGame. This love grew partly because I was unable to watch much football as a big sports fan. If you think I am talking about the NFL, you must be new here. Football, aka soccer, okay, I am about to talk about American sports so I would defer for now. I have blogged about basketball a lot. This time, let me tell you about NCAA basketball, even though March Madness is a couple of months past. I support the following colleges in the annual tournaments: Stanford, Syracuse, North Carolina (UNC) and UConn.

From September 2001, I spent almost 12 months in Syracuse, New York with my dad who was working on his Post Doc at the time. I worked at a local grocery chain to get money for school, helped my dad with some side hustles and he taught me how to cook. He also was the main person looking over my college applications to MIT (and others). Instrumental does not do Francis Ulzen-Appiah justice. I was taller than him, but I did not know how to play basketball. I did not grow up playing basketball on the KNUST campus, where Daddy and Mummy were both lecturers. Daddy played basketball growing up though. In fact, he played on the KNUST team. He was a point guard. This is where I tell you that he has always been a Lakers fan, from the 80s till now. He loved seeing the Lakers beat the Celtics. 

Talking about the Celtics and Boston ...... I was nowhere near my dorm team at MIT. I was probably the 9th man on the MIT Africans intramural basketball team circa 2002-2006. I led from the bench, helping coach thanks to the hours of basketball I had watched in Burton-Conner instead of doing other things. My host dad, Bob Ferrara '67, played for MIT (MIT Basketball). In 1967, while he was a senior, Bob Ferrara received the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, the Institute’s highest award for students in recognition of “excellent achievements in citizenship and devotion to MIT.” He always reminds me of that one time when I hit a big one from downtown. I don't even remember if we won that game, but that feeling was priceless. MIT's basketball team is not on the landscape of college sports in America. We are in Division We are affectionately called the MIT Engineers. In today's analytics age, we should be bossing the basketball world, but talent beats hard work or smart work when talent works hard.  Our men's team reached the NCAA Division III Final Four in 2011-12. We have also won 2 NEWMAC conference titles. The women's team has participated in the NCAA Division III tournament and they hold a program record for NEWMAC Academic All-Conference Team awards, with 14 players receiving the honor.

After MIT, I went to Stanford to do my Masters. This was a different environment. The Farm had Division 1 academics and Division 1 sports. I love MIT, but this is 1 of the reasons why I believe Stanford is the best undergrad school to go to. I was in and around Stanford from late 2006 to mid-2011. During that time, we had great male players like Dwight Powell, Anthony Brown, Mitch Johnson (who is now coaching my beloved San Antonio Spurs where we're building a victorious castle) and then for the women: Candice Wiggins, Chiney Ogwumike, Nneka Ogwumike, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude. I never got to really meet these players, which means they were celebrities lol. The Tara VanDerveer led Cardinal made the NCAA Final Four 4 times, and were NCAA Runner–ups twice. We never won when I was there. Hmmm. The men did not fare any better, getting into March Madness just twice. No, I did not try to play much IM basketball here, this is a division 1 we're talking about bruh. The Cardinal Women emerged champions in 2021!

You may have guessed why I support Syracuse. Yes, I spent a lot of time living there. Syracuse is the 5th largest town in New York State according to Gemini. It does not have a major professional team. Hence, its college teams are everything to the Cuse. They adorn the city with Orange, supporting the Orangemen and women. The women's team has traditionally not been very good. I could feel the angst and I heard the anger at which the residents mourned the American football and basketball losses. There were the wins in the Carrier Dome that quite did not carry them all the way to the championship through the years. Except when I left Syracuse for MIT and a bloke from Brooklyn called Carmelo Anthony came to town. I was cheering for the Cuse all the way from Boston, all the way to the NCAA championship in 2003. Carmelo bought the bacon home, keeping it in the NY State. He did together with Gerry McNamara, Hakim Warrick and Demetris Nichols. Jim Boeheim finally had one!

Why do I support North Carolina (UNC)? Would you have guessed? It is not only because of Michael Jordan, but he is a big part why. Like many kids who watched the NBA in the 1990s, or watched the Barcelona 92' Olympics, we loved His Airness. His story does not just begin from the NCAA championship in 1982, but when he was cut from his high school team. What a great winner he was! The GOAT. I have never met Michael Jordan but I have a close cousin who attended UNC. Adwoa Ulzen. Not just her, her other close family friend cousinish Adjoa Adofo as well. And I have spent a lot of great times in the Research Triangle area. Yes, I cheer against Duke because of North Carolinaaaaaaa!!!! The North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program won the whole shebang in 2005 and 2009 when I was still in Yankee and more recently in 2017. The female Tar Heels won it all in 1994.

I started supporting UConn because I had a lot of friends there while I was at MIT - the likes of Maame Ama Sampong, Selina Osei, and co. And they also had African players like Hasheem Thabeet. Nah, I never met him when I went to UConn, he did not come to African event where I performed at. I also like Ray Allen in general, how can I not, when he played Jesus in a basketball movie. He Got Game. The UConn Huskies has won six NCAA tournament championships (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023 and 2024). The Women's team is even more dominant, in fact, they are most successful women's basketball program in the nation, winning a record 12 NCAA Division I National Championships, including four in a row, 2013-2016. While I was in the US, they won in 2002-2004, as well as 2009 and 2010. My favorite female Huskie of all-time is Maya Moore, for the men, I would actually go with Kemba Walker.

Since 2011, I have been living in Ghana and not getting to watch as much college basketball. ESPN through DSTV has been showing a lot of these games on television since covid though. When I see 2 of these programs playing against each other on TV, I have to watch. Their level of competitiveness differs year on year, like the NBA, but it is easier to remain at the top in the college game.  Stanford has done it in the women's game since covid. But the Huskies have been doing the best, including winning the women's championship in 2025, led by star guard Paige Bueckers. Wherever these teams play, my heart is with them and cheering them on. Here's to cutting more nets in the near future.