My Two Cents: Mind Blown With 'The Purdue Way' and Epic 'NCAA Chaos' All in One Graphic

A Sweet 16 graphic that went viral on social media Tuesday showed Purdue as the only team with five homegrown starters and no transfers. Even for experts, it was a real challenge to figure out where all the starters actually began their college careers. Here's the cheat code.

Tom Brew | Mar 26, 2025

Fletcher Loyer (2), Trey Kaufman-Renn (4) and Braden Smith (3) all started their careers at Purdue. The Boilermakers are the only Sweet 16 team with five homegrown starters. / Alex Martin/Journal and Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — I've been covering college basketball for nearly 50 years now, and I feel like I know the sport pretty well. I can't tell you the backup power forward at Louisiana Tech or anything, but I feel like I've stayed in the loop with the power conferences pretty well.

But when a graphic went viral on social media on Tuesday that used team logos to show where every Sweet 16 teams starting five began their college basketball careers, It was stumped. A few easy ones — Purdue, of course, with five homegrown starters, the only school to say so —jumped out, but at least half of them had me completely baffled.

I had to scratch my bald head for a while.

Here's a tweet of the graphic I'm talking about. And see what I mean? The 16 teams playing this weekend don't jump out at all.

Like, not at all.

Where every Sweet 16 Team's Starting-5 began playing college basketball.
(Try to figure out which teams are which) pic.twitter.com/MPomf1dyuT
— NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners (@NCAABuzzerBters) March 25, 2025

It took a minute or two, but when the first six or seven schools jumped out at me, I realized the bracket was created in order of the games played. (Hlouston and Purdue side by side was my first tip.) That made it much easier going forward. Tennessee and Kentucky, the other two. teams in the Midwest Regional here in Indianapolis, are the two teams to the right of Purdue

But I'll admit it, I had no on five or six of them. (OK, seven). i had to go to Google and thoroughly evaluate all their rosters. It wasn't easy.

Spoiler alert: Here are the 16 teams, from left to right, then top to bottom:

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Auburn: Stumped right from the start because I forgot Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome played two years at Morehead State before three great years at Auburn. His first game as a sophomore? It was against Auburn.
Michigan. The trick was center Vlad Goldin, who is best known for going to a Final Four with Dusty May at Florida Atlantic, actually started his career at Texas Tech. And that third logo? That's North Texas, where Rubin Jones played for four years
Ole Miss: Chris Beard's Rebels have just one homegrown starter, plucking players from Virginia Tech, Louisville and Virginia. That first logo got me. That's Saint Peter's, as Purdue fans would know.for Jaylen Murray.
Michigan State: The Spartans and Duke are the only teams with four homegrown starters. Tom Izzo isn't a big transfer portal fan. His only transfer starter is 7-foot Polish center Szymon Zapala, who played at Utah State his first three years, He was at Longwood last year before coming to East Lansing.
Florida: That first graphic is for Iona, where Florida leading scoerer Walter Clayton Jr. started his career. His last game was actually against Florida in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The Washington State logo at the bottom is for center Rueben Chinelu, who was a teammate with Indiana point guard Myles Rice there last year.
Maryland: The homegrown starters are senior Julian Reese and freshman Derik Queen, but coach Kevin Willard rebuilt his backcourt with transfers Ja'Kobi Gillespie (Belmont), Rodney Rice (Virginia Tech) and Selton Miguel, who started his career at Kansas State. Miguel stumped me because I remember him at South Florida the past two years.
Texas Tech: The first, fourth and fifth logos made me do a double-take. Chance McMillian was at Grand Canyon, JT Toppin left New Mexico for Tech. and Darrion Williams started at Nevada. I had no clue.
Arkansas: This was easy because the John Calipari move to Arkansas was so high-profile. Adou Thiero came with him from Kentucky and Boogie Fland earns the Arkansas logo, but he was a Kentucky commit. The one that threw me off was the Tennessee logo. I forgot about Jonas Aidoo

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Duke: The Blue Devils only have one transfer starter, but that's helped by starting so many freshmen like Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel. The outlier is Sion James, who played four. years at Tulane.
Arizona: This one threw me off, because I was surprised that Arizona didn't have a single recruited starter. It was easy becasue of the North Carolina logo for Caleb Love.
BYU: Three starters have bveen their from the beginning, but we remember Mowat Mag from Rutgers and Keba Keita started his career up the road at Utah.
Alabama: I felt like Alabama was more of a local team after seeing them at the Final Four last yaer, but their only local starter is freshman Labaron Philon. Best player Mark Sears started at Ohio University and Grant Nelson was at North Dakota State.
Houston: This was easy. The Cougars have three homegrown starters, but leading scorer L.J. Cryer started at Baylor and Milos Uzan was at Oklahoma.
Purdue. This was easy, of course, since they are the only team in the Sweet 16 with a homegrown starting five.
Kentucky: It's no surprise that schools with new coaches literally had to start with a whole new roster. Mark Pope was not alone. He plucked guys from San Diego State, Oklahoma, Dayton, Fairleigh Dickinson and Drexel.
Tennessee: That third one on Tennesse was a stumper. That's North Florida (Chaz Lanier). Felix Okpara played two years at Ohio State. (FYI, his former Ohio State teammate Roddy Gayle Jr. comes off the bench at Michigan.

You can see something of a trend here with Purdue and Michigan State. Both Matt Painter and Tom Izzo aren't a real fan of building a program through the portal. They recruit high school guys and build around them, only using the portal to fill a gap our two.

But the portal has changed the game completely, and it's made it much easier to start over. Michigan hired Dusty May after only winning eight games last year, firing Juwan Howard. He brought in basically an entirely new roster, with five new starters, and are 27-9 and Big Ten Tournament champions heading into Friday's game against Auburn.

John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas and joked at his introductory press conference that he had a meeting with the players — and there was no one there. He built a brand new roster too, mostly with former Kentucky palyers and recruits.

it's the norm now, and it's only going to get worse. With no limits to transfers and NIL money flowing freely across the country, it's mass market free agency. It's changed the game completely, and not for the better.

For many coaches like Painter, it's a no-win situation. He's old school, and loves developing players and building a program with four-year guys. He's grabbed a few portal guys — Lance Jones was a big help during their Final Four run a year ago — but he was an outlier. They have no transfers with impact this year.

"It's a really unique deal,'' Painter said last week about all the roster movement. "When we win, people say we're great at developing players, and when we lose, we don't go in the portal enough. It's kind of like being married, right? Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

"Where's the answer where everyone is happy? That's what I want. That's part of competitive sports. Some of the losses we had, he was our guy, but the major wins we have had, he's been our guy. And so I think loyalty is a two-way street, and so when we have struggled and he's been running the show for us, we've stayed by him and stuck with him. But he's also stuck by us, and I think that's a special bond. It doesn't mean things can't happen and people break off and people go and do different things, but that loyalty is pretty important. It's pretty important to success.''

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