The Magnificent Seven. Mark Mehler and Jeff Tiber II.

The Magnificent Seven.   College Basketball’s Blue Bloods.   Mark Mehler and Jeff Tiber II.  

It seems fitting to have finished reading about seven different prominent college basketball programs on the eve of another march madness (March of 2026).    The Magnificent Seven, authored by Mark Mehler and Jeff Tiber II, argues their list of blue blood basketball programs and provides a rich history and culture of each school along with how they ascended to be considered among the elite programs.

The opening section of the book discusses several criterions supporting their choices.   Readers will note that all schools chronicled here won at least four NCAA basketball championships.    Of course, some were more recent successes than others such as Kansas and Connecticut while others have not won a championship for several decades like Indiana or UCLA.   In any case, beyond the wins the total package including the institutional memory made the cut-off to be considered among the current blue blood hoops programs.    In fact, the authors even include a short section towards the end discussing other programs that possibly either could have made the list or may make it in the near future.   They call them the light blue bloods and include notable schools such as Villanova and Michigan State University.  

The book is filled with interesting facts, history and figures of each blue blood school.   It was evident that the authors did their research and dove into the details.   For example, the Connecticut campus is located nearby a part of the state known as the “Quiet Corner” or that Duke University has an endowment larger than most of the other blue bloods…combined.   UNC had a hard time keeping one of its star players in the 1950’s from getting into fights and away from police blotter.   Legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, known as the “Barron” was superstitious and refused to where a blue suite after his team was badly defeated early in his career prior to coaching in the blue grass state.       

Mehler, a veteran journalist, and Tiber II, a long-time reporter, also introduced or reminded the readers in some elaborate fashion about the most prominent coaches and timelines associated with the schools.       Duke had to turn to a UNC graduate, Vic Bubas, to invigorate the basketball program in the 1950’s.   Hall of fame coach Mike Krzyzewski nearly did not survive beyond his third season at Duke.    The founder of the game, James Naismith, was more into the pursuit of character building among his students and players while coaching and teaching at Kansas University.   However, his greatest protégé, Phog Allen, was motivated by the pursuit of advancing the program into the new collegiate ecosystem which included promoting and winning at just about any cost.   Current UNC head coach, Hubert Davis, a former player under the legendary Dean Smith, who plied and learned his craft under Allen at Kansas, happens to be the nephew of all-time great Tar Heel Walter Davis.   Former NC State coach Jim Valvano, who guided the wolfpack to the 1983 national championship, had an interest in coaching at UCLA, according to the authors, but was disillusioned by the high cost of living in southern California thus adding to the long list of coaches that were willing to try and take over a program with lofty expectations emanating from a dynasty from what is now a long time in the past.          

Perhaps one of the most intriguing finds was how the authors blended in some actual technical content in several of the chapters.     The section about Indiana attempted to explain the indomitable Bobby Knight’s motion offense while coaching the Hoosiers of Indiana.    Even more compelling was how the book described Knight’s opposition to using zone defense.   Upon being pressed by another coach for which zone defense he would deploy had man to man defense been outlawed his irrepressible response was that he would quit coaching (rather than use a zone defense).    Apparently, Knights philosophy was a drastic change from the prior coach (Branch McCracken) who deployed more of an up tempo, quick shooting style to the point where doubters of Knight’s style wrote him off early in his tenure in Bloomington.    The analysis in this section even contrasted Knight’s style with that of UCLA, when coached by all-time great John Wooden, and the high post offense that was effectively run to ten national championships in the 1960’s and 1970’s.     

Of course, the magnificent seven blue blood programs selected for this book could easily have been disputed---which in itself adds intrigue to Melher and Tiber’s work.    While the majority of these programs have won at least one championship this century, a few have not been all that close.    One could easily argue that Indiana and UCLA are no longer blue bloods based on their lesser success as a basketball program over the past three decades, although UCLA did make the final four in 2021.    A strong case could have been made to include nouveau blue blood University of Florida since they have won three national championships this century including most recently in 2025 just as this book was about to be published.    Even a smaller Jesuit school like Villanova deserved further consideration with their three accumulated national championships two of them coming in the past decade.   

Whether one fully accepts the selection of all seven schools as current college basketball blue bloods, this book is enjoyable and a fairly easy read.    It does help the reader if they are a basketball fan but is also willing to keep an open mind about going deeper into the rich, illustrious history of each institution and its culture.    Limited to paperback this manuscript contains slightly more than two hundred thirty pages plus a brief epilogue.   It does not have to be read during basketball season to envelop the spirit of this story, but the writing and research was almost as elite as the institutions adorned on this book cover who are accustomed to plenty of March success on the hardwood.    

Discussion questions to ponder and pose to others:

Describe in your words what makes up institutional memory.

Should UCLA and Indiana still be considered blue bloods or part of the magnificent seven?

Who are the greatest coaches at each of these “blue blood” schools and why?

Who are some of the greatest players that helped their schools elevate or achieve elite status?

Explain how the schools were able to rise above or recover from scandals that could have wrecked the program.

How necessary is it for a school to not share the “limelight” with other sports within their athletic department to reach and maintain the blue blood hierarchy? 

 

·       You might like to read this book if you are fan of any of the schools included in the magnificent seven.

·       You might like to read this book if you are a college basketball fan.

·       You might like to read this book if you relish learning more about the history of major school’s basketball programs and structure.

·       You might like to read this book if you want to learn more about each school and their “institutional memory”.