The most anticipated big man matchup in the recent history of men’s college basketball seemed like a novelty at first. On one side, there was UConn center Donovan Clingan, who measured at 7’1¾ barefoot with a 7’6¾ wingspan, a 9’7 standing reach, and a 282-pound frame. On the other side was Purdue’s Zach Edey, who was somehow even bigger at 7’3¾ barefoot with a 7’10¾ wingspan, a 9’7 standing reach, and a 306-pound frame.

Edey tipped the jump ball to teammate Braden Smith, and the 2024 men’s national championship game was underway. At the time, it felt like hardly anyone realized it was a matchup that would dictate the future of the sport.

Even NBA scouts were comparing college basketball’s two great centers to a dying breed along the lines of an elite NFL running back. Giants like Edey and Clingan would have been a focal point at the highest levels of the game years ago, but not anymore. Now, the plodding big man was said to be a complementary piece in a small ball world defined by spreading the floor, jacking up three-pointers, and cranking the pace.

NBA teams saw Edey and Clingan dominate college basketball, but they still decided to take a 3-and-D wing with the No. 1 overall pick in that year’s draft instead. Clingan fell to the seventh pick, where skeptics questioned his conditioning and his offensive impact. Edey was a surprise selection at No. 9 overall, and was criticized as “one of the worst picks in history” by respected outlets.

A couple years later, that 3-and-D wouldn’t go in the lottery of a redraft, while Edey and Clingan should both be locks for the top-5, and may even go No. 1 and No. 2. Their most immediate legacy, though, comes in how they’ve shaped college basketball in the short time since they’ve left.

All sports are copycat leagues, and college basketball is no exception. Top programs haven’t hid their desire to get bigger since Clingan and Edey ran roughshod over the sport, and their fingerprints are all over the 2026 Final Four.

The Michigan Wolverines targeted three players who played center for their previous teams, and put them all together in the starting lineup to form college basketball’s best front line. The Arizona Wildcats’ success starts with Lithuanian center Motiejus Krivas, who is listed at 7’2, 260-pounds, with a 7’5 wingspan. The Illinois Fighting Illini have the tallest team in the country according to KenPom with an average height of 80 inches, or 6’6.5. The UConn Huskies needed a miracle to knock out college basketball’s second tallest team, Duke, in the Elite Eight, but they wouldn’t be here without star center Tarris Reed and his reported 7’5 wingspan and 260-pound frame.

Point guard has long been considered the most important position in men’s college basketball. It sure doesn’t feel that way after watching this season.

How did giants take back college basketball? You first have to start with the idea of scarcity.

The average height in the United States is 5’9. Roughly one percent of the men on Earth are 6’4. At this point in basketball history, a player who is 6’4 is probably a point guard. Breakout freshman sensation Keaton Wagler will run the show for Illinois in the Final Four at 6’6. If the guards are getting bigger, it only makes sense the big men should be, too.

To find more modern centers, college basketball coaches had to start looking in different places. The international basketball boom is a direct result of the Dream Team from the 1992 Olympics, and only recently have foreign-born players started to take over college basketball. Some coaches were on it earlier than others.

“We scoured the earth for size,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said during the 2024 Final Four. “We try to go out there and get it because it’s proven, if you can work with it.”

Painter’s peers have started catching on. Michigan’s starting center Aday Mara was born in Zaragoza, Spain, and he stands 7’3 with a reported 7’7 wingspan. Illinois went to the Balkins to secure commitments from twins Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic, who are both listed at 7’2 but shoot three-pointers like wings. Arizona found Krivas in Lithuania, where he had already played Euroleague minutes for his club Zalgiris before coming to campus.

The next step ties into how analytics have changed the way coaches and evaluators view the game, and this time it’s a little more nuanced than three points being worth more than two. For years, NBA coaches bypassed attacking the offensive glass because they believed it hurt their teams’ transition defense. As recently as 2020-21 season, only one team posted an offensive rebound rate above 30 percent. This year, 16 teams are above 30 percent in offensive rebounding rate, with four more on the cusp. The reason is because the numbers showed that the death of transition defense was greatly exaggerated by crashing the glass.

These days, the possession game feels just as vital as three-point volume, if not more so. Want to increase your possessions? Hit the offensive glass. The best way to do it is by having bigs with a length and strength advantage over their opponents. Of course, having players who don’t turn the ball over and routinely get to the free throw line helps, too.

The final piece is the transfer portal. Coaches used to wait for years for big men to develop. Now, they can let or smaller or lesser program handle the growing pains of those early years before college basketball’s top dogs hand-pick the players they want in the transfer portal every offseason.

“We used to recruit guys for three years and spend 200 man hours away from our families begging these 15 to 18 year olds to come play at our university, and then they’d decide to go in another direction,” said May ahead of the Final Four. “Think about all the time and resources you wasted. Recruiting has definitely been streamlined and it is much more efficient than it’s ever been.”

May got Mara from UCLA after he languished on Mick Cronin’s bench for two years. Illinois got ‘Big Z’ Ivisic after stops at Kentucky and Arkansas under John Calipari. Texas made the Sweet 16 this season with breakout 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis as a driving force a year after he started his college career at Florida Atlantic. No. 1 seed Florida’s elite front court was bolstered by bringing in Rueben Chinyelu and his 7’8 wingspan from Washington State.

All these factors and more have led to the big man being back in vogue in college hoops. This may just be the start.

Kentucky coach Mark Pope might have accidentally coined a defining term of college basketball’s big man obsession back in December when asked about what he expected when his team matched up with Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad.

“Smash. Mouth. Basketball,” Pope said. “I think it’s gonna be really fun and ugly and gruesome and brutal and violent. It’s awesome. It’s great. It won’t be (that style) forever; it’s just for now. Just for now.”

The biggest teams in college basketball thrived this year. The teams that weren’t quite big enough enter the offseason doing everything they can to get more size. Look at the Houston Cougars, whose 6’8 big men were overwhelmed by Illinois’ big men in the Sweet 16. Next season, Kelvin Sampson has five-star recruit Arafan Diane — listed at 7’1, 300 pounds, with a 7’4 wingspan — coming in to take over in the middle.

Arizona wouldn’t be in the Final Four without point guard Jaden Bradley, but he’s also only fourth on the team in BPM. If Michigan falls short of a national championship, it will probably be because their guard play can be a little shaky. UConn’s best player has been its center, and Illinois’ raw size feels every bit as important as Wagler’s rise to their success. The best teams in the country not to make the Final Four this season — Florida and Duke — also bludgeoned their opponents with size all season long.

Most of the best players in college basketball history are bigs. Start with George Mikan and Bill Russell, go to Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, stop at Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon, and continue with Patrick Ewing, Tim Duncan, Anthony Davis, and now Edey. Wanting size isn’t exactly a new trend, but it suddenly feels more important than ever as teams have learned about the limits of small ball and the thin margins of volume three-point shooting. Arizona ranks No. 362 out of 265 DI teams in three-point rate this year, but it hasn’t mattered because they run over everything in their path with size, strength, and athleticism.

It’s been said that wins are a point guard stat in college basketball. There’s certainly some truth to it — but after watching the sport this year, would anyone really take a star point guard ahead of a star big man?