The Year of the Senior: How Loaded Class Made 2015-16 CBB Season Unforgettable

On senior night at Kansas, Iowa State senior forward Georges Niang sat courtside doing a radio interview during KU's senior speeches, and once he finished, he lingered a few minutes to watch.

Kansas radio broadcaster Bob Davis noticed Niang and recognized him between speeches, and the crowd at Allen Fieldhouse gave the senior a standing ovation.

"Our people have enjoyed watching him play for four years, and they've enjoyed watching him compete," KU coach Bill Self said afterward. "And how can you not respect his game? He's unbelievable as far as the things he can do out there at his size and to score in the ways that he scores.

"I thought that was nice, and I'm sure he'll remember that for a long time."

Memories for a college basketball star?

They're usually fleeting these days. We're in the midst of the one-and-done era, where the game's greatest players are typically making pit stops on the way to the NBA.

But the 2015-16 season has been a relief from focusing our attention on, as former Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan called them, the rentals.

The stars of this season have been around so long that the NCAA is considering granting them tenure.

This is the year of the senior, and the tournament has been a reflection of such.

The shot of the tournament, a half-court heave that hit glass and fell in, came off the finger tips of Northern Iowa senior Paul Jesperson.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

The beard that everyone fell in love with over the first weekend belongs to a senior. Stephen F. Austin's Thomas Walkup and his red whiskers have been killing it for years in the Southland Conference.

The top overall seed is led by senior Perry Ellis, who is one of those players opposing fanbases are convinced is never going to graduate. Ellis joked on his senior day that he played with Kansas greats Wilt Chamberlain and Danny Manning.

Which may have inspired this incredible Photoshop job:

The man with the most assists left in the tournament and the coolest name, Indiana's Yogi Ferrell, is a senior.

The top two scorers in the tournament are both seniors and old foes: Oklahoma's Buddy Hield and Iowa State's Niang.

Ed Zurga/Getty Images

Niang and Hield wouldn't be able to face off again until the national championship, but if they've played their final game against each other, it was a gem. Niang put up 31 points and Hield 39 in an OU win at the Big 12 tournament.

They embraced afterward, and even did a postgame interview on ESPN together moments after the game.

"I love him like a brother," Niang told Bleacher Report that night. "He loves me like a brother. It's a mutual respect thing."

Hield and Niang aren't quite Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but they have reached the point of college fans referring to them on a first-name basis: Buddy and Georges. 

Like with many of the great players in college basketball this season, we've watched them grow and mature through the years, and they're so beloved that even rival fans give them dap—Hield also got cheered by KU fans following his 46 points at Allen Fieldhouse in the game of the regular season. 

Players like Hield, Niang and Michigan State's Denzel Valentine are examples of a dying stigma that staying in school for four years is some kind of career-killer.

Hield was close to leaving for the NBA after his junior season, but his coaches convinced him to stay after he graded out as a low first- or high second-round pick.

Now he's projected to go in the lottery.

"I heard a lot of rumors like you can't get better just doing what you're doing now," Hield told B/R earlier this year. "Well, if I go to the NBA, does that mean I can't get better either?

"I wanted to show everybody I could do it and prove people wrong."

Niang will likely get a look in the league despite the fact he's undersized (listed at a generous 6'8") and slow-footed. He has a skill set that intrigues scouts, and his productivity is impossible to ignore. 

He's so revered at Iowa State that coach Steve Prohm introduced him on his senior night as the future coach of the Cyclones.

"When I decided to come back, I don't really think there was much of a decision," Niang said after ISU's second-round win. "What Iowa State has given me, I could never walk away from a place like that."

That kind of character is a common thread throughout this senior class. As a writer who covers the sport, this class has become my favorite of all time because the All-Quote team resembles the All-Americans.

Niang, Hield, Ferrell, Wichita State's Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker, North Carolina's Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson, Virginia's Malcolm Brogdon and Valentine can all fill up the notebook. (Go read the transcript of Baker and VanVleet's final postgame to witness how to lose with class.)

Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images

Some look at this season in college basketball and say the talent is down. And from an NBA perspective, that is true.

But if anyone is saying the product isn't as good, he or she probably missed the first weekend of the tournament. 

And while the national champion this year may not include a lottery pick on the roster—favorites Kansas and UNC do not—that doesn't mean those aren't great teams.

"I think every coach will tell you they want talent and the second choice would be experience," UNC coach Roy Williams said after his team's win Saturday. "If they had their choice of anything, it would be experienced talent, and I think with Brice and Marcus, we're getting some of that level of play from them right now."

Experienced talent.

Go ahead and make that the tagline of the 2015-16 season.

That, or, my preference with this class: never graduate.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @CJMooreBR.