College Basketball Players Opposing Fans Love to Hate in 2016-17
Many college basketball fans are incredibly loyal to a particular team, often one from a school they attended or the community they live in. And an unwritten rule to such fandom is to greatly dislike the players on other teams, particularly those from rivals and toughest competitors.
But certain players aren't limited to hatred from select fanbases; they're almost universally hated. It could be because of their actions on the court, both good and bad, or just because of how successful they and their teams are. Whatever the case, booing from opposing fans is something they hear far more often than not.
Which college basketball players do opposing fans love to hate the most? Follow along as we detail the most currently disdained in the game.
Bryce Alford, UCLA
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Opposing fans have a special loathing for coach's sons, something Bryce Alford has discovered during his UCLA career. He's far from the only Division I player coached by his father, but the senior seems to garner more boos than any other, and it's not just those cheering for the Bruins' opponents.
Even UCLA fans aren't particularly thrilled about how involved the 6'3" guard is in the offense, though it's not as much this season thanks to the arrival of freshmen Lonzo Ball and T.J. Leaf. Alford still leads UCLA in scoring at 17.9 points per game after scoring a career-high 37 in Thursday's win at Colorado.
Alford was 9-of-14 from three-point range, missing his last two in the final minutes in an attempt to be UCLA's first player to score 40 in a road or neutral-site game since Jason Kapono had 44 at Washington in January 2003.
"Bryce Alford when he's on a roll is one of the most fun players in college basketball, and no one can tell me otherwise," Sam Vecenie of the Sporting News tweeted.
UCLA is 2-2 in Alford's career when he scores 30 or more, but it's 2-4 when he scores at least 20 on the road.
Grayson Allen, Duke
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It's become an unofficial requirement to have at least one Duke player on any list about the most hated players in college basketball, though because of how much most non-Duke fans loathe that program, we could have put everyone on the Blue Devils roster and called it a day. But Grayson Allen has made it so the hate for any of his teammates pales in comparison to what's been directed at him.
Even before becoming known for being a serial tripper, Allen was well on his way toward villain status. It started during his monster performance during the 2015 Final Four, as a freshman, despite hardly playing during the regular season, and then continued last season when he averaged 21.6 points and nearly as many floor burns per game.
But once the 6'5" guard started extending his legs and nearby opponents started stumbling, any thought that Allen would someday become embraced outside Duke Nation went away. This reached a head in December when Allen blatantly tripped an Elon player and then threw a fit on the bench after being assessed a technical foul.
That led to Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski issuing an "indefinite" suspension that ended up being just one game, and since his return, his every move has been closely watched to see if he's learned his lesson.
Dillon Brooks, Oregon
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Oregon reached the Elite Eight last season after winning the Pac-12's regular-season and tournament title, arguably the program's best performance since the Ducks won the first-ever NCAA title in 1939. That effort also opened the rest of the country's eyes to a well-regarded, yet fiery (and thus easy to dislike), player who's been at the center of the Ducks' rise.
Dillon Brooks went from a plucky freshman role player in 2014-15 to Oregon's best all-around player last season when he averaged 16.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. His energy level often far exceeded everyone else on the court and that passion frequently rubbed fans the wrong way when playing on the road.
It also drew criticism from Krzyzewski, who didn't take kindly to Brooks taking (and making) a garbage-time three-pointer in Oregon's Sweet 16 win. While Coach K ended up looking worse than Brooks in the whole matter, it did draw attention to Brooks' enthusiasm, something that often gets mistaken for arrogance.
This season started slow for Brooks because of offseason foot surgery, not debuting until Oregon's fourth game and not returning to the starting lineup until mid-December. Since then, he's had a trio of 20-point games as the Ducks have won 13 straight, but in their last outing, Brooks was ejected when he kicked Washington State's Josh Hawkinson in the groin while falling to the ground.
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Marcus Foster, Creighton
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Given a second chance after he'd worn out his welcome elsewhere, Marcus Foster is thriving at Creighton for a Top 10 team that's lost just once this year. His play has had a lot to do with that, as the 6'3" junior is averaging a team-high 18.1 points per game.
Now Foster just has to make sure the same things that got him in trouble at Kansas State don't pop back up with the Blue Jays, with whom he's in his first season after transferring in 2015-16.
"I got cocky," Foster told ESPN.com's Dana O'Neill. "I thought I had it."
A monster freshman year at K-State was followed by a disappointing sophomore one, during which he was suspended multiple times before getting dismissed from the program. A level of that cockiness still exists in his play at Creighton, though it's more the product of confidence than thinking he's arrived, as was the case with the Wildcats.
Yet that doesn't mean fans of Creighton's opponents don't dislike when Foster hits a perimeter shot or drives to the basket and then heads back up the court with a look on his face indicating he knows he can score whenever he wants.
Frank Mason III, Kansas
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You'd think the littlest guys on the court in a sport made up of giants would get a little more love, but not when they're routinely breaking opposing fans' hearts. Just ask Oklahoma's supporters who watched Frank Mason III score 19 of his 28 points in the second half to help Kansas rally for a road win.
The Jayhawks trailed by nine at halftime before Mason made seven of 12 shots (including all four three-pointers). It was the 5'11" senior guard's ninth 20-point game this season as he's averaging 20.4 points per game, on pace to be the first player to average at least 20 for Kansas since Wayne Simien in 2007-08.
Mason is making 54.9 percent of his threes and is shooting 53.2 percent overall, and he's also dishing out a team-high 5.6 assists per game. If a team could take him out of the equation, it would be easier to beat the Jayhawks, but no one has figured out how to do that this season, as opposing fans can attest to.
Malik Monk, Kentucky
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Much as it is with Duke, pretty much every Kentucky player during John Calipari's coaching tenure has been eligible for these "most hated" lists, particularly the freshmen. In an effort to limit to one, though, we've only gone with the player who so far this season has been impossible to slow down.
Malik Monk is scoring 21.7 points per game, which ranks 14th in the country and tops among freshmen. The 6'3" guard dropped 47 on North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic in December and has had at least 20 in nine of the Wildcats' 16 games.
He's an explosive scorer who is deadly from three-point range (41 percent) who also plays defense and can dunk with the best of them. He showed that in Tuesday's win at Vanderbilt when he jumped in front of a pass and then took it all the way for the slam.
"Each time Monk steps on the floor, he's producing absolutely filthy highlights," CBS Sports' Kyle Boone wrote.
Those plays cause Big Blue Nation to cheer and fans of the other teams to groan.
London Perrantes, Virginia
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If London Perrantes has ever been affected by opposing fans booing him, or even noticed it was happening, he sure hasn't shown it. Virginia's senior point guard is one of the most emotionless players on the court, keeping the same expression regardless of the situation, and that can be quite frustrating to witness if things are going good for him and not for your team.
The 6'2" Perrantes isn't a prolific scorer, but this season, he has raised his average to 14.6 points per 40 minutes, best of his career and twice what he scored when starting as a freshman. He's averaged at least five assists per 4 minutes each season, and the last two years, he's hit more than 40 percent of his three-pointers, including hitting 4-of-5 in Virginia's last game (a comeback win over Wake Forest) while scoring 24.
Perrantes is the perfect person to run coach Tony Bennett's methodical offense, a cerebral player who knows who to get the ball to or whether he needs to keep it himself depending on the situation. Teammate Anthony Gill refers to it as being "Cali cool," per Zach Helfand of the Los Angeles Times, since Perrantes is from the West Coast.
But while he remains calm and collected the fans of teams he's beating have trouble not losing their minds.
All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information courtesy of Scout.com, unless otherwise noted.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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