15 best NCAA basketball players we wish played in the Twitter era

12. Best NCAA basketball players before Twitter: Larry Bird, Indiana State

As a newly-minted resident of the Hoosier state, I never quite understood the full length of how much Hoosiers love Larry Legend. The love for their favorite hometown basketball player is pretty much a love like no other.

“The Hick from French Lick” didn’t enjoy the culture change when he left his hometown to go to the larger city of Bloomington and play with the Hoosiers but instead lit up the college basketball scene basically out of nowhere with the Indiana State Sycamores in Terre Haute.

Larry Bird was a bit of an enigma. A massive presence on the court who didn’t prefer the massive presence of a large, college town. He went to have a successful career in his three years spent as a Sycamore, taking his school to their first-ever NCAA tournament, with Bird carrying them almost the whole way to the NCAA title in his senior year, falling just short thanks to a Michigan State team led by another name to come on this list.

Mixing size, creativity and great passing and shooting, Bird was one of the most unique collegiate basketball players ever. He also went on to be the fifth-highest scorer in NCAA history with 2,850 total points, and joined an elite list of players who scored 2,000 points, and grabbed 1,000 rebounds.

Larry Legend isn’t just a great to the state of Indiana, but he may be even more popular had he played in the Twitter age, filling up highlight reels with his creative, deceptive passing, and lights-out shooting. Plus, imagine all the fun edits and memes we would’ve gotten out of him in the Twitter-era.