With it being NBA All-Star Weekend and the NBA All-Star Game just hours away, I felt like it was time to dust off a column concept that I introduced for the first and only time back in 2011 when I had my own blog: The Hypothetical College Basketball All-Star Game!

The concept is pretty simple, straight-forward, and most of all, fun to think about! What if there were a legitimate All-Star Game for the very best college basketball players in the country? What would the rosters look even like? Which team would win? And how would a team made up of the best mid and low-major players in the country stack up?

So, before we get to the three hypothetical teams, first I have a few housekeeping notes:

-Because there is such a discrepancy in talent between the East and the West — now more so than ever, thanks to the dissolution of the Pac-12 and a down season for Gonzaga — unlike the NBA All-Star Game, these teams will be split up into North and South squads, each with 12 players on the roster, plus a 12-man low and mid-major conference All-Star Team. Now once upon a time, geography was one of my academic strong-suits. But “once upon a time” takes us to a time roughly a decade-and-a-half ago. So if you have an issue with Kansas being included in the North, I advise you don't get so worked up about an idea that is purely hypothetical.

-Even though the Atlantic 10, Mountain West, and American Athletic Conferences are generally considered “mid-majors” I included them as members of the North and South sides because there's a very good chance that all three of those leagues will earn multiple bids in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

-No more than one player per school is allowed on the roster, which means All-Star caliber players like Cam Spencer, Hunter Dickinson, Oso Ighodaro, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Armando Bacot, LJ Cryer, Reed Sheppard, and Oumar Ballo (among others) missed the cut because they had only the second-best All-Star case on their team.

-Similar to the NBA, winning matters (to a certain extent) in the selection process. So, as you'll soon see, most of the top teams in the country are represented in this exercise.

North All-Stars Starters

Tamin Lipsey (Iowa State)

Tristen Newton (Connecticut)

Tyler Kolek (Marquette)

Baylor Scheierman (Creighton)

Zach Edey (Purdue)

-Three of the five starters on the North All-Stars team reside in the Big East, a sign that while Connecticut sits well above the rest of the college basketball world, Marquette and Creighton are each plenty capable of making deep runs in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Scheierman, Newton and Kolek are likely going to finish 1-2-3 in the voting for Big East Player of the Year. Putting my UConn bias aside, I understand why Scheierman is considered the favorite for the award. The Huskies have five different guys who on a given night could be the best player on the floor — six, if you wanted to give Hassan Diarra the nod for Player of the Game against Marquette on Saturday — but even still, Newton's versatility and ability to impact a game without scoring makes him my choice for Big East Player of the Year, and an easy selection as a starter for the Hypothetical North All-Stars.

-Purdue Boilermakers center Zach Edey is well on his way to winning his second consecutive National Player of the Year Award, as he leads the Big Ten in both points and rebounds per game for the second consecutive steal. Just because Edey's skillset doesn't necessarily translate in an All-Star Game, that doesn't mean the big man from Canada doesn't deserve a spot on the team. Rik Smits and Chris Kaman both made NBA All-Star Game… why shouldn't Zach Edey make a Hypothetical College Basketball All-Star Game?

-The final spot in the starting five narrowly went to Tamin Lipsey, a prototypical point guard who is 4th in the Big 12 in assists and 1st in steals. TJ Otzelberger's Cyclones squad is playing good ball and peaking at the right time. They're one of the best defensive teams in the country and they seldom turn the ball over. Tamin Lipsey is a big reason why.

North All-Stars Bench

Isaiah Stevens (Colorado State)

KJ Simpson (Colorado)

DaRon Holmes (Dayton)

Kevin McCullar (Kansas)

Tyson Walker (Michigan State)

Devin Carter (Providence)

Kadary Richmond (Seton Hall)

-Well would you look at that, a point guard renaissance in the Centennial State! When Colorado and Colorado State faced off in late November, neither one of their stars disappointed. Isaiah Stevens went from 20 points and 11 assists, and KJ Simpson scored 30 points in the 88-83 overtime loss. Stevens is a fifth year starter for the Rams and is playing the best ball of his career. His shooting splits are outrageous — 48/47/81 — and he has thirteen games this season with at least 8 assists. The Rams are 10-3 in those games. Similarly, KJ Simpson fills up the stat sheet, and his shooting numbers — 49-45-88 — are just as ridiculous as Stevens'. Simpson is the kind of player who can single-handedly win you a game in March, just as he did against USC on Saturday night, helping to lead the Buffaloes back from a 16-point deficit against USC.

-If we ran this exercise last year, presumptive Atlantic 10 Player of the Year DaRon Holmes would've likely made that team as well. Holmes has been solid all year long, but he's cleaned-up since the Flyers began their A-10 schedule. In 13 games, Holmes is averaging 22 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks per game, and shooting 56 percent from the field.

-For Kansas, it seems pretty simple — if Kevin McCullar (19 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists per game) is healthy and playing, the Kansas Jayhawks have a chance to beat any team in the country. If he's not, the Jayhawks could be heading for an opening weekend loss in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in the last five NCAA Tournaments.

-If it weren't for Zach Edey, we'd probably be talking about Tyson Walker as the Big Ten Player of the Year, and heading into the season, the expectation was that if anyone were going to stand in Edey's way of winning the award for the second-consecutive season, it would've been Walker. The Spartans stumbled out of the gate thanks to a tough non-conference schedule, but Tom Izzo's squad has bounced back nicely, sitting at 9-6 in the Big Ten, the third-best mark in the conference. In March, it's often steady, veteran guards who lead the charge for a National Championship. Consider Tyson Walker one of those guys.

-There's admittedly some overlap between Devin Carter and Kadary Richmond, but ultimately, I felt both were deserving of spots on the team. Carter is a 6'3″ guard who scores 19 points per game, but also pulls down over 8 rebounds a night, 5th best in the Big East. Meanwhile, Richmond is one of just one of three players in all of college basketball who is averaging at least 16 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists per game. The other two players — Vonterius Woolbright and Dillon Jones — are doing so in the Southern Conference and Big Sky Conference respectively.

South All-Stars Starters

RJ Davis (North Carolina)

Jamal Shead (Houston)

Dalton Knecht (Tennessee)

Kyle Filipowski (Duke)

Johni Broome (Auburn)

-LJ Cryer gets much of the love for Houston, but Jamal Shead is my one Cougars representative in this hypothetical exercise. Shead won the Defensive Player of the Year last season in the American Athletic Conference, and he has a decent chance of repeating that honor in the Big 12 this season. On top of the hounding defense, Shead is also having the best offensive season of his collegiate career, and it's against some of the stiffest competition that Shead shines offensively. He scored 29 points against Texas Tech, 25 and 16 in two meetings versus Texas, and 16 points in a neutral site win over Dayton early in the season.

-After playing two seasons at Northeastern Junior College followed by two seasons at Northern Colorado, Tennessee Volunteers guard Dalton Knecht has proven that the step up in competition is no issue for him. Along with Alabama's Mark Sears, Knecht is just one of two players in the SEC averaging at least 20 points per game this year, and it's entirely possible that in his only season in Knoxville, Knecht could wind up winning the SEC Player of the Year. This is exactly the type of player that Rick Barnes has needed to get over the hump each of the last few years at Tennessee.

-The battle for ACC Player of the Year could come down to the final regular season game of the season for Duke and North Carolina, a matchup that will be the 262nd between the two schools. In fairness, RJ Davis may have already locked that distinction up. Davis has the keys to the high octane vehicle that is the Tar Heels offense, but with a few marquee performances — similar to one's he had against Pitt and Georgia Tech in back-to-back games in January — Kyle Filipowski could find himself right back in the thick of the conversation.

-After two seasons playing for Morehead State, Johni Broome transferred to Auburn and has put up similar numbers in the SEC as he did playing in the Ohio Valley Conference. Broome is the best player on an Auburn team that has championship expectations, and that alone would be enough to qualify him for contention for this Hypothetical Team. The cherry on top of that Sundae is this stat:

South All-Stars Bench

Caleb Love (Arizona)

Jaedon Ledee (San Diego State) 

Johnell Davis (Florida Atlantic)

PJ Hall (Clemson)

Max Abmas (Texas)

Antonio Reeves (Kentucky)

Mark Sears (Alabama)

-After transferring from North Carolina after three seasons with the Tar Heels, Caleb Love has picked up right where he left off in Chapel Hill. The combo guard can fill it up, and has practically no conscience on the floor. It's that mindset that could easily carry Arizona to multiple wins in March, or be the reason why Tommy Lloyd's Wildcats fall short of expectations for the second consecutive year. We've seen it play out already this season… against Florida Atlantic, Love was 8-for-25 from the field. Arizona lost. At Oregon, Love was 12-for-18 and the Wildcats left Eugene with an impressive road win.

-The 2023-24 College Basketball season is better because of guys like Jaedon Ledee and Johnell Davis. After making a pair of unprecedented Final Four runs last year, Ledee and Davis could've very easily bolted San Diego and Boca Raton respectively for more traditional college hoops powers. Neither did. They stayed put, and once again, the Aztecs and Owls will be tough outs come March, largely due to their presence. Ledee came off the bench for all but one game last year. He averaged 8 points and 5 rebounds per game. This year, those numbers are up to 20 and 8. Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, Davis has seen a similar uptick in scoring, improving his average from 14 points per game last year to nearly 19 points per game this year. And it should be noted: just two days before Christmas when Florida Atlantic and Arizona played in a neutral site game, Davis was the best player on the floor, scoring 36 points on 15-for-27 shooting.

-Am I the only one who has watched PJ Hall, went over to Sports-Reference, and found that Hall is giving Clemson 95 percent of Tyler Hansbrough's senior year numbers this year with considerably worse guard play around him? Yeah? I'm the only one? Okay, cool! Let's move on then.

-Max Abmas is not only a member of the Hypothetical South All-Stars, but he's the 2024 winner of the “Oh My God, this dude has been playing in college forever” Award. Abmas played four years at Oral Roberts and made a name for himself during the 2021 NCAA Tournament, when the 15-seed Golden Eagles upset #2 Ohio State and #7 Florida in back-to-back opening weekend games, before falling to Arkansas in the Sweet Sixteen. Abmas used his final year of eligibility to come to Texas. In the Big 12, Abmas hasn't been the prolific scorer he was playing in the Summit League, but even still, the 6'1″ guard is scoring 17 points per game on 43/38/89 shooting splits in one of the best defensive leagues in the country. With a few games left to play, Abmas has already scored over 20 against Houston, TCU, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. He also had 25 points in a loss at Marquette early in the season.

-Just as there was with Kadary Richmond and Devin Carter on the North squad, there's some overlap here between Mark Sears and Antonio Reeves as well. Both players reside in the SEC and both can absolutely fill it up. Alabama and Kentucky play for the first time this season this coming Saturday, and I fully expect that the Tide and the Wildcats will play one of the highest-scoring games of the season. Don't be surprised if Reeves and Sears both go for 30+ on February 24th.

Mid-Major All-Stars

Tucker DeVries (Drake)

Robbie Avila (Indiana State)

Aidan Mahaney (Saint Mary's)

Anton Watson (Gonzaga)

Enrique Freeman (Akron)

Drew Pember (UNC-Asheville)

Shahada Wells (McNeese State)

Tyon Grant-Foster (Grand Canyon)

Kimani Hamilton (High Point)

Terrence Edwards (James Madison)

Xaivian Lee (Princeton)

Vonterius Woolbright (Western Carolina)