The Bulls and March Madness: Inside a locker room full of college hoops stories

A day after college basketball’s Selection Sunday, the mere mention of March Madness inside the Chicago Bulls locker room ignited bedlam.

“We got snubbed!” shouted Bulls guard Jevon Carter, a West Virginia alum. “They did us dirty, man. North Carolina made it. Come on now.”

Coby White, the team’s resident Tar Heel, sauntered into the room seconds later — not that his presence mattered to Carter.

“Coby knows,” Carter continued.

Carter then turned his attention to Patrick Williams, although he never bothered to address the reserve forward by name.

“Florida State, y’all make it?” Carter asked Williams, who playfully said his Seminoles got in before coming clean and admitting they did not.

Carter then continued: “I played Zach Collins in college.” He said it loud enough for everyone in the locker room to hear. “I gave them, like, 25 (points).”

Collins, a former Gonzaga standout sitting across the room, calmly looked up from his phone. His clapback took on a savage, yet hushed tone.

“We won,” Collins deadpanned. But for the record, the box score shows Carter scored 21 points in the Mountaineers’ three-point loss to Gonzaga in a March 23, 2017, West Regional Semifinal.

The players’ instant back-and-forth revealed the bonds that have been forged on the Bulls, winners of five of their last six games entering Wednesday’s road contest against the Phoenix Suns. Their spirited banter also showed how much the pros still cherish their college days.

With this year’s NCAA Tournament officially underway (White celebrated North Carolina’s dominant First Four performance against San Diego State on Tuesday), Bulls players have been able to reflect fondly on their times in the March Madness spotlight. They remembered why they chose their beloved universities and also shared the schools they almost chose instead of their alma mater.

“It was probably the most fun I’ve had playing basketball my whole life,” Collins said about Gonzaga. “The craziness of the tournament and the intensity and the gravity of every game and every play just makes the game so much fun. The fact that we got all the way to the national championship my first year, I pretty much did everything a college kid could want to do in my first year. It means a lot to me. I had a lot of good games, and that pushed me to have a good spot in the draft.”

During his lone season at Gonzaga in 2016-17, Collins helped the Bulldogs win a school-record 29 consecutive games and the most games in a single season (37). Their first loss was in their regular-season finale against BYU. Their only other defeat came against North Carolina in the national championship game.

Collins remembers choosing Gonzaga over Utah, San Diego State and New Mexico. Had he not gone to Gonzaga, Collins said his second choice would have been Utah. But a deep connection to coach Mark Few and his staff from early in his recruitment process sent Collins to Spokane, Wash. During one of his campus visits, Collins attended Gonzaga’s traditional intrasquad scrimmage — dubbed “Kraziness in the Kennel” — which annually tips off the Bulldogs’ season.

“I felt the love from the fans,” Collins said.

Carter committed to West Virginia on the spot during a visit to Morgantown. He was scheduled to visit Florida Gulf Coast, but he wanted to play at a high-major program. The visit gave him the confidence to know he had what it took to play at that level.

“I really just needed to see what the basketball was like,” Carter said. “When I went there, we hooped in open gym, and I’m, like, ‘Man, I’ve got a chance for real.’ That’s all I needed to see because I wanted to go high-major. But at the time, I didn’t know if I was high-major ready.

“The rest of my offers were low-major and mid-major. That was my only high-major offer, so I was just, like, I need to see if I’m good enough to play here. I went there and I hooped, and I was, like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to West Virginia.’”

Second-year Bulls forward Julian Phillips is one player who did have a change of heart. He decommitted from LSU before signing with Tennessee after former LSU coach Will Wade was dismissed following recruiting violation allegations.

Phillips said he has no regrets.

“You always wonder what could have been, but I don’t regret anything,” he said. “I went with Tennessee; I really enjoyed my time there. I built a lot of relationships that I still have today. The experiences I got — preseason, traveling to places like the Bahamas, getting to play in the SEC with them and March Madness — all of my experiences there were great, and I was real happy with it.”

Phillips smiled when asked about his favorite March Madness memory.

“When we beat Duke, it was lit,” he said. “Everybody thought they were going to win, and we smacked them. That was a fun game.”

In the 65-52 win over the Blue Devils’ second-round matchup, Phillips finished with four points, three rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes off the bench. The win itself outweighed any individual statistic.

“Just a fun time for basketball,” Phillips said. “You grow up watching it as a kid. You make brackets. I remember watching it in class on my computer. You used to search ‘March Madness live,’ and it would come up for free. Just doing all that and getting to play in it, I think it was just overall a really good experience.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the two Bulls players who had the hardest time picturing themselves pledging allegiance to any other program came from the UNC-Duke rivalry: White and Tre Jones.

“It was always Duke,” Jones said. “I grew up a Duke fan. It was always them.”

Baylor and UCLA rounded out Jones’ top three, and some wondered if having a family member on Baylor’s coaching staff would give the Bears an edge. Jones and assistant coach Jared Nuness are cousins.

“I can’t see myself playing for Baylor,” Jones said. “I had to go the Duke route.”

You can probably guess which team Jones believes will win this year’s championship.

“I think Duke’s going to go all the way,” he said. “We’ve got the squad to do it. We’ve got depth. We can throw out different lineups if we need to match opponents. Obviously, we’ve got the best player (in Cooper Flagg), but then the guys around him are playing really well, and I think they’re peaking at the right time.”

As he sat in the cubicle immediately to White’s left, Jones needled the North Carolina alum when he was asked where he would have played if not in Chapel Hill.

“Probably Duke,” Jones said.

“No,” White rebutted as if he was obligated to for the record.

White said he never gave a second school much consideration.

“I committed when I was a sophomore, so I was young,” White said. “I really didn’t have that many offers. I probably had, like, eight or nine offers. I just knew where I wanted to go.”

One school would have captured White’s attention — had it not been for geography and climate.

“For real, I wanted to go to Syracuse, until I figured out it was all the way in New York and it was cold and snowy there,” White said.

With an 0-3 record to archrival Duke and, the Tar Heels didn’t do White any favors inside the Bulls locker room. Asked if he had the confidence to put a friendly wager on the line with Jones, White dropped his head and grumbled.

“Not this year,” he said.

(Top photo of Patrick Williams and Coby White: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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