Recently in Now For Something Completely Different Category

Some of you probably saw this coming a mile away. Others might be thinking WHAT?! But fashion is in the eye of the beholder, eh? Other schools do the multicolored piping down the sides of the shorts, or around the neck, but Marquette is in whole-hog. They put strips of this stuff everywhere.

The blue version is almost as good as the gold, though I'm not 100% on board with the gold epaulettes. It takes a certain kind of balls to wear epaulettes: the kind only seen on third-world military strongmen and the King of Pop.

The home whites are a bit 'meh', but I blame that on college basketball in general. Why wear your least impressive uniforms at home? I have no idea where that rule originated. In my opinion, home team should get to choose ahead of time, and the visitor should have to take what's left.

Then there's this beauty, which would be my choice for everyday wear. Fortunately, I'm not in charge, because the true alt-unis should be saved for special occasions. The only drawback to that plan is that if you break out your special jerseys for, say, a holiday tournament, and then lose, nobody ever wants to see them again. The uniform jinx is in full effect. This may have happened in January of 2008, as evidenced by the headline for an article by the Associated Press: Louisville dominates No. 13 Marquette. Yep, they tripped the light blue fantastic in a 71-51 beatdown. Curses!

I would be remiss if I did not point out that this is a complete 180-degree turnaround for the Milwaukee-based school. Scroll to the bottom of this post, and you'll see that Marquette once sported the worst array of tanks and shorts known to college hoops.

That's my list. Compare/contrast/argue if you wish.

#2 Cal Golden Bears

#3 Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors

#4 Ole Miss Rebels

#5 Cal-Irvine Anteaters

#6 Southern University Jaguars

#7 Gonzaga Bulldogs

#8 South Florida Bulls

#9 St. Mary's Gaels

#10 Texas Longhorns

Some of the previous uniforms we've featured have been unusual or rare. This post is reserved for those that we simply find to be irresistably classy, even if they are a bit staid.

The #2 Cal Golden Bears can mix-and-match their colors all day long and not end up with a bad combination. Most commonly seen are the gold with dark blue road uniforms (seen above), or the white with gold trim homies. Then again, some prefer the gold with white swooshes on the spinnaker. Another option, which I like very much, is the dark blue roadie with gold accents, which provided a real challenge when I attempted to find a decent image of it. So you get this, instead. Even Coach Montgomery can appreciate the sartorial implications.

Another long-time favorite is the classy look sported by the Arizona Wildcats. At this point, it's the only long-standing tradition of excellence left intact by the recent goings-on in Tucson. There's the elegant dark blue with red letters and white trim, the predominantly-white number that is so much better suited to a desert afternoon, even in winter, and the red, which just sort of goes RAAAHHRRR!!

Since I'm a well-known KU partisan, I'll be brief in my comments about the Jayhawk Uniform, which also comes in blue and white, though I love it when they roll out the crimson. Every once in a while, so's you know it's special.

#3 Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors

#4 Ole Miss Rebels

#5 Cal-Irvine Anteaters

#6 Southern University Jaguars

#7 Gonzaga Bulldogs

#8 South Florida Bulls

#9 St. Mary's Gaels

#10 Texas Longhorns

A few things I love about the #3 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors uniforms. 1) The jaggedy bits on the numbers. These probably have some authentic name I know nothing about, but to me, they're the jaggedy bits. 2) The apostrophe in Hawai'i. Lord knows us mainlanders are too lazy to observe a convention we don't understa'and, so the 'Bows are just keeping it real in the 808. 3) That dark green. Green is my favorite color, and that dark version of it is awesome.

I also like the collar variations and unusual side panels on the uniforms of the Maryland Terrapins, and the mad trim on the Coppin State Eagles.

#4 Ole Miss Rebels

#5 Cal-Irvine Anteaters

#6 Southern University Jaguars

#7 Gonzaga Bulldogs

#8 South Florida Bulls

#9 St. Mary's Gaels

#10 Texas Longhorns

Whoa, what happened to Tuesday?

Last day off before the lad started back to school, that's what happened. Had to give him the full day on the town before the summer officially had to end.

So here's Tuesday's entry in the hoops uni top ten: the Ole Miss Rebels.

I always sucked at writing in cursive as a young man (see, this post really ties in to the "back to school" phenomenon), and even today, my signature looks like seance ghost writing, or some sort of epileptic seizure tremor.

Which makes it kind of strange that I like this uniform so much. But I dig the use of the school's nickname, the nice trim on the lettering, and the fairly unique decision to use cursive letters instead of big, bold block capitals. It fits the Old South institution somehow.

I say it's a fairly unique decision, because Notre Dame sometimes trots out a version of their uniform that says "Irish" in script. ND will throw on an alternate uniform any day of the week, so no telling when we'll see this one on the court again. Nonetheless, it deserves mention as an interesting look in the Ole Miss tradition.

#5 Cal-Irvine Anteaters

#6 Southern University Jaguars

#7 Gonzaga Bulldogs

#8 South Florida Bulls

#9 St. Mary's Gaels

#10 Texas Longhorns