Running NCAA men's tournament thread 2012

I thought I saw on Twitter today where one sportsbook, not sure which, said the line would open up Wizards -30.

 

The Bobcats have 13 NBA players by the legal definition, in that they're paid to play in the NBA. How many of those guys would be in the league were it not for the Bobcats is another matter. They'd still win, but it'd be closer than 30.

 

Kemba Walker, D.J. Augustin, Gerald Henderson, Cory Maggette, Eduardo Najera, Tyrus Thomas, Matt Carroll, Cory Higgins.

There may not be many NBA stars on that list, but take all of them as college players -- don't even consider they've likely improved since college -- and that is probably the best college team of all time.

 

That's the point Van Gundy made - all of those guys are men compared to Kentucky's guys now. It would be 30 or more eight out of ten times, especially with a 24 second shot clock meaning Kentucky couldn't hold the ball to limit possessions.

 

Which begs the question, what would the game look like if NBA guys were forced to play UK using NCAA rules & NCAA officials?

 

NBA guys by only 28?

 

With Karl Hess and Ted Valentine as two of the officials?

 

That's the best college team of all-time? Explain your reasoning.

 

Speaking of NBA vs. NCAA ... David Stern and Mark Emmert got into it pretty good over the one-and-done situation.

http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/id/7751190/mark-emmert-david-stern-exchange-one-done-salvos

"They could get the players to agree that they stay in school, and ask for their scholarship money back if they didn't fulfill their promises," Stern said of the NCAA. "There's all kinds of things that, if a bunch of people got together and really wanted to do it, [they could] instead of talk about it …"

And another on this link:

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/28/david-stern-takes-a-shot-at-the-ncaa-when-asked-about-one-and-done-players-in-college-basketball/

“Years ago, I said to the NCAA, I’ve got a great idea,” he said. ‘We’ll insure a select group of basketball players. And that will make them more likely to stay in school, because they won’t feel the loss of a big contract. We’ll designate a pool, and those that are lucky enough to be drafted and make money will pay us back, and those that don’t, it’s our expense. The NCAA I think took it to a committee, that takes it to a census, that took it to a conference, then they have a congress and they came back to me and they said, well, it will only work under our rules if we do that for all sports. And I said, I don’t think that’ll work.”

David Stern is a carnival barker at this point. Not to be trusted on much of anything.

And yet, fuck the NCAA. Fuck them hard. If it's a problem, do something about it. Don't wait for someone else.

 

I can think of some teams with two, three, maybe even four star players, but I'm struggling to think of a team that would be that good eight deep with scorers and defenders both on the perimeter and underneath (also a go-to guy in Walker). Maybe some of Wooden's teams? I don't know, but that team shouldn't have much trouble with this year's UK bunch.

 

I have a hard time believing that group could have beaten Jordan, Worthy, Perkins, Matt Doherty and Jimmy Black. Or Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, David Butler and Anderson Hunt. Or a lot of other teams. Hell, even the '96 Kentucky group had six eventual first-round picks.

With enough games under their belt this Kentucky team would probably give it a go, but they're 19 and not close to as strong or well-polished as they're going to be.

 

I see the Bobcats having a difficult time against the Kareem and Walton UCLA teams as well.