Battle of the College NBA Teams - Selecting the Field

[gordontrue]

Which college can build the best basketball team out of former players that currently play in the NBA? (This is inspired from an interesting discussion that started in another thread).

A single elimination playoff bracket is going to decide the winner... and its time to select the 16-team field!

In order to qualify, the college must have at least 5 active NBA players. The player must have played in at least 1 NBA game in the 2013-14 season to be considered active (Or be on a team's injury report for the entire season).

Anyone posting in this thread becomes part of the selection committee.

Here are the 8 teams (alphabetical order) that are considered virtual locks for the field. These teams have full 5-man benches.

Here are the remaining 13 teams (only 21 schools qualified with 5 or more active NBA players). These teams are on the bubble. Only 8 can be part of the tournament.

Okay, make your case for your selection.

The criteria for a deserving resume is simply how good of a basketball team you think they would be. Talent, chemistry, size, style, and how well the pieces fit together, are all good things to consider. (The particular starters and their positions shown here aren't locked in, just a starting point).

Rank the 13 bubble teams in order of resume. The composite rankings of all posts will determine the field. (I'll let the discussion go for awhile to get as much input as possible, since the cbb page doesn't get as much traffic these days)

Once the field is selected, the next step (probably another thread) will be seeding the field.

 

[gordontrue]

Oops, I meant to post this in the college basketball forum, where the discussion initially started.

 

[apachef4]

Shouldn't UNC be somewhere on this list?

 

[gordontrue]

Shouldn't UNC be somewhere on this list?

Thank you.

UNC is a lock with 10+ active players. I will add their lineup to the "lock teams" in a bit.

This means only 7 of the 13 bubble teams will make it.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

Are we ignoring injuries...aka Rose Rondo Irving?

 

[Wishbone]

Damn give me Ucla vs the field. They got inside, outside, and defense.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

Can we also ignore slumps...aka averaging out the playing way above ceiling for too long (Hibbert)?

My locks of the bubbles:

GA Tech
Georgetown...
Stanford...those bigs
Syracuse
USC
Wake Forest

And my 7th:

I plead the 5th due to religious affiliations north of ohio.






Michigan has 5 but all Guards so they out.
Washington could be sick in a couple of years.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

Damn give me Ucla vs the field. They got inside, outside, and defense.

Wow how I missed that, especially in todays guard ran league.

I also really like Florida, Kentuckey and Duke in that order of 2-4.

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

No better than my alma mater


TEXAS has Durant and Aldridge which is the best 1-2 punch of any school
Heck Durant and Aldridge might be the two best players of any of the 8 seeded schools period.


Even Tristan Thompson at 15ppg/9.8rpg is not that shabby for the frontcourt.


What the heck is Rick Barnes doing with all this NBA talent?

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

Duncan, Teague, and CP3 is this version of the Miami Big 3 concept plus veteran minimum guys.


Nobody would want to play Wake Forest even with limited depth after the stars.

 

[gordontrue]

Are we ignoring injuries...aka Rose Rondo Irving?

Can we also ignore slumps...aka averaging out the playing way above ceiling for too long (Hibbert)?

I would say yes to both.

Assume each player is healthy and that they won't be playing either well above their ceiling or well below their basement.

 

[757Hokie83]

where's Virginia Tech?

 

[gordontrue]

Shouldn't UNC be somewhere on this list?

Here's the updated 9 "lock" teams, with UNC included

 

[CatsTopPac]

Interesting that 5 of the Pac 10 (before they expanded) are on this list. Just goes to show how much talent went to the draft in the last decade or so, and completely depleted the conference. I mean, those of us who are Pac fans already knew this, but it's crazy to see in this form.

 

[MI Nightmare]

Connecticut.

 

[gordontrue]

The 7 bubble teams I'd put it are, in order:
Wake Forest
Georgia Tech
USC
Syracuse
Ohio St
Washington
Marquette
------------------
which means these 6 teams I'd leave out, in order
LSU (decent bigs, but the guards will get eaten alive)
Memphis (nice back court, but no real bigs)
Louisville (they have balance with guards, wings, and bigs, but no great players)
Stanford (starting three 7 footers is cool and all, but who's gonna guard the guards)
Georgetown (Jeff Green is the point guard, enough said)
Michigan (Tim Hardaway is the center, enough said)

 

[dcZONAfan]

GA Tech
USC
Washington
Wake Forest
Ohio St
Syracuse
Marquette

No particular order, but I give a huge edge to Wake and I think USC and GA Tech are sleepers

 

[BOTSLAYER]

I keep thinking about what if Irving and Duncan could have played together in their prime, so sick, they would have been the Spurs

 

[gordontrue]

Its not fair competition to bring them into it, but the high school team would be pretty good. Stacked with bigs, but also a couple of sneaky guards in there.

PG: Monta Ellis
SG: Kobe Bryant
SF: LeBron James
PF: Al Jefferson
C: Dwight Howard

Bench: Kevin Garnett, Gerald Green, Tyson Chandler, Amare Stoudemire, Amir Johnson, Shaun Livingston