Jay Williams the new Skip Bayless for espn

[flyerhawk]

Eh...I think some of those tankiest of the tanky Sixers "teams" from around 2015ish might have been beaten by that stacked Kentucky team. Those Sixers teams barely had NBA players on it

Absolutely not.

First off every one of those players on those terrible Sixers teams were ELITE college players. In the entire NCAA only about 45 players get drafted in any year. An incredible college team MIGHT get 3 players drafted, maybe 4. That entire Sixers roster was either drafted or was just outside the bubble of being drafted.

Add in the fact that the Sixers were a team of grown ass men and that Wildcat team was, as with all colleges, a bunch of kids, and you would quickly see a team that would get absolutely destroyed.

 

[wildturkey]

Absolutely not.

First off every one of those players on those terrible Sixers teams were ELITE college players. In the entire NCAA only about 45 players get drafted in any year. An incredible college team MIGHT get 3 players drafted, maybe 4. That entire Sixers roster was either drafted or was just outside the bubble of being drafted.

Add in the fact that the Sixers were a team of grown ass men and that Wildcat team was, as with all colleges, a bunch of kids, and you would quickly see a team that would get absolutely destroyed.

Those tankiest Sixers teams were loaded with rookies, 1 year players, and undrafted players. Some of those Kentucky teams were rolling out starting line ups with five NBA draft picks and went 8 or 9 deep with players that made it to the NBA. That's all you need. That's a full NBA rotation. Considering those players and those Sixers players are literally all in the same age range (between 18 to 21 years old), it would be a game. The players are all in the same age and talent range. You're not getting THAT big of an experience gap just by playing 1 year in the pros. It's some, but its not insurmountable (watch SummerLeague as rookie can hang with the guys that have experience). That why I said that might be the only time in history where it was a legit chance a college team could beat a pro team.

 

[flyerhawk]

Those tankiest Sixers teams were loaded with rookies, 1 year players, and undrafted players. Some of those Kentucky teams were rolling out starting line ups with five NBA draft picks and went 8 or 9 deep with players that made it to the NBA. That's all you need. That's a full NBA rotation. Considering those players and those Sixers players are literally all in the same age range (between 18 to 21 years old), it would be a game. The players are all in the same age and talent range. You're not getting THAT big of an experience gap just by playing 1 year in the pros. It's some, but its not insurmountable (watch SummerLeague as rookie can hang with the guys that have experience). That why I said that might be the only time in history where it was a legit chance a college team could beat a pro team.

That Sixer team did have vets. Ish Smith, RoCo, Carl Landry, Isaac Canaan. They were a terrible team but they had plenty of NBA experience.

That Wildcat team had Jamal Murray, Tyler Ulis, Alex Poythress, and Skal Labissiere, None of them are any good except Murray who was not good at all as a rookie.

I would agree that might be the closest it has ever got but it wasn't that close.

 

[tlance]

That Sixer team did have vets. Ish Smith, RoCo, Carl Landry, Isaac Canaan. They were a terrible team but they had plenty of NBA experience.

That Wildcat team had Jamal Murray, Tyler Ulis, Alex Poythress, and Skal Labissiere, None of them are any good except Murray who was not good at all as a rookie.

I would agree that might be the closest it has ever got but it wasn't that close.

THAT is the Lentucky team you pick?

The year prior they had:

KAT
Booker
Willie-Cayley Stein
Trey Lyles
The Harrison brothers
Tyler Ulis
Alex Polythress

That is the best college team I have seen in the tanking era. And the 6er team from that year surely would have beaten them, but some games would be competitive. And UK might even get 1 out of 5 or so.

 

[flyerhawk]

THAT is the Lentucky team you pick?

The year prior they had:

KAT
Booker
Willie-Cayley Stein
Trey Lyles
The Harrison brothers
Tyler Ulis
Alex Polythress

That is the best college team I have seen in the tanking era. And the 6er team from that year surely would have beaten them, but some games would be competitive. And UK might even get 1 out of 5 or so.

I used the team he mentioned. That 2015 Sixer team was the 10 win team.

 

[trojanfan12]

Generally speaking, college teams aren't beating any professional team in any sport. As others have pointed out, we' talking grown ass men ass men vs. kids. The jump from college to the pros is a huge gap. It's part of why we often see players who were dominant in college become average or worse professionals.

Having said that, if there is a sport where it could happen...it's basketball. All it takes is 1 or 2 guys getting hot (especially from 3) and/or the pro team having a bad shooting night...and you have an upset.

Also, with the 1 and done, as wildturkey pointed out, the age gap can be pretty close if it's a young NBA team.

I don't see a college team winning a 5 or 7 game series vs. an NBA team, but I could see them winning a game or 2 in a series.

 

[podsox]

Bilas is actually really good, IMO.

Bilas drives me crazy because all he does is cry about how the NCAA takes advantage of these kids yet he makes his living off these same kids

 

[Hitman Hart]

Bilas drives me crazy because all he does is cry about how the NCAA takes advantage of these kids yet he makes his living off these same kids

Bilas rarely says stupid things, but he loves to hammer home his points. The former automatically makes him better than 99% of the analysts that ESPN employs.

Williams is so bad, that it makes me actually forget how great of a player he was @ Duke

Greenberg is pretty awful too. When he was a coach, he didn't understand how the NCAA Tournament worked (the committee kept telling him to schedule tougher OOC opponents and he never listened) so it is always great entertainment when I see him critiquing resumes in March.