Anonymous
Years ago

College Teams v The World

Have just finished watching the Universiade final, and team USA (KU Jayhawks) defeated Germany in 2OT. It got me thinking back to previous debates on here about College teams playing NBL teams- with some thinking NBL teams would win and others disagreeing. Apart from 2 bigs wins, team USA didn't really destroy their opponents (who were not NBL level either, instead u23 pretty much- so is this because:
1- Players from other countries are playing in professional leagues at younger age?
2- College hoops is not on a different level to equivalent leagues around the world?

In essence, my question is, why weren't KU (who are a decent College team)really able to win big and easily?

Just a thought!!!!!!!!!!!

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Lose
Years ago

As good as Americans are at basketball, they decided to send a pretty weak team (Still better than the other countries). This is probably due to the lack of interest they have for this tournament, and the timing of the NBA draft.

Don't take me too seriously. I'm not the brightest person. Woot! USA! USA! USA!

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Anonymous
Years ago

The people who thought an NBL team could compete with Kentucky...I tried to forget about that!

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Anonymous
Years ago

The fact that they won at all is amazing. They were younger than their opponents by a long way, and seriously talent-depleted compared to some of the Kansas teams we've seen on-court in March. They had incoming freshmen playing, so basically 19-year-olds, and unlike Australia and a lot of the Euro teams, couldn't enrol pro 24-year-olds in the American College of Basket Weaving and bring them along. It probably shows the power of familiarity with teammates and system as much as it does the strength of college basketball.

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Anonymous
Years ago

That's a good point, thanks for raising anon^, I thought they may have had a few seniors in there.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Kansas finished top of the Big-12 though didn't they?

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Anonymous
Years ago

A Kansas team with Kelly Oubre Jr. and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk finished top of the big 12. Neither of those guys played WUG. They added the SMU guard but both players they were missing are better. And the Big 12 wasn't exactly a powerhouse last season.

They did have some rising seniors playing, but let's say their three best players at the tournament were Perry Ellis (rising senior, 21YO), Wayne Selden Jr. (rising junior, 20YO) and Frank Mason (rising junior, 21YO), how does that compare to what we took? Greenwood, Creek and Maynard are 23, McCarron is 24, Trist and Mathiang are 22. Pinder and Duncan are 20, and it's pretty obvious how competitive we'd have been if they were our best guys.

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Anonymous
Years ago

thanks anon^- it's much clearer now, I didn't realise that the US team was a lot younger than all the others, I thought all teams were essentially u21/u23 teams.

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Anonymous
Years ago

There may be a big difference between kids 18-19 or under 20 from here to those who are already 23 or 24 with a few years of college gym up their sleeve. But in the USA these kids have hit the gym already and many are not that far from their intended evelopment. The difference is there, but the gap is not as big these days as people may want to imagine.

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