Have you watched a UK game this year?

 

:lol2:

I have said this for some time now, but the talent gap between the college game and the NBA is higher than in any other professional sport.

I love both; like others have said I think the area you are in

is a determining factor to an extent in which you prefer. I'm a

college hoops junkie any team, anytime, doesn't matter to me

I'll watch. While I watch a good bit of NBA during the season I

really tune in at Playoff time. The level of competition is amazing.

i will agree that the NBA is fun to watch come finals time.

I guess my problem with the NBA is that i don't have a team that I follow.

I guess my problem with the NBA is that i don't have a team that I follow.

 

I always had that problem as well. Then in 2007 I discovered a blog called Free Darko (which unfortunately no longer publishes) that celebrated a concept known as "liberated fandom". The basic idea was that they rejected the notion that you had to pick a team and stay with them through thick and thin and that they were your team forever. They suggested that you could adopt teams based on style of play and even adopt individual players to follow and that once you were bored with them or things shifted, you owed them no more allegiance.

 

Changed the way I looked at professional basketball forever.

 

I have, for years now, loved the Golden State Warriors. The second they start winning games by playing like the 2004 Pistons... I'm gone. I love a up-and-down game of insane tempo and crazy shots. The Warriors feed into that and I love them for it.

 

I don't have a team I was raised with. I didn't even really watch NBA games as a kid. As such, I don't understand why I should be obligated to somehow pick a team and stay with them forever. So I don't.

in the games that ive watched, below average players get to the basket or open jump shots with ease. Especially in transition.

 

Below average players in the NBA are all Americans in college...

You all have been putting great thoughts into play. This is why I like little debates like this, it tests what I think or know as well as gives me a new perspective on certain things.

These posts completely prove my point.

 

If defense in the NBA is so horrible, how come so many elite college players suck when they get there? Adam Morrison ring a bell? Guy put up near 30 a game in college, couldn't sniff the floor in the league. How's that possible if the defense is so bad?

 

Outside of the obvious metrics that account for more scoring in the NBA, the talent level is another huge factor.

 

There are roughly 351 D-1 schools. 15 players a team, so just over 5,000 guys in the NCAA in a given year. 60 of them (1.2%) have what it takes to get drafted, and that numbers high because it doesn't factor in that at least 10 guys from overseas are drafted each year. Add in the undrafted guys that stick, and you're looking at maybe 1.5-1.75% a year, and that's being generous.

 

What that means is the guys have to be elite to have even a chance to play at the NBA level. The better players get, the more fluid they play the game. The more fluid the game is played, the easier it looks to the uneducated eye. Do you guys think the "elite" defenders in the college game get to the NBA and all of a sudden forget how to play defense? Of course not, the talent level is increased about 100x though. In a given college season an elite level defender may check 2-3 guys that have what it takes to be career guys in the league. Maybe once they'll face a future NBA superstar, but probably not. Every single night in the league these guys are going against guys that are far superior offensively to the best of the best they faced in college.

 

Everyone can agree Kobe was/is an elite defender. You have Kobe trying to check guys like Melo, Durant, LeBron, and they'll still put up 20+ almost every time. When you get guys as good as they are at scoring the ball, it doesn't matter how good you are defensively, they're going to make shots and get theirs.

 

Then you've got the metrics of the game that allow for higher scoring games. In a college game we have 2,400 seconds of play, with a 35 second shot clock, which averages out to roughly 65 possessions a game. The NBA game we have 2,880 seconds of play, with a 24 second shot clock, which averages out to roughly 120 possessions a game. More possessions equals more shots, more shots equals more makes, more makes equals more points. Then when we factor in that the guys in the NBA are far superior in talent level than the guys in college, it's understandable that they're much more likely to shoot a higher %, regardless of how good the defense is, which in turn means....you guessed it, more points.

 

Perfectly said. You should have *drops mic* on that one.

Perfectly said. You should have *drops mic* on that one.

 

Yeah, his post pretty much ends the "no defense in the NBA" conversation. :lol2:

There's no doubt that the talent level is better in the NBA. That's obvious. An entirely different level X 10.

But with that said, I much perfer the college game. I can watch the NBA occasionally during the playoffs, but I don't watch a minute during the regular season. I'll catch some of the highlights on ESPN, but that's about it. The NBA for the most part is boring, unless it's the 4 or 5 teams at the top of the heap, such as Miami vs Indianapolis, then it gets a little better. But not enough to draw my interest.

 

I just find the college basketball game, even with its inferior talent, more exciting.

 

Same thing with the NFL vs college football. Give me Alabama vs Auburn, Michigan vs Ohio State, Southern Cal vs Notre Dame, Texas vs Oklahoma, etc, over any NFL game any day of the week. I love the college rivalries, bands, and all the excitement surrounding them. And the teams only get one opportunity to defeat one another during a season, unlike the Bengals and Browns. It's now or never for that particular season, unless they meet in the national championship game like Alabama and LSU did two years ago.

About the only time I watch the NFL is during the playoff, same as the NBA.

The last paragraph of UKM's post was where I was going to go. The NBA is 48 mins with a 24 second shot clock. By pure statistics you are going to put up more shots and then because these are elite of the elite players more of those shot's are going to drop. Not to mention in the NBA they eliminate pure zone defense which I love. In the NBA if you can't guard your man chances are you don't see the floor.

 

That whole post reminded me of my one beef of the college game and that is the shot clock is way to long. The NCAA should have a 24 second shot clock just like the NBA.

^ that is something I totally overlooked. makes more sense now.

Shooting percentage from 3 in practice:

 

NBA : 90%

College : 80%

High School : 70%

Something that drives me crazy is we're right in the last week of March Madness, the Final Four week, and all that the Talking Heads want to talk about is the NBA or the NFL draft. Herd, Woody, Steven A., Around The Horn, Mike And Mike, etc, saturate their air time with NFL and NBA. You'd think they could spare a couple of weeks of the year to discuss a little more in depth the NCAA tourney, something more than a 2 minute interview with one of the coaches or a passing comment or two. The NFL season doesn't even begin until Fall, and the NBA runs all the way until June. I understand the big bucks and advertising money is with the pro sports, but they could still ease back a little during the NCAA tournament. Mike and Mike almost 90% football talk the entire year. Overkill.