Today is March 19, which means it is also the first day of the NCAA Tournament (screw the play-in games). Along with the start of this vaunted collegiate bloodbath is a yearly media tradition to say some shit just for the likes and retweets. Every year, some idiot decides to proclaim the best college team as a ruler of worlds, a team of gods playing mere mortals. The following fake quote sounds true because somebody basically says it every year. “This squad transcends the game of college basketball. They need real competition.” This year’s asshat of the media happens to be Larry Brown, coach of SMU and ex-coach of every other NBA and collegiate squad.
“I honestly believe Kentucky would make the NBA Playoffs in the East.”
Now, usually this absurd remark would just be about the best college team beating the worst professional team in one game, however Brown took it a step forward saying that they would make the NBA Playoffs.
You have to be impressed that someone would be so ignorant that they would spout this nonsense on a national stage. Nice job, Larry!
This year Kentucky nearly lost to a number of teams on different occasions. Squads such as Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt all took Kentucky down to the wire and it’s not like these teams have transcendent talent. They’re a group of unranked basketball teams, two of which didn’t even make the tourney.
To further argue this ridiculous statement, let’s compare the worst NBA team, the New York Knickerbockers, to Kentucky and see how much UK would get slaughtered.
The Knicks are dreadful. Watching them play other NBA teams is like watching Danny DeVito get off of his couch and race some Kenyans. They’re an atrocity and a mess on every level. I could keep ranting about their problems for a while but I think I made my point…The Knicks aren’t good at basketballing.
Yet, that is compared to when they play other NBA teams. If the Knicks starting lineup of Langston Galloway, Alexey Shved, Lance Thomas, Lou Amundson and Andrea Bargnani were to show up at the local YMCA, they would dominate you in a way comparable to the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals. The same could be said for a matchup between them and Kentucky.
Galloway was on the Atlantic 10 All-Championship team, averaged 18 ppg and is the all-time leader in three-pointers at Saint Joseph’s. Shved won the Euroleague Championship in 2008 and played for the Lithuania 2012 Olympic team that won bronze. Thomas was an ACC All-Defensive player at Duke and was a big part of the 2010 National Championship team. Amundson was the first player in Mountain West Conference history to record multiple games with 20+ points and 20+ rebounds. Finally, Bargnani was a number one pick in the 2006 NBA Draft and has averaged over 10 ppg in the NBA, with a season of over 20 ppg. The reason for these stats is to show that at one point in their recent histories, all of these starters for the Knicks were either fantastic collegiate players or stellar overseas players. They’re not a bunch of scrubs. Furthermore, they play against NBA talent on a daily basis and usually hold their own. This Kentucky team has had the privilege of playing in an era of college basketball where the best players leave as soon as they can which creates a diluted product. I’m not arguing if Kentucky is good or not because they obviously are but only in the college basketball universe. Just because a high school team dominates their rivals doesn’t mean that they can beat a college team and saying so would be deemed ludicrous.
This yearly charade is college personnel and media throwing shade and trying to demote the product of the NBA. The talent pool and overall level of excellence in tenfold when comparing the NBA to the NCAA and it should be. There’s nothing wrong with the college game, except for Jim Boeheim. Everything else is fine. It’s when people start comparing it to the NBA that the absurdities are fully shown.
Hopefully, one day we’ll live in an age where blowhards on nationally syndicated programs don’t have to compare the best college teams to the NBA but until then we must place a spotlight on these imbeciles.
“I honestly believe Kentucky would make the NBA Playoffs in the East.”
Now, usually this absurd remark would just be about the best college team beating the worst professional team in one game, however Brown took it a step forward saying that they would make the NBA Playoffs.
You have to be impressed that someone would be so ignorant that they would spout this nonsense on a national stage. Nice job, Larry!
This year Kentucky nearly lost to a number of teams on different occasions. Squads such as Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt all took Kentucky down to the wire and it’s not like these teams have transcendent talent. They’re a group of unranked basketball teams, two of which didn’t even make the tourney.
To further argue this ridiculous statement, let’s compare the worst NBA team, the New York Knickerbockers, to Kentucky and see how much UK would get slaughtered.
The Knicks are dreadful. Watching them play other NBA teams is like watching Danny DeVito get off of his couch and race some Kenyans. They’re an atrocity and a mess on every level. I could keep ranting about their problems for a while but I think I made my point…The Knicks aren’t good at basketballing.
Yet, that is compared to when they play other NBA teams. If the Knicks starting lineup of Langston Galloway, Alexey Shved, Lance Thomas, Lou Amundson and Andrea Bargnani were to show up at the local YMCA, they would dominate you in a way comparable to the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals. The same could be said for a matchup between them and Kentucky.
Galloway was on the Atlantic 10 All-Championship team, averaged 18 ppg and is the all-time leader in three-pointers at Saint Joseph’s. Shved won the Euroleague Championship in 2008 and played for the Lithuania 2012 Olympic team that won bronze. Thomas was an ACC All-Defensive player at Duke and was a big part of the 2010 National Championship team. Amundson was the first player in Mountain West Conference history to record multiple games with 20+ points and 20+ rebounds. Finally, Bargnani was a number one pick in the 2006 NBA Draft and has averaged over 10 ppg in the NBA, with a season of over 20 ppg. The reason for these stats is to show that at one point in their recent histories, all of these starters for the Knicks were either fantastic collegiate players or stellar overseas players. They’re not a bunch of scrubs. Furthermore, they play against NBA talent on a daily basis and usually hold their own. This Kentucky team has had the privilege of playing in an era of college basketball where the best players leave as soon as they can which creates a diluted product. I’m not arguing if Kentucky is good or not because they obviously are but only in the college basketball universe. Just because a high school team dominates their rivals doesn’t mean that they can beat a college team and saying so would be deemed ludicrous.
This yearly charade is college personnel and media throwing shade and trying to demote the product of the NBA. The talent pool and overall level of excellence in tenfold when comparing the NBA to the NCAA and it should be. There’s nothing wrong with the college game, except for Jim Boeheim. Everything else is fine. It’s when people start comparing it to the NBA that the absurdities are fully shown.
Hopefully, one day we’ll live in an age where blowhards on nationally syndicated programs don’t have to compare the best college teams to the NBA but until then we must place a spotlight on these imbeciles.