March Madness picks thread

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by ddthetide

i won't disagree but their skills are poor and the play is poor overall. the old unc, duke, umd, unlv, ucla teams would crush these teams.

Of course they would. They all had NBA bound juniors and seniors leading them for the most part. It used to be coaches would have an established team and every year add a top recruit or two and work them in as the others left. Now coaches recruit the very best players knowing that they are one and done and wont give a damn about anything outside of getting their numbers and increasing their draft stock.

Look at the all decade team for the 2000's as chosen by SI
SF- Shane Battier
PF- Tyler Hansbrough
C- Emaka Okafor
SG - JJ Redick
PG- Jay Williams

Obviously they didnt pick one and done guys but guys who had close to complete careers. These guys were all good college players but none of them of them are better than average NBA starters and Hansbrough and Redick arent even that. (Williams never got a chance so who knows)

But...lets look at some of the best basketball players who were of college age in the 2000's.

SF- LeBron James (0)
PF- Chris Bosh (1)
C- Dwight howard (0)
SF- Carmello Anthony (1 year)
SG - Kevin Durant (1 year)
PG - Chris Paul (2 years)
SG- Dwayne Wade (2 years)*sat out Fr year when not eligible
PG- Deron Williams (3 years)
SG- Joe Johnson (2 years)
PF - Amar'e Stoudamire (0)
C- Andrew Bynum (0)

Compared to the 80's and even the 90's when Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant were the only top players not to attend college, it has stripped the college game of the very best players. Sure we got a year of Durant and Anthony but can you imagine what kind of careers they would have had as 3 or 4 year players? Think they would be on the All Decade team? Imagine LeBron at UCLA? Think of building a college team at kentucky around Howard? Kobe said he would have gone to Duke if he went to college.

You cant compare NCAA basketball now to the teams that you remember as being great. The original dream team in 1992 versus last years is the best example

Jordan (2 years)
Barkley (3 years)
Magic (2 years)
Bird (4 years)*sat out 2 years
Mullin (4 years)
Ewing (4 years)
Malone (3 years)
Stockton (4 years)
Robinson (4 years)
Pippen (4 years)
Drexler (3 years)
Laettner (4 years)

2008 Dream team
LeBron (0)
Kobe (0)
Bosh (1)
Howard(0)
Anthony (1)
Kidd (2)
Paul (2)
Williams (3)
Wade (2)
Boozer (3)
Prince (4)
Redd (3)