It’s tough to improve in college, honestly.

Devon is exceptionally quick, so when he comes off screens at the college level, if he’s even with a guy, the right play is to continue to the basket for a layup. That’s just the right play. So even though he needs to work on his jumper, because he can beat guys off the dribble with such ease at the college level, the right play is the layup. That doesn’t help him improve his jumper.

And that’s the thing with potential NBA guys. The things they do best are more than enough to dominate at the college level. Devon is working on making the correct read, and the correct read more often than not in college will be to continue his drive because he has his man beat on that screen.

The NBA doesn’t so much care about college hoops because the guys they are targeting are already better than the collegiate competition. That’s why the G-League has started gaining so much momentum. Teams need a better evaluation tool than the college game offers. Look at the schedule KU has had this season so far. There are maybe four games out of eleven that are worth evaluating as an NBA scout - Duke, Dayton, Colorado, and Villanova. The rest of those games are basically worthless for evaluation purposes at the pro level.

@DoubleDD is right. It’s just a different game. Higher talent level. More complex schemes. More demanding overall.

It’s a long process to even classes back out if you go heavy on juco guys for a couple of years. KU needs to probably sign 20+ HS players every year just to get back to even numbers in 2022.

This class looks good and athletic. They have a couple of local guys that are good signings, although they may only end up representing special teams and depth. Richardson would have been a nice get because he is pretty athletic, but I understand wanting to stay at RB vs. moving to the defensive side of the ball. Either way, KU got more athletic with this group, and that is genuine progress.

Now they just have to do it all over again next year.

The NBA has the rule, true enough. But that rule was created in part because college basketball wanted star players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard and others to come to college to give the college game a talent boost. There was a period during the height of the prep to pro era where college hoops had an issue with the perception among casual fans that the game lacked the true breakout talents. You can’t blame the NBA without acknowledging that the NCAA wanted a rule that kept players from going straight out of HS to the NBA.

Now, colleges have since soured on that rule, mostly because even more players leave after their freshman year than were going from preps to pros, so college has become a revolving door. That means that if you don’t have an outstanding freshman class (like this year), the talent level across the country is going to be down. What does this mean?

Well, the rule change is coming, but the NBA is going to make the change around the same time they introduce their academies linked to the G-League squads. We are about to see a shift to a more European development model, and that means that more top tier players will start filtering that route, with less at the D1 level. For hardcore fans (most of the people on this board), that won’t change the interest in college hoops, or in KU. But for casual fans, they will gravitate more to the NBA because the quality of play is superior. And casual fans are where you make your marketing dollars, because those are the people that are actively deciding on an every day basis whether to tune into a college hoops game or stream a movie, or go to dinner or whatever else you can do with your evenings and weekends. Those of us on this board will still watch because we are KU fans. But for others, they aren’t going to tune in, and that means a drop in ad value, which means the NCAA is going to have to figure out how to reconfigure itself once this current broadcast contract is up, because the next one probably won’t be as lucrative.

The Democrats did what they did because they believe in it, even though it may cost them votes later.

Why blame the NBA. Wiseman could either play for Memphis for free and have the NCAA try to destroy his reputation and the reputation of his family and friends, or he can work out and prepare to get paid to do the exact same thing.

Grimes has the physical tools. How that shows up going forward is anyone’s guess.

I hope success for him because I have no reason to harbor ill will against him. KU was a bad fit for him. It was pretty clear about halfway through the season last year that Grimes was not a good fit at KU. Why try and force that to work when it just wasn’t clicking? Let him move on. Let KU move on. Hope for the best for both.

BShark said:

@justanotherfan Frank, Graham, Perry and Dave (hopefully) look like good examples as well. Though Graham is shocking everyone in the NBA this year.

I pointed to Marcus because he is prototypical size and strength. Devonte as well. Perry was undersized as a 4 and not quick enough to be a three.

Dave might be a good example, but we will have to wait to see. I could see Big Dave improving enough to be a three year guy.

Even if Marcus had improved his shooting considerably this season (up to 35% for example) he probably would not have been an NBA prospect, but that would make him a superb college player given his other skills. In other words, Marcus could be playing even better and he would still be in Lawrence next year.

I’m torn on Garrett. He has certainly become a better offensive player, which makes him an extremely valuable collegiate player. But for everything that he has done to improve offensively, he is still only shooting 27% from three, 47% from the field and 62% from the line. Those are all career highs for him.

What has really set him apart this year as opposed to other years isn’t his shooting, though. It is his passing. Garrett had never averaged 2 assists per game prior to this season. He’s averaging over 4.5 assists a game this year. That’s a huge jump, and is much more valuable than the moderate improvements that he has made shooting the basketball.

All of this still doesn’t make him an NBA player, though. Garrett will return to Lawrence for his senior year, which is great for KU because, as I said, he is extremely valuable as a KU player. In some ways, Garrett (and to a lesser degree Azubuike) are the perfect type of four year players. Skilled, but flawed enough that they are almost certain to stay for four years because they don’t have great prospects for a pro career. Marcus Garrett could be an All Conference player next season at KU. He would struggle to make a G-League roster because of his shooting struggles unless he improved substantially.

But Garrett could be a key cog in a couple more March runs.

The NCAA is realizing that their stranglehold of control on basketball talent is starting to slip away, and if they don’t update their rules fairly quickly, they will be rendered irrelevant, and ultimately, broke.

Remember, while conferences get money from football, the NCAA does not. They are almost entirely dependent on men’s basketball for revenue (makes up between 85% and 90% of total revenue). Put simply, if the NCAA tournament is devalued in any way, the NCAA loses a large chunk of their overall revenue because the men’s tournament is worth so much to them.

Beware of the basketball academies coming after 2022. That could be the final nail.

He’s athletic, which is nice, but he’s also small, so all of my normal complaints about smaller guards apply.

He can shoot it, but at his size, he’s going to have to become a primary ball handler. He simply cannot rely only on off ball skills at the collegiate level. That won’t cut it because he likely won’t be able to guard bigger guys, even with his above average athleticism.

In all honesty, though, I think this kid should be ranked higher. He’s small, but he can shoot, he can handle, and he is very athletic for his size. Looking at a couple of the dunks that he has thrown down, I am surprised he is only a three star. I would have pegged him as a low four star based on the eye test. He should be top 150 IMHO, borderline top 100.