Not to mention everyone from their 1995 team amounted to jack **** in the NBA, Ed and Charles O'bannon, Tyus Edny, Toby Bailey, Jelani McCoy, etc..
Or maybe really good NBA players come along very rarely. You can't expect everyone who gets drafted by an NBA team to be an all star.
Can someone tell me a great Michigan State player since Magic? Kevin Willis? Don't tell me Mo Pete. Zach Randolph
Depends what you mean by great. How about Glenn Rice or Steve Smith. They weren't in Magic's league but solid players for many years.
Since about 5 years ago, colleges no longer are looked at as star factories of the NBA. Those who have real star potential usually go straight from high school. Only the late bloomers go through college for more than two years now. Those with more than 2 years of college are usually OK, but not great players. One of the few exceptions is Tim Duncan. But he is probably the last of his breed. If you factor in the influx of foreign players, you can see that the chances of a college graduate who becomes NBA star is quite slim.
Arizona actually produces some decent PGs. Bibby, Stoudamire, Terry, etc... Shakur's gonna be something special too. My HS team played him once last year, the man's a beast.
The reason why Duke is singled out is because every year they are at the top or near the top in the rankings, EVERY FREAKING YEAR. Hell, Duke could have a starting 5 of quadriplegics and still be ranked in the top 10. They're the only school to have two Wooden award winners in the past decade. Along with that Duke usually always has a player or two who people expect to be a high draft pick and successful in the NBA, Deng being the next one up after J. Williams. Other schools cannot claim this. Remember Michigan State's title team a few years ago, they had some star players but nobody really expected anybody from that team to go on and do good things, as was with Williams, Jones, Battier, Boozer, Dunleavy Jr., Langdon, Brand, Maggette, Avery, McLeod, Capel, Collins, Parks, Hill, Lang, Hurley, Laettner, McCaffrey, etc. Out of those players I just named I'll give you Brand, Hill, Battier, Boozer, Maggette as being some sort of role player on their teams in the NBA. The rest are first round waste, if they even made it that far.
Who the hell expected much from Dahntay Jones in the NBA? Langdon!? Hurley? McLeod? Capel!?!?!?! Lang? You are naming guys who I, at least, never thought had an NBA future. Arizona has been as consistently succesful in the last decade as Duke has. I guess Mike Dunleavy has no role on GS?
Who does Kentucky have that's any good right now? Mashburn? Magloire? I don't really count Mercer, since he's average.
I just don't buy this. The championship teams from those programs had Grant Hill, Jay Williams, Battier, MD, Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, along with other very goog college athletes just not quite good enough for the pros. Coach K and Lute have formost win because they have the best talent usually athletic to boot--not the best systems or team oriented players. Not since Indiana over Syracuse did the severley undermanned team in terms of talent and athleticism team. Coach K should get a lot more credit for recruiting than x's and o's remember Calhoun beat arguably his most talented team (like Brand, Maggette, Battier, Boozer, Avery?) with Rip Hamilton and a bunch of team oriented guys. I guess that is a way to further please the donors and alums.
I may appear to contradict myself. UConn was undermanned in terms of NBA potential, but they were very athletic for a college team, which is why they could stay with Duke that year and then beat them with Rip and execution down the stretch. I stand by the statement Cuse-Indiana was really the last clear case of the totally outmanned team winning due to the "team game" beating the talent. I don't like Bobby Knight one bit, but you have to credit him with the outcome there.
Scar- My point is that Duke was never really stacked with athletes until around the mid to late 90s. Would you agree that the prototypical Duke player has changed from 10 years ago?
Haven't they all? There's so much more untutored athleticism and fewer and fewer fundamentally sound players.
