<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The college game is sloppy and the "amateur" players are prone to making innumerable mistakes. Which is why 20-point leads often vanish in a few minutes.The defense seems to be good in the collegiate ranks only because the overall offense is so poor. Which is why the likes of J.J. Reddick and Adam Morrison struggle so much to score when they come to the NBA. And why so many of the NCAA's scoring-average leaders in recent years can't even play in the NBA: Ruben Douglas, Jason Conley, Ronnie McCollum, Alvin Young, Charles Jones, Kevin Granger, Greg Guy, Brett Roberts, Kevin Bradshaw, and so on.The preponderance of zone defenses in NCAA competition assures that too many players never really learn how to play straight-up defense. Inferior (to the NBA) ball-handling, passing, ball-catching skills, footwork and overall creativity are additional reasons for college defenses appearing to be better than they really are. Which is why the primary difficulty for virtually every NBA rookie is playing defense. And don't mistake passing per se for teamwork. The truth is that most college offenses are so poorly constructed (especially against zones) that multiple passes are necessary to find an open shot or to create space in which a designated scorer can operate. In fact, teamwork is much more critical, and much more subtle ? the execution of plays, defensive rotations ? in the NBA. It's economics that pressures the NBA to focus on individuals rather than on teams. Whereas the best college players remain "amateurs" for one or two seasons, NBA stars are around for a decade or more. Add in the fact that playoff teams in the NBA annually play three times as many games every season as do NCAA qualifiers, and pro hoopers' recognizability is understandably greater. That translates into commercial opportunities, also millions of dollars in player-jerseys, autographed balls, bobbleheads and similar trinkets.</div> This topic didn't fit anywhere else so I thought it should go here. I think people get NCAA basketball mixed up as 'better' when it's not. It's not better basketball....it's just more fun in my eyes because of the emotion, energy and passion.
