March Madness is in full swing and as the NCAA tournament started their games yesterday, which was the most exciting day in the history of the tourney, there was one reoccurring theme that has been talked about all season.
How good are the Kentucky Wildcats?
If you asked former NBA coach and current SMU Mustangs head coach, Larry Brown, he would tell you how it is. The legendary head coach thinks Kentucky is so good that they would make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.
Well, one player on a team fighting for the playoffs in that same Eastern Conference that Brown thinks a bunch of college kids could successfully make it, into disagrees.
Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams has some words with the ideas that coach Brown has and is even issuing a challenge to the young college stars.
Following from Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News.
The Kentucky Wildcats certainly won’t be in the playoffs, and Deron Williams thinks the idea that UK would make the playoffs in the NBA’s weak Eastern Conference is “ridiculous” and “crazy.”
“There’s no way. I wish they would come in here,” Williams said of facing the Wildcats in the NBA. “They’re really good. They are really good. Don’t let me take anything away from them. But that’s just crazy. When you have a team full of 18-, 19-year-olds it’s just completely different. You’re going to catch a team tired one night, on a back-to-back, four games in five nights, then they could give them a run. But making the East? Making the playoffs? Playoffs!?”
Well at the end, Williams is channeling his inner Jim Mora, of course, but you have to agree with Williams here. There’s no way a bunch of 18-20 year olds are making the NBA playoffs. If it was that easy, every team who tanked with good college players (like the Philadelphia 76er or Minnesota Timberwolves) would not be as bad as they are this season.
There’s no way Kentucky can make it into the NBA playoffs. Now, possibly defeating the Sixers or New York Knicks, that’s a whole other debate. The NBA game is way different. The players are bigger, stronger, faster and smarter and they would just out muscle and exploit the lack of experience the Wildcats have.
