UW finally fields NBA team…. How do they stack up?

With the news today that Will Conroy has signed a 10 day contract with the Houston Rockets, the University of Washington now has 5 active players in the NBA.  This puts UW with about 20 other NCAA schools that have 5 alums in the NBA.

I don’t know why I consider this a milestone, but I do.

In fact, I wonder where the UW 5 would finish if every school with 5 NBA players played a little tournament.  I have a feeling UW would do ok (middle of the pack), due in large part to the fact that it’s a pretty balanced team.  Will Conroy at the 1, Nate Robinson at the 2, Brandon Roy at the 3, Jon Brockman at the 4, and Spencer Hawes at the 5.

The UW team would struggle in the post as Brockman and Hawes are not athletic enough.  The Roy / Robinson duo would be tough to stop though (those guys won like 2 National Championships at UW right?  Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson… on the same college team…. for several seasons… unreal.  It is shocking that team didn’t do better in the NCAA’s considering it also had Will Conroy and Bobby Jones, two other fringe NBA talents).

Anyways, some preliminary research indicates that some colleges are better at creating NBA talent than others.  Of those schools that have at least 5 NBA players, here is what I think:

BEST TEAMS

#1 – If you are wondering who’d win this competition that I just made up – my best guess is Wake Forest.  Chris Paul, Tim Duncan, and Josh Howard…… Add in Darius Songalia and James Johnson (or Jeff Teague, or anyone else really) and I think that’s your winner.  It’s balanced and it has 2 legitimate superstars and a third all-star in Josh Howard.  Game, Set, Match.

#2 -North Carolina would probably finish a close second.  Top to bottom they may have the best team with depth, but I just don’t see a way to crack that trio of Duncan, Paul, Howard.  I’d say UNC’s starting 5 would be Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Sheed, Marvin Williams, and maybe Ray Felton.  The Tarheels are getting old though.  Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, and Felton add some new blood, but the core group of the Tarheel alums in the NBA will all have retired in the next 4-5 seasons (this includes Brendan Haywood and Jerry Stackhouse, who didn’t make the starting 5).  I’m sure more will take their place.

#3 – Zona.  Can Gilbert Arenas play in this fake tournament I created?  You bet your ass he can play, and I bet he would too (call me).  Would give him something to do other than go to jail.  And his Arizona team, along with Mike Bibby, Jerryd Bayless, Andre Iguodala,  and Richard Jefferson would be pretty solid.  Throw in Jordan Hill, Chase Budinger, and Channing Frye off the bench and this team would be a serious competitor.  Almost as good as UNC.  In fact, as I write this, I’m not convinced they wouldn’t beat UNC.  Oh well, too late to go back now.  I’d have to delete stuff and move stuff around and that ain’t happening.  Zona is #3.

#4 – UConn.  They have a lot of solid NBA talent.  Rudy Gay, Ray Allen and company (typing more about them would take more effort than I’m willing to put forth) would acquit themselves nicely. Ok ok – Thabeet, Butler, and Ben Gordon round out starting 5.  Villenueva off the bench for spice.

DISAPPOINTING TEAMS

Of the schools who have 5 players in the league, these are who I found to be rather disappointing:

#1 -  Kentucky.  Other than Rajon Rondo, the Cats’ NBA squad is thin.  Tayshaun Prince would be the second best player, and Kelenna Azubuike, Nazr Mohammed, and Keith Bogans would round out their starting 5.  All in all, I was expecting more out of the Kentucky alums in the NBA.  I mean, John Callipari’s Kentucky team right now may be able to beat that starting five.  Seriously, John Wall, Patrick Patterson, Demarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe?  Those 4 would be hard for the NBA bunch to stop.  Plus they make more than the NBA players do, but then they have Callipari who’s a better agent than most NBA agents.

#2 -California.  Jason Kidd.  End of story.  Well not the end, more like the end of that sentence really.  Because I still have to mention Leon Powe, Ryan Anderson, Sean Marks, and Elson Francisco.  I’m pretty sure Marks and Francisco are just made up because I have no recollection of them ever playing at Cal, but whatever, ESPN.com says they are in the NBA so that’s good enough for me.  This team, however, would fare poorly in my College/NBA round robin.  I wonder if Tony Gonzalez would be willing to suit up for this.  Would give them a better chance.

#3 – USC.  For the all money SC pays its football and basketball players, you’d think the Trojans could have cobbled together some more NBA talent.  Instead, it’s OJ Mayo, Demar Derozan, Taj Gibson, Brian Scalabrine, and Nick Young.  For a team that plays in LA, openly flaunts NCAA regulations, and can ride the coattails of the football program, that’s pretty sad.

THE REST

Here are the colleges that had 5 or more NBA players at the start of the 2009 season:

Duke                        14
UCLA                        14
Connecticut                 13
North Carolina              13
Arizona                     10
Florida                      9
Kansas                       9
Kentucky                     9
Georgia Tech                 7
Ohio St.                     7
Texas                        7
LSU                          6
Memphis                      6
Michigan St.                 6
Syracuse                     6
Wake Forest                  6
California                   5
Southern Cal                 5
Villanova                    5

You’ll note that UW is not on  this list.  That is because Will Conroy was just signed to a 10 day contract today, January 28.  You may also note that in 11 days, this post could be meaningless as once again UW will likely only have 4 players in the NBA.  So basically this tournament I’m proposing has to happen immediately.  Next week at the latest.

For Hotdog

Gonzaga  isn’t mentioned in this post because they don’t have 5 NBA players.  But if I reduced this competition down to 3 on 3,  Gonzaga could compete and the trio of Ronny Turiaf, Austin Daye, and Adam Morrison could finish dead last in that competition.  Morrison would probably love it though, because it would give him a chance to actually play in a game and go 11 for 39 from the field with 1 assist and 2 rebounds (48 minutes of playing time).  It would be just like old times.