With the amazing amount of talent Kentucky has in its starting five, talk of them beating NBA teams has spiraled out of control over the past few weeks. The Wildcats aren’t the first dominant college team that is loaded with NBA talent and they won’t be the last. NBA teams are made up of the best players from the NCAA, but for some reason that hasn’t quite registered with some people. It has with Kevin Love, who says there is no way Kentucky could ever beat even a terrible NBA team.
“It would never happen,” Love told the Dan Patrick Show according to Sports Radio Interviews. “They would get blown out by both teams, Bobcats or Wizards. They do have a great team, they haven’t won the National Championship yet, they’re well coached by (John) Calipari and have a lot of great one-and-dones, but that’s just something that would never happen.”
In one corner, you have guys like Charles Barkley and former Maryland coach Gary Williams who disagree with Love. You even have people like legendary NBA coach Larry Brown who has taken it a step further, saying Kentucky could beat half the teams in the NBA. Still, the oddsmakers say it would be an insane longshot and Calipari himself does not believe it could happen — although that could be modesty talking.
For all we know, all of Kentucky’s starters could go on to be NBA busts. It’s unlikely, but it has happened to some of the most dominant players in college basketball history. You can’t say a college team could beat an NBA team based on their performance against other college teams. The game doesn’t translate like that, and it’s surprising that guys like Barkley (actually, no it’s not) and Brown would think otherwise.
Photo credit: Mark Zerof-US PRESSWIRE
