When the ten members of the NCAA Tournament selection committee get together every March to decide the fate of 351 college basketball teams, they consider a wide array of factors. One of the most difficult factors to determine is the strength of the various conferences. Is Duke going 15-3 in the ACC more impressive than Kentucky going 17-1 in the SEC? Should you let in a team with a strong record in a lesser conference over a middle-of-the-pack team from a power-five conference? The answers to these questions depend largely on how you evaluate the strength of each individual conference.
One way to evaluate teams is to look at the number of future NBA players they had to face during the season. It is much easier to win games playing against players who will be trading in their shorts and sneakers for loafers and slacks in a few months than it is when you’re in a conference with a bunch of guys who are a few months away from becoming lottery picks in the NBA Draft.
As I was thinking about which conference does the best job preparing players for the NBA (I don’t lead a very exciting social life so this is what I do), I decided to embark on a mission to create the best hypothetical current NBA team using former players from each conference. This is what I came up with. Feel free to make your voice heard in the comments section if you disagree.
Note: This list placed players based on which conference they actually played in, not necessarily the conference that their former school currently belongs to. I also gave each team a nickname as an added bonus.
ACC
“Tobacco Road’s greatest hits”
G- Chris Paul (Wake Forest)
G- Kyrie Irving (Duke)
F- Harrison Barnes (North Carolina)
F- T.J. Warren (NC State)
F- Jabari Parker (Duke)
Sixth Man- Jeff Teague (Wake Forest)
This back-court would give opposing teams nightmares. Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving are easily two of the top-five point guards in the league. The lack of big men would be a concern, but I’m sure CP3 would berate Jabari Parker and T.J Warren enough that they would eventually raise their game. Harrison Barnes is also on this team, which is neat. Fun fact: the ACC is the only conference that has at least one current NBA player from every school in the league.
Big East (RIP)
“Ain’t nothing but a MSG thang”
G- Kemba Walker (UConn)
G- Dwayne Wade (Marquette)
F- Jimmy Butler (Marquette)
F- Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse)
C- Andre Drummond (UConn)
Sixth Man- Steven Adams (Pittsburgh)
Pour some out for the greatest college basketball conference God ever created. This team would truly embody the old school Big East because they would have to rely almost exclusively on getting to the rim in order to score points. With the exception of Carmelo, nobody on this team can make a 3-pointer to save their lives. Their starting back-court of Walker and Wade average 34 and 29 percent respectively from beyond the arc over their careers. This wouldn’t matter because this team’s size and grit would more than compensate for their lack of shooting. It would ultimately depend on if Olympic Carmelo or NBA Carmelo showed up for this team.
Big 12
“Go big or go home”
G- Avery Bradley (Texas)
F- Andrew Wiggins (Kansas)
F- Kevin Durant (Texas)
F- Blake Griffin (Oklahoma)
C- DeAndre Jordan (Texas A&M)
Sixth Man- Joel Embiid (Kansas)
Holy height. This team posts an average height of over 6’9″. I imagine the Big 12 team coming out of the locker room like the Monstars before the game in Space Jam. Bradley could probably get away with just lobbing it in the vicinity of the rim every possession and at least one person would be waiting there to throw it down. They would absolutely smother teams on the glass, while also retaining the ability to step out and shoot with Bradley and Durant. I’m still upset that Durant and Griffin missed playing against each other in college by one year. That would have made for a pair of epic Red River Shootouts.
Big Ten
“No one comes down the lane”
G- Mike Conley (Ohio State)
G- Victor Oladipo (Indiana)
G- Eric Gordon (Indiana)
F- Draymond Green (Michigan State)
F- Zach Randolph (Michigan State)
Sixth Man- D’Angelo Russell (Ohio State)
I dare you to say something to this front-court. Draymond and Z-Bo are two of the hardest m-effers in the game. Neither your nuts nor your walk back to the bus would be safe against this team.
This team would also be a reunion for former AAU teammates Mike Conley and Eric Gordon. Their AAU team, the Spiece Indy Heat, also included Big Ten legends Greg Oden and Mark Titus. Oden and Titus came equally close to making the cut for this hypothetical Big Ten NBA team.
Pac-12
“What could have been”
G- Russell Westbrook (UCLA)
G- James Harden (Arizona State)
G- Klay Thompson (Washington State)
F- DeMar DeRozan (USC)
F- Kevin Love (UCLA)
Sixth Man- Isaiah Thomas (Washington)
Somewhere, Sam Presti sees this back-court and begins to ponder his own life choices. This team would finally answer the question that many NBA fans have debated for the last four years, “What if the Thunder never traded James Harden?” Would Harden and Russell Westbrook have been able to coexist and form one of the greatest guard combos in NBA history? Possibly. More likely they would have eventually had a falling out after an on-court fistfight over who got to bring the ball up. It sure would be cool to see, though.
SEC
“The Kentucky Wildcats”
G- Rajon Rondo (Kentucky)
G- John Wall (Kentucky)
F- Anthony Davis (Kentucky)
F- Karl-Anthony Towns (Kentucky)
C- DeMarcus Cousins (Kentucky)
Sixth Man- Eric Bledsoe (Kentucky)
The 14 teams in the SEC have produced a combined 62 current NBA players, 24 of them went to Kentucky. The scary part is that all of these guys (minus Rondo) could have theoretically played together at Kentucky at the same time. That, of course, would have required them to stay in college for longer than six months, and you know John Calipari doesn’t roll like that.
Mid-Majors (everyone else)
“The slipper still fits”
G- Stephen Curry (Davidson)
G- Damian Lillard (Weber State)
F- Kawhi Leonard (San Diego State)
F- Gordon Hayward (Butler)
C- Hassan Whiteside (Marshall)
Sixth Man- C.J. McCollum (Lehigh)
Power-five conference coaches slept on these guys, NBA scouts didn’t. The fact that I was able to make an NBA team this good with guys that nobody bothered to recruit out of high school is remarkable. Steph and Kawhi would easily be the most dynamic duo on any of these hypothetical teams, and I don’t know a basketball fan out there who wouldn’t love to see it.
Worth noting: Davidson, San Diego State and Butler have all upgraded to better conferences since the departures of Curry, Leonard and Hayward respectively. This is a remarkable testimony to the impact that a star player can have on a program.
No College
“LeBron and the exchange students”
G- Goran Dragic (Slovenia)
G- Tony Parker (France)
F- LeBron James (St. Vincent-St. Mary High School)
F- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece)
C- Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia)
Sixth Man- Dirk Nowitzki (Germany)
The language barrier may be an issue for this team, but I’m pretty sure LeBron screaming “PASS ME THE DAMN BALL” translates fairly well across the globe. These guys are living proof that it is entirely possible to make millions of dollars without a college degree*.
This team would have been a lot better a decade ago before the NCAA implemented the moronic rule that requires players to delay their NBA dreams by a year to go half-ass their way through a semester and a half of classes at a college they have zero intention of graduating from. I will give anyone reading this $5 if you can make a rational argument defending the one-and-done rule. But I digress.
*If you’re over 6’8″ and can jump out of the building.