re: We really need Odo

You don't know what you are talking about.

You are still mixing the club system with our own. Where here, you graduate from amateur to pro, over there you are always in the club system -- even as a kid -- so it's tricky and somewhat meaningless to try to decipher if a low-level club team is what we would be the equivalent of what we would consider pro.

There are tons of small, community-based clubs in Europe. They are pro in the same way a crappy local indoor football team is pro.

I mean, Spain has 48 million people, roughly the population of Californa and Oregon, and it has well over a hundred basketball clubs, all of which have adult teams that are at, some level, pro.

So saying our colleges can beat their pros is meaningless and deceiving. We can probably send NAIA teams over there who can find low-end club teams they can kill.

But pros as we think of them? Those high-end clubs that attract the best players over there?

Our college teams would struggle with those teams.

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Nothing is foreign to me about how things work over there in basketball and soccer.

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Then why are you judging European players based on the observation that U.S. colleges "beat their pros?"

If you understood how things are organized there, you would never make that observation.

I'll clarify it for you further. The top 3 percent of U.S. high school basketball players play NCAA college basketball and 1 percent of college players play in the NBA. Probably 5 percent of of youth league players in the major European basketball countries will play some level of adult club basketball. Remember, there is no such thing as intercollegiate basketball there. It's a club system from youth league to retirement. And there are 54 teams in Spain's three most competitive club leagues (18 in the ACB, their best league). So a higher percentage of their players play in the top three levels of club basketball than play in COLLEGE basketball in the U.S.

So if a U.S. college plays a team from, say, Spain's third-tier league, they are playing players who are further down their own country's pecking order of players than typical D-I American college players are in the U.S.

So, when you're saying American colleges wipe the floor with their pros, well, who exactly are they wiping the floor with? Is it a highly competitive club team or is it players that are further down their own country's pool of players than what American college players in the American pool of players?

So what's the point in saying Euros suck because college teams beat their pros? It's a completely different system.

Top-end Euro countries are competitive with U.S. basketball when the level of competition is apples-to-apples. Spain is a threat to beat the U.S. in international competition despite having a population barely larger than California. European powers can compete with us well in age-group competition as well.

It's hard to match up U.S. college teams with European club teams because there isn't a level of club ball that is quite like American college ball. Lower level clubs tend to not be college standard but the top-level clubs tend to take the talent right out of the youth clubs (Rubio signed with his club's pro team at 16, for example) so there isn't this "bridge" level where the top 3 percent stop over before going "pro."

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I was judging european amateur players having a rough transition from there to over here for college ball

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I don't have a problem with that, because it's a different style of play. But you based your observation on U.S. colleges beating their "pros." Which makes no sense because the pros our colleges tend to beat are often teams the Euro players LSU would recruit are too good to play for.

That's the thing. You are stuck on the American notion of "pro" meaning "elite" as opposed to the Euro notion of "club" meaning any competitive adult level. There are clubs that are comparable to the NBA. There are clubs that couldn't compete in D-II college. There are clubs that pay almost like an NBA team. There are club players at the lower levels who are happy to get their expenses covered and work on the side to support themselves.

That whole premise you are building on is flat wrong. Now, I'd accept that they might struggle with American style or American athleticism, which are two things they won't be used to, but it won't be because their competition is weak.

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But you based your observation on U.S. colleges beating their "pros."

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No, I was simply taking a funny stab at the bad pro teams they do have over there that college teams kill. That's all.

My main point over and over and over was going from amateur ball over there to college ball over here is a really tough transition for multiple reasons. Which you agree, end of story.

You put WAY too much effort into nothing here.

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Pointless, you are comparing a meaningless tournament to the ENTIRETY of competition. If you think competition for kids in high school is the same toughness level in europe vs. U.S. you roll with that.

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Pointless? What's pointless is comparing American college basketball to any level in the European rung because there is no equivalent. There is no 1-4 year stopover between youth league and the pros in Europe. 17-18 year olds simply start getting absorbed into the club system, some levels of which are clearly better than US collegiate ball and some levels that are clearly inferior, but nothing quite the same.

That you still talk about European "HIGH SCHOOL" basketball (hint: There's no such thing) shows that you don't grasp the fundamental differences in the system.

But roll with whatever you think.

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That you still talk about European "HIGH SCHOOL" basketball (hint: There's no such thing) shows that you don't grasp the fundamental differences in the system.

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I didnt say they had high school basketball. I said competition while they are that age, hence "amateur basketball". Stop arguing to argue. You are taking every little thing I say, twist it into something completely different, then go off on a tirade of which I'm not reading because I already know everything you're saying. Just give it a damn rest already, you already agreed with me.

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No problem if this guy gives it a damn rest. He's hell bent on explaining european basketball for absolutely no reason at all.

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yeah i didn't read it, all i was a wall of text.

I am not sure who wins the starting point guard spot but my money is not on a true freshman at this point when we are getting good play from that spot right now!

I am soooo looking forward to getting rebounds after our 5 misses shots and our 4 slams it home! Having two decent 5's on the team and on the court at the same time pays off on the boards and helps with everything, collapsing on the 5 as well as the guards getting open outside shots.

But they are not going to play like that all game. Not even close. Starting lineup is only half of the formula. The second lineup will get as many minutes as the starting lineup.

Next season is going to be sweet if JOB does the right thing and comes back!

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I think if Hamilton had stayed

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We'd be battling Florida for 1st place in the SEC. Probably sitting at 4-5 losses on the year.