Barnes' Bark: What’s The Difference Between Divison I and III Players?

Barry Barnes, Editorialist and Baltimore Scribe

The thoughts expressed here are those of Barry Barnes, and may/may not coincide with beliefs held by i95Ballerz.com principals or sponsors.

December 15, 2008 – The high school and college basketball seasons are here and, of course, it is off to another great start. It is always amazing to see how a powerhouse program like the North Carolina Tar Heels can continuously get high quality players and dominant.

But how does a guy like guard Stephon Curry of the # 23 ranked Davidson College, the son of former 13-year sharp-shooting NBA veteran Dell Curry, get overlooked by major Division I programs about three years ago? Curry is currently NCAA’s Division I leading scorer at 31.3 per game, making his name known season as he destroyed big competition during March Madness, almost singled handedly. This brings a question people ask themselves or others; what separates a major Division 1 basketball player from other Division player?

Opportunities and the right situations makes the difference on how a player gets noticed by a major Division I or any other level program. The college scouts and recruiters do an outstanding job scouting and helping programs recruit. Scouts and recruiters look at players’ physical skills, ball-handling, shooting, hands, foot work, decision making, and conduct background checks: You name it, they study it.

The only thing scouts and recruiters can not study or judge is a basketball player’s heart. Case in point, former George Mason University’s standout, Will Thomas (Baltimore) was label undersized for a power forward standing at 6-8, but has the heart of a lion. Thomas did not play competitive ball at a young age, but he did play for the Baltimore Blues, a lower level AAU team, and after his junior year of high school and played for the Baltimore Select, which is big time AAU ball. Thomas was sought after by the likes of College of Charleston, Fordham and other mid-level Division 1 teams. In 2004, he was voted co-player of the year by the Baltimore Sun, sharing the award with current NBA star of the Memphis Grizzlies, Rudy Gay (Baltimore).

Unlike Thomas, Gay played competitive recreational basketball at the age of 12 in the Turner Station Community. With early exposure to AAU, summer league games in the Tom Jones Youth Summer league in D.C. and experience with the nationally known Cecil-Kirk AAU program, Gay took advantage of the opportunities to get noticed, in the end chose to accept a scholarship from UCONN over other major Division 1 programs.

With all the success Gay has received, earned and deserved mind you, he lost all eight match-up against Thomas including the NCAA tournament showdown where George Mason advanced to the Final Four, the first time in school history. Gay is more talented than Thomas, but Thomas’ heart proved people wrong.

It is unknown why Devean George, forward for the Dallas Mavericks, got over-looked because he was a stud in Division III college ball. George attended Augsburg College and led his team to two NCAA Division III tournaments with an average of 27.5 points per game in his senior year. Not being in the right situation or right place could the reason why George was not playing for a Division I program, but at the same time, how could he been missed because he was dominant?

Now, obviously, every high school basketball player is not Division I material. In fact, not every high school player wants to play ball in college, even if they are a Division I prospect. Scouts and recruiters do not get it right all the time, but majority of the time, they do.

Probably the biggest thing that separates a Division 1 player from a Division III player is favoritism: Coaches around the country are known for playing players they like. If a player joins a varsity high school basketball team without some decent recreational ball background, it is harder to get playing time because the head coach does not understand the player’s full potential. There are tons of cases in which the player who is riding the bench, is better and more skilled than the feature player.

Curry, Thomas, and George are a few of thousands of cases of how talented high school basketball players are overlooked because of their situations and opportunities. Scouts and recruiters are doing an excellent job in keeping the powerhouse programs powerful and improving college ball. But majority of the time, the head coach controls the destiny of a basketball player’s playing future and it starts with the program he/she plays for.

The greatest NBA basketball player’s high school basketball coach almost robbed the world of his greatness, Michael Jordan.