tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
1) Players going straight from High school was an exception not the rule. Hell they only made the one and done rule because so many high schoolers had agents getting into their head that they were better then they were and skipping college despite having no chance to be drafter in the first round and an iffy second rounder at best.
Nevertheless, it's what an entire generation of star players chose to do. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Tracy McGrady, Amar'e Stoudemire, Jermaine O'Neal, Shawn Kemp, Stephen Jackson, Monta Ellis all came into the league without ever playing college basketball. Only in the last few years could you say the NBA is really supplied by the NCAA and even then it's only in a very minimal one-and-done kind of way.
2) Well it helps that there are only 2 rounds in the NBA draft then waiting til the 3rd round plus in the NHL to take the project or unknown from Europe
What difference does that make? There are twice as many roster spots in the NHL and there are 2 tiers of minor leagues, of course the NHL draft is going to be longer. Overall, 75% of the NHL is from North America compared to 82% of the NBA. It's not a huge difference.
3) Its still a very public showing that kids get from even that one year in college. Plus with how public high school scouting is the basketball watching public know who to watch for before hand and watch them from the first game on.
Honestly, you're talking about serious hardcore fans who would follow high school players from other states. Like, the basketball equivalent of HF.
Anyway, Mathradio's original comment was intended to mean that college = NBA when it comes to the players involved. That is not at all the case. Only a fraction of college players go on to the NBA, and only a fraction of the NBA has long and relevant college careers. With a few exceptions per draft, the two are only nominally connected by the age requirement.