Philadelphia 76ers Would Absolutely Beat Kentucky Wildcats In Seven-Game Series
By Greg Sacidor
@Greg_Sacidor
Eric Hartline – USA TODAY Sports
No matter what the sport, the question of whether the best college team could beat the worst pro team has been debated for decades by sports fans everywhere. Wednesday afternoon, Eric Bledsoe of the Phoenix Suns sparked this debate once again when he said that this year’s Kentucky Wildcats would beat the Philadelphia 76ers in a seven-game series.
After the Kentucky Wildcats’ huge 72-40 win over the fifth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks Tuesday night, University of Kentucky alum Eric Bledsoe appeared on SiriusXM Radio with Brian Geltzeiler and Malik Rose. While talking to Geltzeiler and Rose, Bledsoe sparked the age-old debate of whether the most dominant college team could beat the worst NBA team.
In this scenario, Bledsoe said that he would “definitely” take the top-ranked Wildcats over the winless 76ers in a seven-game series. Bledsoe even went on to predict that the series wouldn’t go more than five games. These comments then sparked a national debate on who would win in a series, the Wildcats or the 76ers?
Most times when this debate is started, people write off the college team due to the difference in age. But, when looking at these two rosters, there can be a case made for why age doesn’t matter in this particular matchup. The average age of the 76ers is about 23 years old, including a 33-year-old Jason Richardson who hasn’t dressed all season. The average age for the Wildcats is 20.
Most of the 76ers players would actually still be in college if they were forced to stay beyond one year. Reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams is 23 years old, but had he stayed in college, he would be playing his senior season for the Syracuse Orange. Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid are only 20, and they would be in their junior and sophomore seasons, respectively.
Despite being a few years younger, the Wildcats possess nine former McDonald’s All-Americans on their roster, and if there were no one-and-done rule for them, most would probably be playing alongside Carter-Williams, Noel and Embiid in the NBA.
When it comes to the coaches of these two teams, there may not be any discernible differences either. In the NBA, John Calipari holds a record of 72-112 (.391), while Brett Brown has a record of 19-73 (.207) in little over a year with the Sixers. Brown has only tasted what it is like to win a championship on a major American level as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs back in 2007. Calipari, on the other hand, led Kentucky to a National Championship as its head coach back in 2012.
In a seven-game series, coaching plays a big factor, but in this matchup, there is no distinct advantage.
After getting wind of this debate Thursday morning, Kentucky head coach Calipari tweeted out, “let me be clear: if we played any NBA team, we would get buried. Any.” Later in the afternoon, Marc Stein of ESPN tweeted, “Westgate Las Vegas Superbook tells ESPN that it would list Sixers as 17-point favorite over Kentucky.”
Calipari’s and the Superbook’s take on this hypothetical matchup is dead on. If these two teams were to meet for one game and one game only, then Bledsoe’s stance would be valid. On any given night, anything can happen. Maybe Calipari gets his young Wildcats riled up for this one big game, or maybe the 76ers come out like they have for the most part of the 2014-15 season, and just look flat. In a winner-takes-all scenario, the Wildcats would have more than a fighting chance to pull off the upset. But in a seven-game series, they have no shot.
Yes, Kentucky has nine McDonald’s All-Americans, which is more than most current NBA teams have. But the development level between them and the 76ers is substantial. Even when the best rookies arrive in the NBA, it takes time for them to mature. Just look at former Wildcat Anthony Davis.
To think that these Wildcats could beat the 76ers four times in a seven-game span would be, as current 76er Tony Wroten put it, “insulting.”
Greg Sacidor is a Philadelphia 76ers and NBA writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Greg_Sacidor or add him to your network on Google.
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