Larry Brown Says Kentucky Would Make NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs

There has been some debate this year as to whether Kentucky could beat an NBA team. SMU head coach Larry Brown, who is preparing for the NCAA tournament, took things a bit further by saying the Wildcats could be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference.    

Per Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio, Brown didn't seem to have any doubts about Kentucky's ability to compete in the NBA right now:

Brown is one of the greatest coaches in basketball history, having won an NCAA championship with Kansas and NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons, but this statement has a hint of hyperbole. 

ESPN's Mike Greenberg and Jay Williams believe Brown's comments were a bit of a stretch: 

Even Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who could lead the first men's team to finish 40-0 with a title run, tweeted the Wildcats wouldn't beat an NBA team when the topic was first broached in November:

As many potential NBA draft picks as the Wildcats have, not all of them will make it at the next level. It's not like they haven't been vulnerable to college competition this year, nearly losing games to Mississippi, Texas A&M, Georgia, Florida and LSU. 

While the bottom of the Eastern Conference has become painful to watch, with Indiana and Miami currently in the playoffs at 30-36, all of the players on those teams are in the NBA for a reason. Kentucky doesn't have a roster of NBA players, even though a lot of them will be drafted. 

A perfect example would be Tuesday night's game between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks. The defending NBA champions were playing the league's worst team against a lineup with Andrea Bargnani and Alexey Shved starting, yet San Antonio lost in overtime. 

Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press

If you think Kentucky can compete against a team like San Antonio, more power to you. But the notion that a college team, even one that has looked as great as Kentucky, could be an NBA playoff team is nevertheless hard to believe. 

Just ask Kentucky's coach how he feels this group would do in the NBA.