Futility: Could A College Team Beat The Pistons?

The question circulating the internet is whether a premier college basketball team could defeat the Pistons. This speculation arises as the Pistons set the record for the longest losing streak in an NBA season at 27. Since February of 2022 they are 4-51. Looking at their upcoming schedule, it’s conceivable that the streak could extend to 34 before they encounter a game where they might have a good chance in. This situation is distinct from past instances where teams, like the 76ers, intentionally aimed to lose and tank. The Pistons, in contrast, constructed their team with the intention of being competitive but have unexpectedly faced severe difficulties, and are on track to be one of the worst teams in NBA history.

Some basketball experts have confidently stated that the Pistons, even playing under college rules, would dominate any college team by a margin of 35 or 40 points or more. One went as far as to claim the Pistons would go undefeated in college basketball. While I anticipate no doubt the Pistons would strongly be favored and highly likely to win, I would hesitate to assume it would be a guaranteed one-sided affair or that the Pistons wouldn’t trip up over 40 college basketball games playing in a conference like the Big 12 or Big Ten on the road or over an entire season.

This is basketball man. Basketball, by its nature, has a history of remarkable upsets, and I don’t believe it’s a foregone conclusion that a college team couldn’t compete with the Pistons in a single game where teams shooting can ebb and flow so much.

Exhibit A: The Dream Team

The Dream Team lost to a group of college players by a reported 20 points. Here are various accounts of the game since there were no official scores released.

“I was on the college team that beat the Dream Team…The first day we practiced against them, we beat them by 20. They couldn’t do anything with Webber. I’m telling you, Webber was killing these guys. We all had our moments. Bobby Hurley though, they couldn’t keep him out of the paint.”

Grant Hill

Certainly, this was a highly talented college team, with Chris Webber serving as the driving force in their victory. It’s important to remember that he had just turned just 19 years old, and was a rising sophomore. While Webber proved to be a very good NBA player, he didn’t achieve first-ballot Hall of Fame status and had to wait until 2021 for his induction. Even the best version of Prime Chis Webber was never on the level of most of the dream team.

“We got killed today.

Michael Jordan

“These young kids were killing us,”

Scottie Pippen

It’s worth noting that he faced formidable opponents in the post in their prime, including David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, and Karl Malone, some of the best post players in NBA history. At the end of the day this was a young team of playing against the greatest team of talent ever assembled. Both had basically equal amounts of practice time as well. It wasn’t like this was Greece who had played together for years beating team USA. If anything teammates like Pippen, Michael Jordan, Malone Stockton etc had years of chemistry together at the time. Many of these player had played multiple all-star games together as well. If anything Chemistry was on the side of the NBA players.

The essential point is that this exist, an example where young college players have triumphed over NBA players. People may offer justifications or make excuses for why, but the fact remains that it has happened, and accounts suggest it wasn’t a closely contested match. While college teams may lack the talent of individuals like Chris Webber or Grant Hill, it’s equally valid to observe that the Pistons do not have players of the caliber of Michael Jordan, Karl Malone or Magic Johnson either. I’d argue the stages these players were at in their career and levels of talent difference is much greater. It just goes to show, in a one-game scenario it is possible to compete. College basketball is also much older today with super seniors and the Pistons are mostly under 23 years old.

Here was the Select Teams Roster coached by : George Raveling

They beat this team on a similar amount of practice.

All the players on the Dream Team were in their prime, except for Bird. However, Bird was still a formidable presence, having recently averaged 20.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, 6.8 assists, with a PER of 21 in the preceding season, making him an NBA All-Star. Magic Johnson, who had taken a hiatus due to HIV, had led the Lakers to the NBA Finals the previous year he played and was still a good NBA player upon his return four years later. The Dream Team represented a gathering of the best ten players in the NBA, many of whom are regarded among the greatest in NBA history, playing against college players who were around 20 years old. The best two in Webber and Grant Hill were 19. While some of these college players eventually made All-Star appearances after years of improvement, none reached the level of the prime players from the Dream Team.

Other Examples

There were many other examples of major upsets in international and college play. Chaminade with a 6-6 center guarding the two-time NCAA Player of the Year that was 7-4 is likely the most notable. That UVA team had 4 NBA players, was ranked 1st, had been to the Final 4 with the core of that team, and would still finish a 1 seed Elite 8 team losing to the National Champs. Sampson would enter the NBA as a dominant player a year later averaging 21 and 12 and as an NBA All Star a year later.

Detroit Pistons

When your best player has over 30 usage and just a 15 PER like Cade Cunningham, that’s the equation to stink. Logically, it makes sense to say any NBA team could destroy even the best college teams, but I think that theory falls apart some when you look at the highest-minute players on the Pistons. This is a team that would be younger than quite a few college programs in the era of super seniors, where many players are in their 5th or 6th year of college. That alone closes the gap when you realize these players are the same age. Some college teams are older even.

Bojan Bogdanović is the exception, and he has been injured this season, but that’s what comes with being 34 years old. You can’t count on health and he seems to be on the decline as well to a point it’s not unthinkable that 22 and 23-year-old college players could compete with him.

Cade Cunningham and Zach Edey

Cunningham was very good as a college as a freshman (21.6 PER) and under normal circumstances, you would have expected him to improve the last 3 years having just turned 22 years old. He’s a player that has already accumulated injuries and missed significant time. It’s very possible he isn’t much better than his only season in College basketball. Even his NBA numbers show very little improvement from a 13.1 PER as a rookie to 15.2 this season. Would he be better than Zach Edey for example playing under college rules? I think I would take Edey with his 40 college PER to be the highest-impact player on that court under college rules. If you got the best player you are in the conversation.

Very good college players, but only Bagley was putting up what I think you would deem elite efficiency in college. Many college players are doing similar things that the highest usage Pistons like Cunningham and Ivey did in college just 2 or 3 years ago. The question is are they really that different of players now than back then?

Who Is Most Likely To Compete

These are the 3 teams we’d would pick as most likley to give the Pistons a game. This is assuming Donovan Clingan is healthy. They all have some mix of size, experience, and maturity and are very good college teams in our opinion.

Purdue has one of the best college players in ever and we think Edey would be the best player on the court playing under college rules. We think he would have the most impact. You can pick apart the boilermaker’s supporting cast but how many times have we seen Olympic teams with one good NBA player and middling pros from Europe give essentially NBA All-Star Team USA a game? This is a formula where they could compete. Many of these players don’t have NBA futures, but you could see them having solid pro careers overseas.

Before someone says Fairleigh Dickinson, I think that just makes the point as well for why a college team could at least compete. Upsets happen. Having the best player on the court still matters, especially when he’s also the biggest and most imposing, and it’s on his turf under college rules. I would have liked UConn better last year but they are still imposing. Kansas just has the best overall group of core talent in our opinion and coaching.

2017 Villanova

Villanova won 2 championships in the 3 years span from 2016-18. If there is one college team I think could have competed the best with this version of the Pistons, this would probably be it. These players were all on the 2017 team and played in the NBA. A couple more that had a cup of tea in the NBA as well (like Gillespie) but didn’t contribute as much. The 2018 team was older but lost Josh Hart.

This is the team could have most competed with the Pistons and probably the 76ers 2016 team that won 10 games and had the longest losing streak prior. It would have been a contest for the best team in the city for who was the best the 76ers or Nova had that been the case. The best players on that 76ers team were 27 year old Ish Smith, 20-year-old Jahlil Okafor, 21-year-old Nerlens Noel, 25 year old Robert Covington and 21-year-old Jerami Grant. 

Conclusion

To say no college team could compete at all or keep it within 20 points ever is short-sighted in our opinion. They certainly would be massive underdogs and they would likely lose most times they played. To say they couldn’t compete at all or make it reasonably competitive or possibly score an upset we would disagree with. All it would take is one team to shoot well and the Pistons to shoot poorly because the actual talent and age aren’t as massively different as you would expect on the surface. I also do not think you could put the Pistons in the Big 12 and expect them to go undefeated on the way to a national championship as some in the industry claimed. Some team would trip them up over 40 games, going on the road I would bet. Probably not even one you would most expect. That’s basketball.