re: Charles Barkley says Ben Simmons isn't ready for the NBA

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people railing on Barkley, read the article for some context.

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quote:

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"If you go to college for one year, that's really just six months. You're not going to get a lot better or stronger as a player in six months. But if we keep you in college for two years, you're going to get a lot better as a player and a lot stronger physically. There's a huge difference between six months and two years."

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He makes a good point.

The fact that he wasn't good enough to overcome the shortcomings of this team and make the tourney has to concern some people.
Is Cal more talanted than LSU outside of Simmons/Blakeney with Brown/Rabb? Blakeney might not have been that great to start the season, but he's been playing like a pro prospect as of lately.
Cal was barely a .500 team last year and only lost 1 guy of somewhat importance. Now they are a 4 or 5 seed.
They've got one guy outside of Brown/Rabb that has a chance at the pros, and his chances are less than that of Quarterman's if you go buy nba prospect rankings.
Cal's 9 losses have all come against tourney teams.

He's got insane stats, yet will be the only top 3 pick to not ever play in the tourney in the last 20+ years. If you really are that good, how could you not propel you're team enough to make the tourney, when everyone before you was able to do it with their team, teams like Colorado, ASU, Cal, Illinois, KState, USC, Georgia Tech....
If Derrick Favors is good enough to make GaTech a tourney team for 1 year, and Chauncey Billups, with no help, can make Colorado a tourney team after 32 years of missing the tourney, then Simmons should be able to get LSU to the dance.