Originally Posted by
COYS
I agree with Sage and Alaskan Bear. What I actually think that chart shows is how difficult it is to project big guys at a young age. The old adage that big men develop more slowly is completely true. This is why someone like Dwight Howard is so coveted. He is the only all-world center in, well, the world. In terms of centers at the NBA level, there really just aren't that many that are elite? Bynum is really good. Al Jefferson is putting it together. Duncan, if you consider him a center, is still valuable even as he gets older. Greg Monroe is a center of a different mold, but is really good. We could throw in defensive specialist guys like Chandler and Noah into the mix, as well. Horford could also be considered a center, even though I think he'd be best playing the PF spot. Otherwise, that's about it. From that group, most didn't even go to college and the ones that did, (Monroe, Horford and Noah) went to Georgetown and Florida, which weren't even on the draft chart of the OP. The club is a little bigger if you expand it to include power forwards, as guys like Griffin, Love, Aldridge (for whom it took a little while to become elite), Boozer, Bosh, Josh Smith, DeMarcus Cousins, Paul Millsap etc can be added to the list if we're not being to picky. Still, out of that group, you still don't have many from the list of schools in that draft chart. Anyway, my point is simply that even among the top recruits each year, it is hard to project who is going to turn themselves into an NBA star. And, in many cases, the ones that do, take a little time to develop. Griffin, Horford, Monroe, Love, and Cousins have taken off pretty quickly, but of that group, only Cousins went to one of the schools listed. I think it's pretty hard to say that any single school flat out churns out star big men. The ones that appear to churn out bigs are really the ones that are lucky enough to have had talented players who stay healthy and realize their ability at the next level stop over on campus for a year or two (or three in the case of Horford and Noah).
I think different coaches definitely have different strengths and weaknesses. There is no doubt about that. Some coaches have signatures in terms of style of play (run and gun for Roy, man to man defense and motion offense for K). It is very possible that in the case of Manning when he was at Kansas he helped turn otherwise non-NBA bigs into guys who could get a cup of coffee in the league. However, when it comes to the long term development of star big guys, I really don't think any one school can really claim to be the king of the court. In fact, despite the reputation places like UCONN and Kansas have gotten with big guys recently, they really haven't had anyone make their mark in the league since 2006.