Differences between Amateur and Professional Basketball

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Recommended: Rules and regulations of basketball

Collegiate basketball tends to hold to different rules and regulations than the NBA, but the main facets of the game remains the same. The collegiate game, as opposed to the professional ranks, possesses stricter rules to which the universities, players, and coaches must adhere by. If these entities fail to follow the rules, they stand a good chance of facing harsh punishments. These punishments can range anywhere from fines and player suspensions to probation banning the school from postseason play. Such rules do not exist in professional basketball. Some other differences between collegiate and professional basketball are very obvious while others seem to be more subtle.

One rather large difference between the NBA and NCAA basketball would be the game timing differences. In the NBA, teams play four, twelve-minute quarters, but in the NCAA, players play two, twenty-minute halves. The NBA game lasts forty-eight minutes while a collegiate game only lasts forty minutes. The eight extra minutes that an NBA game lasts causes a large difference in the amount of scoring that takes place. In the NBA, the team that currently holds the highest scoring average would be the Phoenix Suns with an average of 108.4 points per game. The NCAA Division I basketball team with the highest scoring average would be Long Beach State with an average of 83.3 points per game. Those extra eight minutes cause a 25.1 point difference in scoring between collegiate basketball and the NBA.

Another difference between the college and professional game might be the effort put forth by the athletes. Even though this merely represents an ongoing debate, differences do exist that seem to provide evidence for this argument. For one thing, an NBA contract...

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...ntensity, the college game would be the choice. If skill is what you're looking for, the pro game is the choice. The choice is yours.

Works Cited

Bilas, Jay, "LeBron bottom line: 'Too much, too soon" (4 Feb) http://espn.go.com/ncb/columns/bilas_jay/1503941.html 26 Mar. 2006

Isidore, Chris, "Schools in NCAA tourney have 51% profit margin from basketball. Most profitable: Louisville." NCAA's bottom line winners. (18 Mar. 2004) http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/18/news/companies/ncaa_profits/ 26 Mar. 2006.

Katz, Andy, "Terps' McCray out for season for academic reasons" (23 Jan. 2006) http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2303291 26 Mar. 2006.

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