COLLEGE BASKETBALL BETTER THAN NBA.

Byline: Bill Reynolds Providence Journal-Bulletin

Want to know what's wrong with the NBA?

Maybe Stephon Marbury said it best, even if he probably didn't realize what he was saying.

It was back in December, after Marbury had gone to see former New York schoolboy legend Felipe Lopez go 0 for 7 from the field against Minnesota. Marbury's explanation for Lopez's struggles essentially was that when Lopez got to the NBA it would be easier for him.

Say what?

Think about that for a second.

Easier for Lopez in the NBA than it is in college.

The sad thing is Marbury is probably right.

College basketball teams play team defense in ways NBA teams never do, whether it's inclination or the silly ``illegal defense'' rule that all but prohibits it. The result is that much of the NBA offense is playing two-on-two on one side of the floor, while the three other players stand on the other side, their defenders prohibited from helping out.

It's the reason Antoine Walker finds it easier to score in the NBA than he did in last year's Final Four. The reason why young players who leave college early to go the NBA often look as though the shackles have been removed from them. And, yes, you can make a case that NBA defenses are generally better than they were a decade ago - one of the reasons for the low scores - they still are not as good as college defenses.

College teams also play with more intensity than pro teams do, the only possible exception being the NBA playoffs.

You don't believe me?

Watch a college basketball game on television for a few minutes, then click the channel over to an NBA game. It's two different worlds. The college game is frenetic. The NBA game seems played in slow motion.

It's also a game that has an incredible sameness to it: Either play two-on-two on the side, or dump the ball inside. If the player gets doubled, kick it out and swing it to the open man for a three-point attempt. Over and over. Take away the Bulls' triangle offense, and virtually everyone else plays the same way.

There's also the feeling that the NBA has become too individual, a show instead of game, full of too many players whose first priority seems to be their sneaker contracts, not whether their team wins.