What is Upside?

Upside is one of those buzz words that gets thrown around during conversations about college basketball players who are looking to get drafted into the NBA. But what is upside? Why is it so important? From what the Final Four Blog can tell, upside is pretty much like saying “potential.” Why they don’t say potential, we have no idea. You head this phrase a lot last draft when Greg Oden and Kevin Durant were being compared. The common thought was that Durant would have a better “upside” as he is more versatile, can become a better player later in his career, while Oden is going to be defined as a back-to-the-basket center his whole career.

So who has “upside” this year? According to Basketballprospectus.com (and you can read all about them there), the following players are on the high side of the upside.

  1. Jason Thompson
  2. Ryan Anderson
  3. Richard Hendrix
  4. Robert Vaden
  5. Trent Plaisted
  6. George Hill
  7. Marcelus Kemp
  8. Courtney Lee
  9. Sean Singletary
  10. Will Daniels
  11. Gary Forbes
  12. Jaycee Carroll

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on June 13, 2008 - Post a comment