Stan Van Gundy: 'It is amazing to me how much more physical the college game is than the NBA'

Every year around March, fans of the NBA come over to college basketball to take in the NCAA Tournament. Not just the people watching at home either, as Turner Sports lets their NBA broadcasters work games all the way through the Final Four and national championship. The games are incredibly different, just ask a former coach, Stan Van Gundy.

Usually, Van Gundy is doing NBA games during the week, watching some of the league’s top stars. College basketball has been his assignment lately though and Van Gundy has noticed how much more physical they are.

“It is amazing to me, having watched between 35 to 40 college games in the last two weeks, how much more physical the college game is than the NBA,” Van Gundy said during Saturday’s Illinois–UConn Elite Eight game.

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On Thursday, Van Gundy — alongside Kevin Harlan and Dan Bonner — watched UConn take down San Diego State while Illinois beat Iowa State in the East Region. Their first-round assignments were in Indianapolis and got to watch teams such as Colorado, Marquette, and Purdue.

Whether guards have been physical out on the perimeter or watching big guys such as Zach Edey and Donovan Clingan fight and block shots — Van Gundy is more than impressed with how physical these players have been over the course of the month.

There is some college basketball coaching experience on Van Gundy’s resume. For nearly 15 years, he was in college and got as high as Wisconsin’s head coach in 1994-1995. The Miami Heat then came calling to be an assistant coach though and Van Gundy never looked back, staying in the NBA until the 2021 season.

Now, Van Gundy is not saying the NBA, as a league, has a physicality issue — or lack there of. Obviously, the players are bigger, faster, stronger, and a lot more talented as a whole. He might just be implying the officials let players get away with a little bit more on college basketball’s biggest stage.

In a couple of weeks, Van Gundy will be back on the NBA side, calling games for TNT. The physicality level should up a level or two once the playoffs begin. In general, the NBA does seem to have a different intensity level when moving past the regular season.