There was a post today on the Freakonomics blog that mentioned briefly the question of whether Duke or UNC basketball graduates fared better in the NBA. Being affiliated with one of these two schools, I decided I would investigate, and try to determine the truth for myself. Using several traditional metrics, and a few I’ve come up with myself (read other posts on this blog or visit my other site for some definitions), I compared the two in the table linked below:
This makes it pretty apparent that by most metrics, former UNC players generally outperform their Duke counterparts. (It should be noted that this includes statistics from the 1979-80 to the 2006-07 seasons, and does not include players drafted before this period.) For full comprehensiveness, I have produced below a listing of each of these school’s draftees, with accompanying statistical metrics:
Finally, I thought it would be interested to see how these schools’ graduates do relative to the entire universe of NBA college graduates. Thus below I offer a listing of the top 100-or-so NBA feeder colleges, with a representative player, and vital summary statistics:
To conclude, I would like to invite your questions, comments and ideas, and also, I would be very interested for any and all readers to weigh in on the debate going on here, at Yahoo! Versus, over one of the more eternal questions facing our nation.
