Zack Rosen and Austin Rivers: a comparison

I spoke with Zack Rosen today about his prospects for a pro career and his outlook on the situation. He's meeting with several agents tomorrow who will hope to woo his favor as he begins to look toward a career in the NBA or European Leagues.

You'll have to wait for the dead-tree version of the story sometime next week and pay for a copy of the DP (just kidding!) but in the meantime, I thought I'd bring up one point that Rosen touched on during our conversation:

"I watch a lot of college basketball," Rosen said. "Watching it now around the country, I watch games and — it’s not arrogance — I don’t see a lot of guys that I would say, 'damn, that guy is so much better than me.' I just don’t."

Coupled with today's news that Duke's freshman guard Austin Rivers is reportedly leaving the Blue Devils to declare for the NBA draft, I thought it might be fun to compare the two head to head. Rosen doesn't put a ton of stock in stats, and it's obviously an oversimplification — especially in terms of NBA scouting. We're also comparing players from the Ivy League and ACC. But consider also the defenses Rosen faced this year. Their primary goal was almost always to simply stop #1. Nonetheless:

You won't find Rosen's name on many NBA draft projections. Rivers is a projected first-rounder.