Could my men's D1 XC team beat our womens basketball team?
Could my men's D1 XC team beat our womens basketball team?
In XC? Yes.
In basketball? No.
In any other competition? Maybe.
At Basketball? Are you serious? This is among the most ridiculous things I've ever read. They would have the advantage over a bunch of skinny, uncoordinated runners in *every* factor that matters:
shooting and passing skills
positioning/strategy
strength (sorry guys ... you're cross country runners, not sprinters)
agility
possibly even height. D1 Women Basketball players are typically over 5'10" (except for point guards)
I have had this conversation multiple times with my teammates (I also ran at a D-I school, but in a small conference). My opinion is that if we played them right now, we would lose, but if we were given a year to train and practice as a basketball team, we wouldn't just beat them, we'd win the conference.
Here's why:
-I was 6'2", we had another guy who was 6'4" and several others over 6'0". We may be at a size disadvantage against their center, but that's about it.
-Some of the guys on my team were actually pretty good at basketball. One was all-state and there were a few others that could easily make our women's team right now.
-We naturally have great stamina and the milers on our squad have more speed than the women on the basketball team. Therefore, we press them all game and wear them down, creating tons of easy baskets.
-If we're playing with the women's ball, it's easier to shoot threes because it's lighter. We'd have 3-4 guys whose specific role is to shoot threes and that's it. If all they do during practice is shoot threes, I think we can get them into the high 30% range. We feed these guys whenever they're open.
-It really depends on what school you go to. No men's XC team is beating UConn even with a year to prepare. But some DI women's teams are REALLY bad.
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