Well, and here's the other thing most of us are thinking, wheelingtopper. We're not necessarily begrudging any young man the opportunity to chase his dream. And if playing D1 is his dream, he has every right to try to achieve that. I don't think anyone is suggesting otherwise.
The responses you're hearing (from Columbuseer and others) come from a place of disappointment. Most of these kids (and there are undoubtedly exceptions, as IUPbig mentioned with the Cobo Diaz reference) who star in D2 and try to jump to a mid-major D1 do so at their own peril. For his own sake, I hope it's not the case, but there's every possibility that a kid like Verplancken goes from being a 35-minute-per-game difference-maker at D2 to an 8-minute-per-game role-player at a place like Loyola Chicago. It saddens us fans of D2 to see kids eschew real opportunities for the growth of their game and the growth of them as young men that exist for them here at D2 in order to chase some dream that may only be nominal (i.e., they can nominally say at barbecues later in life that they played D1--even if that meant they were the "11th man"). Most of us D2 fans just wish there weren't some stigma on D2 that makes it seem to some of these kids like being a 35-minute-per-game, 21-point-scoring-average player here is "less-than" being a third-teamer at Cleveland State. There is growth to be had here at D2 (both personal and professional), and I think that's what posters like Columbuseer are pointing out. And as IUPbig said, we D2 fans simply lament the harbingers that all of this bring for the future. It will be a sad day when D2 is viewed as nothing more than a "G-league" for mid-major D1s.
The responses you're hearing (from Columbuseer and others) come from a place of disappointment. Most of these kids (and there are undoubtedly exceptions, as IUPbig mentioned with the Cobo Diaz reference) who star in D2 and try to jump to a mid-major D1 do so at their own peril. For his own sake, I hope it's not the case, but there's every possibility that a kid like Verplancken goes from being a 35-minute-per-game difference-maker at D2 to an 8-minute-per-game role-player at a place like Loyola Chicago. It saddens us fans of D2 to see kids eschew real opportunities for the growth of their game and the growth of them as young men that exist for them here at D2 in order to chase some dream that may only be nominal (i.e., they can nominally say at barbecues later in life that they played D1--even if that meant they were the "11th man"). Most of us D2 fans just wish there weren't some stigma on D2 that makes it seem to some of these kids like being a 35-minute-per-game, 21-point-scoring-average player here is "less-than" being a third-teamer at Cleveland State. There is growth to be had here at D2 (both personal and professional), and I think that's what posters like Columbuseer are pointing out. And as IUPbig said, we D2 fans simply lament the harbingers that all of this bring for the future. It will be a sad day when D2 is viewed as nothing more than a "G-league" for mid-major D1s.
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