North Dakota Preps

Grew up playing basketball in a small town without hockey therefore do not know a lot about hockey. So I was wondering if I am missing out on some extraordinary or superstar athletes in the area... In basketball, if you are going to go pro, you have to be an athlete that is so great (hypothetical exp.-Michael Jordan, LeBron) to play at the pro level whereas I notice colleges like UND,WI,MN,etc..they seem to send hockey players maybe3 to 4 players to the pros every season. That's why this has peaked my curiosity. Are these hockey athletes the same caliber as the Michel Jordans and LeBrons or is pro hockey standard just less? Yes, Phil Jackson (basketball) came out UND many moons ago but that was rare, as 3 to 4 of his teammates did not go with him. Just curious, admire all athletes, but would like to get other peoples perspectives on the subject...

I believe they are both great athletes in their respective sport....Gretzky would get killed at the NBA level just like Jordan would've gotten wrecked in hockey. I'm just not sure how you can compare the sports. Let's say Jordan dedicated his life to hockey as a young man, would he have been able to excel? Maybe but who will sever know.

I think what it is, is that the NHL has as many teams as the NBA, but there are many less schools with division 1 hockey than basketball. There's only 60 division 1 hockey school, but 300+ division 1 basketball schools.
So the top hockey players have less schools to choose from, and UND has a history of Frozen Fours and national championships, so they get top level players that the school would not get for basketball unless they made some crazy long run into the men's tournament.