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D1 vs D2 Basketball | Top 3 Things That Stood Out

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FINAL SCORES:  UNG 86 – Flagler 85 (OT)  ||  Belmont 68 – Georgia State 66

I watch a lot of NCAA D1 and D2 basketball on TV, online, and in person. Growing up in Atlanta, I live within 90 minutes of five (5) NCAA D-I and 11 D-2 schools in Georgia. Over the past few weeks I’ve been able to attend two games in person – one Mid-Major D1 game at Georgia State University vs. Belmont (Nov 27th), and one D2 matchup at North Georgia vs. Flagler College (Dec 10th). Both games came down to the wire and were super entertaining, but these are the Top 3 things that stood out to me.

  1. Attendance – After going to these two games, the first thing I noticed was that they had similar sized attendance.  The GSU-Belmont game had 1416 people and the UNG-Flagler game had 1411 people. I actually expected GSU to have more fans there, since their new Convocation Center in downtown Atlanta has almost 5,000 more seats than UNG’s Lynn Cottrell Arena in Dahlonega, GA. 
  2. Rosters – There was a bit of a difference in terms of roster size, in the height category, between the two levels. The D1 bigs were clearly bigger than at the D2 level. Most of the D2 bigs were around 6’7″, while the D1 bigs were usually 6’9″ or taller.  I also noticed the D2 teams were much more likely to have a couple of guards my size (under 6-feet), whereas the D1 guards were mostly over 6-feet tall.
  3. Level of Play – The biggest difference in the level of play that I saw was that the D1 bigs were just a little more skilled than the D2 bigs, but not by a lot.  I mainly noticed that the D1 bigs defensive IQ was higher, and they were much more likely to be able to hit 3PT shots than the D2 bigs. The guard play at both levels was great, but there were some noticeable differences.  The D2 guards seemed to be more offensive minded, while the D1 guards were better overall defenders.  This is why I believe the D2 score went into overtime and wound up in the high 80’s, while the more defensively competitive D1 teams only scored in the high 60’s.

After spending time at these games, I really don’t get the whole “D1 or bust” mindset? Sure, Division 1 schools usually have bigger and nicer campuses, but the D2’s are great schools that get just as much fan support. Actually, some of the D2’s have nicer arenas than the lower level D1’s that I’ve visited.