Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jake Presutti
In the USA, members of Division I NCAA men's basketball teams play on a national stage.  Each member of the team receives national (or at least regional) media coverage by reliable, third-party sources, which is what our |notability guidelines for people are meant to guarantee.  Trying to determine who's a star and who's unlikely to see much court time is an invitation to speculation by Wikipedia editors, of the sort we're |institutionally committed to avoid. All Division I men's college basketball players therefore compete on the highest level of their amateur sport,  and as such meet current notability guidelines.  In fact, my personal opinion is that college basketball in the USA is the real game.  Professional National Basketball Association|NBA basketball is a grotesque parody of it, designed to diminish tactical aspects and defensive options.  The pro game has a very short shot clock and restrictions on zone defense, IMO because its promoters have decided that what the fans want to see are ''prima donna'' stars taking contortionist slam dunks, rather than teamwork and defensive play.  College basketball is at any rate the ''interesting'' game, and in these parts has a lot bigger following than pro basketball.  Here in the area of Louisville, Kentucky, at least, college basketball has  hundreds of thousands of vocal fans who proclaim their allegiances on T-shirts, flags, and bumper stickers.  The local TV stations routinely run hour long specials on the local teams throughout the season, more if they get into the tournament.  Pro basketball gets only slightly more attention than ice hockey, which simply is not played here.  When I moved to this area from Canada, this was a bit of culture shock.  I was more than slightly taken aback that such attention was paid to basketball at all.  Up there, basketballs were pressed into service to kick around the schoolyard when we ran out of soccer balls.  This cultural difference may exist elsewhere; here, college ball is a very, very big deal; pro ball not so.  At least the view from Indiana is that Division I men's basketball players are ''ipso facto'' notable; they get less attention, rather than more, when they turn pro
— User:Ihcoyc, 14:12, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
Stance: keep
Cited policy: WP:BIO||WP:OR (Wikipedia:Notability)