Nuyoika - the difference between pro and college ball is two fold for men's and women's basketball:
1. The amount of practice time in the pros is greatly diminished - Uconn basically has kids for four years and ten plus months a year - when they are not allowed to be coached as a team, they are still working with the trainers/conditioning coaches, having one on one sessions with coaches, and playing daily 'pick-up' games with their teammates during which the team leaders are 'coaching' the younger players. That is a huge advantage for the college teams.
2. In college except for tournament time, they are playing at most 2 games a week sometime only one, or none and often not involving any travel and always returning home after each away game. The pro's may be on the road multiple weeks in a row, are living out of hotels with limited access to facilities between games.
Add in that while academic commitments are no joke in terms of time, college kids still have it very easy in terms of living conditions - their meals are prepared for them, their housing is set as well as all those things like utility bills, transportation, shopping, doctors, etc. They also have 24/7 access to training facilities and basketball courts.
And the whole team is housed within easy access of each other. Mostly they can just walk down the hall to hang with the other team members, maybe they need to walk to a nearby building. The camaraderie is almost force fed to them.
Pro players may be living an hour's drive from their teammates, have to schedule gym time, and any time they choose to spend with teammates, etc.
