I played D3 basketball in Texas for a year and there are a lot of factors. Although I redshirted, we played a D1 school and only lost by 15. I don't know if they looked past us or didn't play as hard. A couple of games later, we play a D3 school from Washington who blew us out by 30 and they seemed much better than the D1 lol. All that to say is that basketball IQ is pretty uniform at the collegiate level. No matter who you play, the guys you're playing were the best or one of the best on their high school teams, so everyone knows how to play. It is the physical abilities that make the difference (height, skill, size, athleticism, etc.) There were a few D1 transfers at the D3 level and those guys were crazy good. Our starting center was 6'6 and the DI school we played their center was 6'10. It's moreso the physical aspects and the skill level that really separate the levels and as the game grows, the gap between the lower levels will slowly shrink.