How hard do you think it would be to make a basketball game using slick... nothing to serious like AI just the user a ball and a hoop

Too many variables to answer this question, pun not intended.

How much Java experience, where are you getting art assets from, etc...

a beginner... Only my 2nd CS course... this is my first time doing game dev stuff so I'm sort of lost on where to get the art stuff from

This link offers some good suggestions for first games to try once you've learned your programming language of choice: http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/game-programming/your-first-step-to-game-development-starts-here-r2976.

Of course, that's not to say that you can't make a small, basic 2d basketball game. Either way, jumping in there and giving it a try will probably be the best way to learn. And when you encounter a problem that you and Google can't solve, start a thread here and people will offer some advice to get you back pointed in the right direction.