NCAA Ignoring Huge Basketball Issues - Basically a Rant

they have ruined the college game and basically the game of basketball as we knew and loved.

I"m with you on what the NCAA will do.They get thier money. Expand to 96 teams and get more money and do nothing to earn that money.

I guess they will do something like with Tiny Gallon when it is an open and shut case and requires no work on thier part.

They are still letting USC slide on thier pro players Mayo and Bush.

You and I both know that the NCAA would never institute all of that stuff. Like burntorangehorn said, the NBA sets the age restrictions on when a prospect can enter the draft, not the NCAA. Therefore, the NCAA is at the NBA’s mercy here. Unless they work together (which I don’t see happening) things will not really get that much better.

I don’t quite agree with your statement that “Often, the player knows he is going to the draft and will literally stop going to school in January.” Yes it happened with Greg Oden and Mike Conley, but who else? Bob Knight has drilled it into our heads that none of these one-and-dones give a crap about school. I disagree. Did you watch Xavier Henry’s emotional press conference yesterday? Does Kevin Durant not go to school anymore? Yes, these kids make a stop for one year, but does that all of a sudden mean that they don’t care about school? Some kids don’t care about school, I get that. However, it seems to me like you are lumping them with the kids who do genuinely care about school, but they have a better opportunity in front of them. The kids who do genuinely care about school could choose to stay in school but they run the risk of ending up like DeSean Butler (going from late 1st round to Undrafted).

I like your idea with coaches and agree with it completely. They should get rid of these coaches that conspire with runners and agents. Not that this really matters, but Memphis didn’t get the death penalty—not even close to it. The had a banner removed and were order to repay the money they recieved for advancing to the championship game. If they got the death penalty they wouldn’t have the #1 ranked recruiting class for 2010, wouldn’t be allowed to participate in postseason tournaments and would have lost some scholarships.

You can be drafted out of high school, you don’t have to sign (anybody drafted will sign), if you don’t get drafted go to college. Can’t be drafted until 3 years removed from highschool. Stay in college for those three years and work on your game

However, I think the arguments are problematic.

“One and Done” students can make a mockery of the educational institution. Often, the player knows he is going to the draft and will literally stop going to school in January. Technically, not even a student athlete at the time of the tourney.

So can any other student athlete. Many athletes who stay longer than a year make a mockery out of school in the major sports because they are banking on a professional career. This is unfortunate, but hardly unique to one-and-dones.

The “One and Done” student is potentially taking a schollie from a true “student athlete”. The person that should be the focus of the NCAA. The person that the NCAA should be fostering for success.

What’s a true student athlete, then? Is it a student who intends to stay all four years? Two? Three? Must he graduate before going pro? What about those athletes with what many consider “joke” degree plans? What about those who stick around and take ballroom dancing for a semester to play one more year? You have to state what you mean by “student-athlete” before claiming that one-and-dones are not true ones.

Often, this athlete knows they are just passing through, and has no real passion for his college choice. Thus helping spawn a cottage industry of seedy characters, and pay for play. When you don’t care about the uni, when you don’t care about the education, it is natural for less than wholesome factors to influence. This industry is growing by leaps and bounds and fortunately the NCAA has aggressively responded by doing nothing.

I kind of agree, but again, this is not unique to one-and-dones, nor should we insinuate that all one and done players are like this. Chris Webber got the Fab 5 erased from the record books and he left as a sophomore.

Entire programs could care less about graduating players. Bob Huggins graduated zero players at Cincy. Bruce Pearl is on same track in Tennessee. Zero. Not even a token nerd at the end of the bench. The NCAA has new program here too – doing less than nothing.

I’m not sure what the NCAA could reasonably do about this. Any other student is free to drop out at any time and not get their degree, so why can they then impose stricter guidelines on those who happen to be athletes? It may not be the coach’s fault that people aren’t graduating. If we eliminate the one and done (which only the NBA can), that doesn’t guarantee a higher graduation rate either.

The NCAA doesn’t need these players at all. The wonderfully entertaining game between Butler and Duke was played essentially without a single player that will contribute in the NBA.

It is worth mentioning that this was considered one of the weakest fields in years. Butler and Duke played a great game. We also saw a great game (and arguably better one, although it didn’t have the “Cinderella” story) between Memphis and Kansas in 2007. And let’s not sell these players short. Some may have a shot at the NBA, and I think Butler’s Gordon Hayward has gotten attention. It’s the coach’s job to recruit talent, and if that player leaves early, it’s not always accurate to fault the coach for recruiting him. I don’t think there’s a single Longhorn fan who thinks Rick Barnes made a mistake getting KD here. Both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird left early to the NBA. You sure the NCAA didn’t “need” those guys? In one sense, of course basketball would go on, but that sure helped raise the level of play.

As for your solutions, I’m not sure how they can work. Why doesn’t a fifth year player not count against the scholarship limit? Most importantly, what kind of justification could there be for eliminating a scholarship for a program that has players leave early? Let’s say a coach recruits a bunch of players and does a great job coaching them up to be great. Four are gone by their sophomore years because they developed to the point that the NBA gave them favorable grades. Are you really saying that that school should be docked FOUR scholarships simply because the coach did his job well? Do you propose this for other sports too?

I’m not exactly sure why we are treating this as a new issue. Players have been leaving early for a long time for a variety of reasons. What happened was that the NBA noticed that teams were increasingly gambling on 18 year olds to find the next Lebron or Kobe, and they decided it was better for their league as a whole to institute an age limit (just like the NFL has one). I don’t see that as un-American; after all, it is within the league’s rights to try to protect the overall quality of their game. They might be WRONG that this helps, but it’s their right to do so.

I’d love to see more aggressiveness on the NCAA’s part to sniff out and punish cheating. However, I’m not sure what they can do about the one and done situation that makes a whole lot of sense.

Bottom line, you’re frustrated with college basketball losing the character of having upperclassmen represent the teams & schools that have given them a free education – and worse, mocking that blessing by jumping ship. And also, just imagine how good college bball would be if all those huge talents like KD, Carmelo, Lebron, Beasley, etc… would stay for a few years. I couldn’t agree more.

I couldn’t agree with you more but I honestly don’t think there is a solution. A close solution would be to get the NBA & NCAA to work together to solve it but then Clarett or someone will sue for their own right to do what they want.

As much as I loved having Durant for that one year, I really wish that these one-and-dones would just go to the NBA or a development league, ala minor league baseball. This could be accomplished utilizing US teams and foreign venues. Then, if a kid signs with a college team & takes a scholarship, make ‘em stay ’til they’re Jrs, Srs, 21 years old, whatever. That’s atleast something good about college baseball. Football is pretty much taken care of just because of the A – physical immaturity of underclassmen and B – the draw of college football. Sad thing is, for every Lebron that takes the NBA by storm, there’s probably 20 guys that come in too early physically & maturity-wise that flame out & miss out on a free college education and a nice 15-minutes of fame (4 years) playing for a good college program.

Good post & a tough quandry for any college basketball purist. Give me 20 Royal Ivey’s & Damion James for every one-and-done (unless it’s Carmelo & they win it all!).

That if a one and done has not completed 24 credit hours when he leaves, that should be a strike against the school under those new graduation regulations (which have no teeth in them) that came out a few years ago. Sure, Calipari can grab one and dones every year, but if they stop going to class in January, his program gets reduced schollies, and whatever other sanctions are supposed to be imposed.