Up until now the prospect of freshman coming in and winning a title has been unheard of. Any average basketball fan would obviously point to the Fab 5 or the 2003 Syracuse National Champions to argue it is possible and this isn't a new fad. Neither of those situations really are anywhere similar to what we could be looking at in the future. Sure the Fab 5 had five freshman and lost in the title game, but the two major pieces of that team was from Detroit! They all also stayed at least 2 years, with Howard and Rose staying three, and King and Jackson all four. With possibly the most talent freshman class ever not being able to win it all it has deterred freshman from making winning immediately a top priority.
There is a terrible thing going on these days in high school basketball. Kids are moving all over the country to play at a basketball powerhouse. There are even schools being started strictly for basketball purposes, where kids are allowed to move from all over the states and different countries to play at! (Findley Prep, self admitted basketball school). The reason a lot of fans prefer college over NBA is because the players are playing for more than money, they play because they love and often times grew up following the name on their jersey. Transfers just aren't something you see in college unless it's a kid who's not happy with his playing time and he transfers to a smaller school. It's just not something that's apart of the college game. LeBron James and Chris Bosh recently provided these kids with a negative model of how to win. It wasn't threw hard work and bringing your teammates up to a level around you that can win championships, it was to stack your team and win with pure athletic ability.
Being a 'one and done' isn't even the issue here, I know that is always going to be a part of the game. However until now those one year ball players went and played at different schools and competed against each other. Now, with the help of AAU, these guys are moving toward making one year super teams. With the lack of any freshman success as a whole this hasn't been an issue in the past. If Kentucky wins this weekend you can be sure that these incoming freshman are going to want to take a shot at winning a title in their one and only year in college. Right now Kentucky has three top players signed, and two or three others, including the top player, Shabazz Muhammad, waiting to commit, with UK being at the top of their list. Don't be naive and think they are not waiting to see what happens with UK this weekend. The floodgates are waiting to be opened for one year players. They will see that Calipari don't expect too much from them, as long as they win while they're there.
I know me writing this isn't going to stop any of this from happening, but I love college basketball. I fear that the threat of a select few teams being the only competitors is too great. I fear that every year we are going to have to deal with a different 'Dream Team' every year. The days of school pride may be numbered, there will be no reward for staying in college and working hard with and for your team because the newest class of NBA superstars all signed with one team to get their money's worth for their only year. It's a travesty that the state of college basketball is to the point where it is an upset when a Louisville team set with upperclassmen who are dedicated to their school 'upsets' the young super teams like Kentucky. College basketball will lose it's integrity when the biggest focus is on the high school seniors and where they as a whole are going to choose to make their one and only tournament run. It always has been such a great success story when a team can use freshman and make a run or win the title. It shouldn't be the norm, that's just not the way college basketball should be...
1 comment:
Wow. Where do I begin? There are so many things here that I see as misconstrued, although I do think your main point has some validity. It's just that using Kentucky as the whipping boy for it doesn't hold water.
The first thing I would point out is that the whole "one and done" thing is over-blown in people's minds. What are we talking about? 8-12 kids a year, if that many? That's a spit in the ocean compared to how many frosh there are in NCAA Div 1 basketball.
Some coaches avoid the "one and done" players. They don't want to deal with the egos and drama that tends to come with them, and they want to build a team with upper classmen making up the substance with some younger players sprinkled in. That's the way CBB was back in the day. At one point, frosh weren't even eligible! Well, that's not the world we are in now. The NBA is driving this agenda and the NCAA is just reacting to it.
But there is one truth in this sport that is absolutely undeniable - experience is great, but the most talented basketball team generally wins. It has always been assumed that young players are incapable of playing smart and being poised. UK just blew that out of the water with 3 frosh, 2 sophs, and a lone senior playing the bulk of the minutes.
Syracuse had 2 very talented frosh with experience around them and they won a title. The Fab 5 were very, very talented but I don't think anyone will charge them with being overly poised.
The 11-12 UK Wildcats are a very unique group to have that many underclassmen that could play unselfish, smart, and poised basketball. Cal is obviously fantastic at molding them into that mindset in a short period of time, but I sense that most of credit goes to the character of those young men. UK will reload with another class of scary talent, but the chances that they will be able to do what this present group has done are slim. So, relax. This was a special group. You may not see the likes of them for a long, long time.
I totally agree that AAU and high school transfers are a problem, but the negative effects are more felt in HS than NCAA Div 1 basketball. One premier HS player transferring to another reasonably talented team will skew the competitive balance in that state. But no matter how talented Kentucky is, they will be beatable because everyone has talented players - Indiana and Vandy are the proof of that at hand.
I vehemently disagree that Calipari doesn't demand much from his frosh uber-stars. He demands that they play defense, play unselfish, affect the game in ways other than scoring, sacrifice shots and points,and many other things that they probably didn't have to do in high school.
Finally, there are blue blood programs in CBB - Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, Indiana, UCLA - and quite a few that are just a notch below - Syracuse, Michigan State, Ohio State, Louisville, among others. Those teams have always attracted the best talent. This isn't anything new. What is new is that while Cal didn't come up with the one and done, he does embrace it. Selling UK basketball isn't that hard, and he has been able to attract what some might perceive as "more than his fair share" of the elite players.
Still, he has won 1 title in 3 years with what was probably the best talent in the country in those 3 years. Obviously, talent doesn't assure you anything. If he stays 10 years at UK, he might win 1 or 2 more. Regardless, CBB will not be ruined.
A few facts you may not know: Kentucky has the highest APR in the SEC and one of the best in the country. All of the one and dones have finished out their second semesters, so they have not made a farce of the term "student-athlete". A few years ago UK played Ivy League member Cornell. Cornell had a transfer on that team from - Kentucky! :)
Go Big Blue!
Winnie
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