I just have to respond to the NBA Draft a little bit. First I'll say that I am, as you know, a die-hard fan of college basketball. I root for Duke, of course, but first I am a fan of the sport itself. I only watch the draft to see where the prominent college players go, and other than that I only watch the conference finals and the finals just to keep up with what's going on. That's because the NBA is a mockery of the sport. I could go into greater detail about how the NBA is too full of egos and nobody plays defense and the refs don't call anything and it's the hardwood equivalent of professional wrestling, but that's not what this post is about. I found out tonight that starting next year, players will not be able to enter the draft until they are at least 19 years old and a year out of high school. As much as I hate that so many talented but unexperienced players go straight to the NBA out of high school, and they would be benefitted so much by going to college, somehow I think this rule will make things worse. The intent of this rule is to force high school players who would have been drafted out of high school to go to college, but what will really happen is that they will now either A) play in Europe or a semi-pro league in the US (the equivalent of the baseball minor leagues), or B) go to college for a year. For an individual player, this is a great idea. Any player, regardless of skill level, is still raw in high school and has not played with or against other quality players in a quality league. The experience one player recieves from even one year in college is tremendous, but overall it will kill the college game and turn it into a farm system for the pros.
As it stands, there are already too many college players that decide after a year or two years that they want to go to the NBA, but with this rule in place, they will be making the decision to leave after a year before they even get to college, and that year in college will turn into a formality. So here's what I propose: Get a panel of the class coaches in the NCAA, and develop an agreement where they say to prospective recruits "If you come to my school, you're going to graduate." The LaBron James' of the world who really want to go pro right away will be sentenced to the D-League, but the Chris Paul's and the Carmelo Anthony's won't be enticed to leave early. I know Coach K would support and follow up on an idea like that, I can't think of an ACC coach who wouldn't. Williams, Williams, Hewitt, Prosser, Sendek, Gillen, are all class coaches, and I know the ACC fans take their basketball more seriously than anybody else. If John Swofford, the ACC commissioner would agree to something like that, he's the one with the power to make it happen. Even to set up at least a two-year deal, just within the conference, would make a world of difference in the college game.
The NBA does not exist without the NCAA, and everything that happens here is mirrored there. Just look at the rivarly. I shouldn't have to tell you which rivalry, as there's only one that matters. These two schools are not only the pinacle of college achievement, with more combined National and ACC championships than any other two schools, and an almost unbroken Final Four appearance streak between them, but their success continues to the NBA. As of tonight, they are the top two schools in first round NBA draft picks, and the only two to send four in the first round in one year. The difference? No Duke player has gone on to win a professional championship. The only ones to win any national championships came as assistant coaches back at Duke, and of course formal Blue Devil Jeff Capel took the CAA championship as head coach at VCU, and Tommy Amaker and Quinn Snyder are also conference winning Duke alumni. What's my point? Duke raises perrenially successful teams, and college teams at that, while UNC raises superstar players, transcendent of their teammates like Jordan and Vince Carter. Anyway, back to my point.
Since a deal like that's not going to happen, and all the major basketball conferences (ACC, Big East, Big 10, Pac 10) are going to turn into breeding grounds for kids going to college for a year, I imagine that the mid-major and lesser conferences that are going to be the saving grace of college basketball. You can't rouse the pride and the passion that is the NCAA when no one face is in it for more than a year. You can't coach a team like that year after year, and you can't even make accurate brackets and rankings because nobody knows who anybody is year to year, and you certainly can't have a Duke or UCLA type dynasty without senior player leadership. Therefore it's going to be the lesser-known schools that will become the heart of the game and eventually dominate. Kids who want to go to the pros will go to the big-name programs, and kids who want to play competitive and passionate college ball will go to a school like UAB or Gonzaga. These schools that win their conference's automatic bid to the dance are always fun to watch, just for the stories, and that's what the college game is about. The kids at the lesser-known schools will stay, partially because they have to. These schools get less national exposure and attention, and the programs exist pretty much exclusively within their local fan-base. And usually the kids at these schools are student-athletes, meaning they are there to get a degree, and they also play basketball while they're there. And that's what college athletics are about in the first place - as a supplementary character-building establishment. So while Arizona and UConn are making dirty deals as middle-men between high school seniors and sleazy NBA agents, the schools of the SEC (major football conference not really known for basketball except for Florida), SoCon, and WAC, among others, will become the big basketball show of the future. And of course you know what I'm about to say next. One of the most prominent rising sub mid-major conferences in the NCAA is the CAA. Between UNCW, VCU, and ODU, our fine basketball-oriented conference has the potential to become the new ACC, at least in terms of play style, league parity, and internal competitiveness and passion. Go Seahawks.
Why does this matter? If you don't know, get the hell out of my state.
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