It’s the end of the college basketball season, or is that the college basketball treason?

We had our chance to view some of the best young college basketball talent in recent years during the NCAA and NIT tournaments but it was, again, just Cliffs Notes that pertain to the same old story.

Kid with NBA potential makes good. Kid displays total disinterest in the possibility of a free education and school loyalty in pursuit of royalty.

“No thanks,” the kid responds when queried about the excitement of dorm life and hanging out in the student union. “I’m more interested in Escalades, mansions and masseuses.”

Can you blame said kid? The NBA has millions of dollars to offer. College life is strife by comparison.

With the deadline April 27 for college basketball players to announce their intensions to make themselves available to enter the NBA draft, a total of 47 did just that, but only six said they would sign with an agent. That would effectively discontinue their current college experience.

The others had not yet signed with an agent. That allows them to change their respective minds and return to college if they don’t like their draft standing. They have until June 16 to withdraw. Last year 32 college underclassmen declared for the NBA draft. The top two NBA picks were freshmen. Six frosh were drafted in the lottery, and eight were first-round selections.

So here’s the rub, and let’s use Ohio State as an example. Without Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Daequan Cook, the Buckeyes would not have reached the 2006-07 NCAA Tournament title game, or even qualified for the tournament for that matter. Conversely, all three left their school and OSU basketball fans high and dry when they immediately defected to the NBA.

You can’t have it both ways anymore. The NBA says so. The college players themselves say so. Their respective colleges say so and their reluctant coaches say so.

The NBA, in cooperation with the NCAA, decided two years ago that a college basketball player with impending NBA talent had to serve one year in college. The age limit was raised one year to 19. A player who doesn’t go straight to college now has to be one year removed from high school before being eligible for the NBA draft.

The one-and-done collection of hoop idols, after a year of honing their skills at the college level, are now ready to take advantage of the system and leave the institutions of higher learning for the institution of much higher earnings.

When the 19-year-old edict went into effect, some college basketball coaches, such as Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, said once the so-called student-athlete got a taste of college life he might like it and decide to hang around for a little while longer.

Talk about wishful thinking.

What this whole process has done is make a mockery of the philosophies that supposedly symbolize what colleges and universities are all about. That they freely serve as clearing houses, training camps and even boot camps for most major professional sports is imbedded reality.

It’s logical to refer to college basketball players of the one-and-done ilk as mercenaries, but they are no more than products of a very flawed system.

High school basketball players with NBA capabilities who are now required to serve at least one year in college can do so with very little thought of ever having to really study. If they pass six credit hours their first semester they’re in. Oden, for instance, took a class called “The History of Rock ’n’ Roll,” probably just as a lark. Others probably do the same. As for the second semester? Forget it. They don’t even have to go to class to be eligible to play in the NCAA or any other post-season tournament. That’s because second-semester grades don’t come out until after the tournaments are contested in March.

Talk about your mythical student-athlete. Talk about devaluing the ideologies of the college experience.

Now NBA Commissioner David Stern, again in cooperation with the NCAA, wants to extend the age limit to enter the NBA draft from 19 to 20. That would mean that potential NBA players coming out of high school would have to attend college two years and actually go to class and actually pass courses and actually meet the minimum credit-hour requirements for all students.

It’s definitely a step in the right direction. It wouldn’t dilute the college game quite as much; the players would have another year to develop, which almost all of them will need, and the colleges will at least get some return on their investment in these fast-break transients.

Another improvement option would be to just scrap the 19-year-old age requirement and go back to the way it was when a player could come right out of high school and jump to the NBA under the premise that you can either play or you can’t play.

The best model would be that if a player with professional potential does not sign a pro contract right out of high school and decides to attend college he or she must commit for at least three years as college baseball players do before they can sign a professional contract.

It makes sense, which probably means it already has two strikes against it.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under TFP Version 1.
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