It's particularly pleasing that none of the "one-and-done" teams made the final four. Now the great Coach K will continue to ***** about something else, such as paying college athletes a salary when the "one -and-done" era ends in 2022, which he's already proposed. Watching the McDonalds All America game the other night was demoralizing for this NU basketball fan, as it must have been for Coach Collins. The majority of the players are headed for the "one-and-done" schools like Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina. Is it any wonder that those schools always go deep into the tournament? Also, I would doubt that the vast majority of the "one-and-dones" would be able to pass NU's relatively tough academic admissions standards. Coach Collins has a tough job, ad we need to cut him some slack.
Final Four
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How about "none of them". But academics aren't why they choose not to attend NU. I seriously doubt Collins spends one second contacting almost all of them, PB Jr excepted.
The one-and-done system has never made sense and should be entirely reversed. There is really no need for bona fide top NBA draft picks to have to spend 6 months not caring about academics at an university. Those who can skip it like LeBron will, and those who need some development like Carmelo, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh can spend time developing at a college. If I were Kevin Durant or Zion I’d not be happy about being required to play for free for a year (excluding bags of cash being dropped on the porch).
If anything: make the basketball situation similar to baseball. Maybe not 3 years, but if you commit to playing basketball in college then you have to stay 2 years before you can go pro. If you go straight to the pros, then Godspeed and the best of luck to you.
Dear NCAA: End this stupid one-and-done charade, avoid future FBI scandals, and ensure that college basketball is focused on student athletes.
I only hope OP holds no antipathy towards the players here, all of whom are were ‘students’ because the NBA wouldn’t have them.
Williamson, Barrett, and Reddish are certainly among the 300 best basketball players in the world, and had no input into the decision that required them to go to school rather than become professionals. It’s an absurd system, and it has harmed college basketball.
Williamson, Barrett, and Reddish are certainly among the 300 best basketball players in the world, and had no input into the decision that required them to go to school rather than become professionals. It’s an absurd system, and it has harmed college basketball.
The NCAA has very little input into the circumstances that have led to the “one and done phenomenon.” That is largely the result of the NBA and the players association agreeing to establish a minimum age for players to be drafted. It would take renegotiating that part of the collective bargaining agreement to eliminate that requirement. However players do have the option of playing overseas or going to a prep school for a year, vs. going to an NCAA basketball factory for a year.
Here is my idea:
1) NBA removes minimum age rule.
2) Universities do NOT pay student-athletes.
3) There be absolutely no restrictions to student-athletes earning side money, getting paid by whomever wants to pay them, whenever anyone wants to pay them. They can hire agents whenever they want.
4) Free transfers.
Said simply - Either college athletes are employees, subject to certain restrictions or they are (very talented) college students with no more and no less freedom than other college students.
1) NBA removes minimum age rule.
2) Universities do NOT pay student-athletes.
3) There be absolutely no restrictions to student-athletes earning side money, getting paid by whomever wants to pay them, whenever anyone wants to pay them. They can hire agents whenever they want.
4) Free transfers.
Said simply - Either college athletes are employees, subject to certain restrictions or they are (very talented) college students with no more and no less freedom than other college students.
I would add a hard salary cap across coaching staffs. Let the HCs decide how that gets distributed. Try to regulate the boosters. But let any coach pursue sponsorship dough.
Talent alone usually gets the one-and-dones deep into the tournament (three top seeds didn't hurt the ACC this year either), but it's not like they're winning every title game. This is the second year in a row Duke has gone out in the regional final, and actually they were very fortunate to beat Central Florida last week. It's good to see the pundits who've been saying the B1G didn't have a Final Four team for most of the year have to eat it (damn near had two Final Four teams).
The shame is that if Purdue had won, it would have been BIG 2 and mighty ACC zero. I do not think that the average viewer really understands the advantages of the #1 seeding. For example where the other side has to play a 2-3 game, the one seed plays at best a 4 and likely higher to get to the Elite 8. They get a real cupcake in round 1 and the second round is not that much worse with an 8-9. Even a two seed is a much harder path, And the ACC got 3 #1s and the only real question is why the selection committee was not able to give them 4.
Actually as you say talent alone gets those top teams through the first couple rounds. But what we saw tonight was that though Duke and KY were able to meld that one and done talent into their system pretty well, playing together for a couple years at least still helps bring out the best team. Izzo is a very good coach, But while he has solid players, he has never had the top talent that Coach K routinely has, All the number 1 overall draft picks and top 5-10 MSU gets guys into the pros but not at that level
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They meld the talent together pretty well, but I think Kentucky and Duke each have one title in the one-and-done era, with the last one in 2015. And when you have four top 10 players in the lineup the measure, fairly or not, is winning the title game. The B1G has always been among the top leagues in the country in recent years and routinely puts 1-2 teams in the Final Four, but the constant refrain is not winning the title game. Maybe the ball will roll right for Izzo this year. And while he might not have the talent of Duke, he has at least a half-dozen top 100 players on that team, and that's after Bridges and Jackson left early. And Duke's freshmen had trouble with the canny veteran point guard, Winston.
Disagree. The NCAA was along for the ride with the NBA on the age limit. No way they were against it or doing anything but supporting it. The NBA did it to prevent HS players taking a roster spot of a veteran while they get up to speed riding the pine. It also gives the club more control of the player during years they can reasonably contribute. A NCAA is happier than a pig in slop because they get a Zion. Look at all the publicity surrounding Zion.
The one and done system is an advantage to the Big Ten. They have those canny veterans and that is the way to beat the one and done teams. The ACC has WAY more individual talent than the Big Ten, but their teams are closely matched. The ACC should have up to 8 first round draft picks. The Big Ten will probably have 2 and one of them is a one and done.
I mean.... MSU could just as easily have lost to Duke. If you take those two games which were both near toss-ups, I think B1G 1 and ACC 1 is a pretty fair distribution.
There's a decent argument to be made that MSU deserved a 1 seed over UNC. Or possibly even Tennessee. I think it was clear though that Virginia Gonzaga Duke each earned a 1 with their play in the regular season. I also do think that people understand that there are advantages to being a 1. That's why everyone wants to get on the 1 line...
Over 90%, approximately, of NU basketball and football players would never be excepted to NU, except for playing sports. The vast majority are in the learning and change program,which is watered down,to their 25 ACT average curriculum. Try looking at men's swimming and diving. Those guys are doing real majors like engineering and economics,etc. Very few NU student athletes,can compete,like wrassler did,at the highest level in both academics and sports at Northwestern! Joe Girardi and Craig Jennings,are in the 10%,like me!
right... there is an argument to be made that MSU or Tennessee deserved a 1 seed over UNC, which got a 1 seed. MSU and Tennessee were 2 seeds. They did not get a 1 seed.
The top 2-3 teams in the ACC recruit more talent. Their midrange and lower echelon teams aren't that scary. And the B1G top to bottom is a better coached league. B1G coaches would scheme Roy Williams to death if he played in our league.
Any sort of grand declaration about what is or isn’t true based solely on a single-elimination tournament is pretty silly. The four games this weekend were excellent and the teams that won those games deserved to win. But if you rewound and played them again there’s a decent chance the other four teams would all win and the conventional wisdom about conferences and one-and-dones or whatever would be completely different today just because of statistical variance.