Browns reach out to Brian Hoyer to discuss new contract
January 23, 2015Chad Zumock, Will Burge, and a little Cleveland sports talk – WFNY Podcast – 2015-01-23
January 23, 2015On Thursday night, like many nights during this college basketball season, I watched Ohio State freshman guard D’Angelo Russell do practically everything for his team as he led the Buckeyes to a tight victory over Northwestern in Evanston. Russell scored 33 of the team’s 69 points while hitting 6-of-11 three pointers. He added seven rebounds, six assists, and committed zero turnovers for good measure. It was a fantastic display for the backcourt stud out of Louisville.
And yet, I can’t help but simultaneously be in awe and repulsed at the fact that Russell is single-handedly holding this team together himself. After losing to Iowa and Indiana, Coach Thad Matta shook up the lineup and sent second leading scorer Marc Loving as well as senior Amir Williams to the bench in favor of senior transfer Anthony Lee and freshman Jae’Sean Tate. Sam Thompson, third on the team in scoring average, was the only other Buckeye in double digits with 11 points on 12 shots. Loving has had a touch beyond the arc this season, Thompson has continued his pattern of highlight dunks and rejections, and Shannon Scott continues to run the point and dish out assists. Outside of that, the Buckeyes have proven nearly halfway through their Big Ten slate that they’re not that good of a team.
The Buckeyes have proven nearly halfway through their Big Ten slate that they’re not that good of a team.
I don’t pretend to have all the answers or really ANY concrete solution to what is plaguing college basketball right now, but we’ve seen the product deteriorating for years now. There’s less continuity. Some coaches recruit the one and dones and turn a good portion of their roster over every year. 40-50 underclassmen declare for the draft each year. Coaches don’t know whether they’ll have a player for one, two, three or four years, which makes scholarship allocation and offers a hassle. Some choose not to go after them and instead must exclude themselves from the top 25 or 30 prospects. I always admired Matta’s approach of trying to have the best of both worlds, picking 1-2 big names while trying to build mutli-year classes before and alongside them.
The college product suffers and so does the NBA product. Front offices are forced to play much more of the projection game and draft on upside and potential rather than immediate fit or need often times. Only the handful of mega-stars that could’ve made the jump without college step right in and make a huge impact right away. Everyone else struggles to find rotation minutes, and every year, we hear about how this is the “worst draft in years” while the analysts poke holes in the players. It doesn’t benefit the NBA teams, who get less value out of freshman early in their pro careers. I found this Nate Silver FiveThirtyEight article about drafting sophomores to yield more value in the first contract very intriguing.
I understand those who ask why the LeBron James and Dwight Howards of the world need a year in school before making the jump. But, for every James or Howard, there’s several players that make the jump only to land up as an end of the first round pick or worse. Then, they toil around some lesser basketball league as a journeyman. Thinking out loud, maybe the answer is to implement something like in baseball or hockey. If you aren’t familiar, in baseball, players can opt to sign with a major league team right out of high school or go to school for at least three years before re-entering the draft. In hockey, teams can draft the rights to players and allow them to continue collegiate play. Think about college football and the Buckeyes’ title defense without the three year rule. Who wouldn’t be coming back? Ezekiel Elliott? Joey Bosa? Darron Lee? Do I want the best players in the world going through the college ranks? Ideally, yes, but not at the expense of being able to build upon class after class. Let them go play overseas or in the D-League but keep the college kids in college longer.
For those of you that don’t follow collegiate sports closely other than for the joy of draft day tidbits, I understand why you may not feel the same way. When I see how good Russell is with such little talent around him thanks to the atrocious bust of a senior class, it makes me want another year. Russell is going to get only one crack at playing in the NCAA tournament, and he’ll be hard-pressed to get past the first weekend (and even that’s not a guarantee).
I’m not saying the NCAA doesn’t need an overhaul regarding what it does for its student-athletes in the cash cows of football and basketball. I don’t think the amateurism of the sport is as pure as it was 10-20 years ago.1 But, as a college basketball fan, all I want is to enjoy the players in scarlet and gray (and many other teams come tourney time, truth be told) and watch a team form instead of a collection of guys playing six month pickup.
- I still don’t get the devaluation of a free college education in the eyes of many or the apparent poison pill that staying in school is believed to be by some. [↩]
6 Comments
I would add Craft as a star that stayed for multiple seasons (not that he had a choice, but he was a very good player at OSU)
Craft was good, but did not have the option of going to the NBA sooner.
Fair point, Nate. But yes, I excluded Craft and a few others because of lack of NBA future (Buford, Lighty come to mind too)
Perhaps college basketball can get a similar rule to college baseball. You can declare for the draft out of high school, but if you don’t get drafted (or signed), then you have to go to college for 3 years.
I have had to talk myself out of panic mode numerous times this season already. And the one thing I keep going back to is that Matta has a track record of getting his teams to peak in late-February and early-March. I am somehow hoping that this pattern stays true. Looking at their remaining schedule I have them down at 11-7 in the B1G…but that could improve if the LaVert injury hurts michigan as bad as it could….if so, it could be 12-6. So sitting at 4-3 now, I am expecting them to go 8-3 from here on out, which coincides with Matta’s track record.
I am also hoping against all hope Russell comes back. He does have some glaring flaws in his game – defensive end, and often careless with the ball. Another year of him would mean great things for the program next year. But I realize it’s a pipe dream.
There is a bigger issue here than whether there should be a one year rule in the NBA. The biggest issue is that guys just can’t play anymore. Sure there are a ton of big, fast, athletic players out there who can run fast, and jump through the roof, but there is a serious lack of real basketball players. This is one of the reasons that foreign players are so prevalent and thrive. They are still taught the basic skills.
Even if there was no one year rule, the NBA should not draft a guy they don’t think is ready to play immediately at that level. At some point, they started drafting on potential instead of actual skill which has watered down the overall product. Now, any dude who is super-athletic can get drafted fairly high whether he has actual basketball skills or not. There is a place for players like that, but 20 years ago, they would have been called “garbage men” who just go out there and get rebounds, put-backs, and play defense. This has contributed to the narrowing gap between the NBA and high school players.
An 18 year old should have the right to go make a living doing what they love, so for that reason, I am against the one year rule. However, just because they have the right does not mean they are good enough. The NBA needs to stop “gambling” on players. This will boost the integrity of the league and stop the wash of guys who think they can make it out of high-school. Then, they would be able to get a realistic view of things and make an informed decision on whether to go get an education and develop their skill, or get paid by going over seas to develop their skill. Draft them, or don’t. But I don’t think they have the right to tell a legal adult of 18 years old that they have to wait to make a living.