SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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College basketball fans do a lot of hand wringing over whether or not their players are going to jump to the NBA. Of course, our real reasons are selfish: we want the players to stay so they can help win games and a championship for the school we root for. There's a sense of betrayal when a player leaves to try to win them for somebody else instead. But we are aware that the players aren't required to stay in college and play for our team: it's not a prison. if they feel they are ready to move on and somebody wants to offer them a lot of money to do so, it's their right to take that money, (and we'd do the same thing). So we couch our opinions in the rhetoric of whether we think they are "ready" or not or what the competition at the player's position would be in this year's draft: something that we think the player should be thinking about, (but probably isn't).
Meanwhile the talent level in college has dissipated. Comparing this year's "gang that couldn't shoot straight" Syracuse team, (which was still able to win 25 games in a row) to the teams of a generation ago when we flew down the court and scored 80-90 points a game is depressing. We used to have the "Pearl Washington Era" followed by the "Sherman Douglas Era". Now we have the "Michael Carter-Williams Year" followed by the "Tyler Ennis Year" followed, probably, by the "Kaleb Joseph Era".
One wonders if the thought occurred to MCW this year that he might have enjoyed quarterbacking a team that won 25 in a row in college more than and NBA team that lost 25 in a row. I guess we know the answer but I'll be he wondered about it. Did any of our other "jumpers" ever regret it? Pearl Washington recent said he did. But what can you do about it years later?
The NBA makes the rules about when and how players can enter their league. But ti doesn't mean the colleges can do anything to negate the talent drain and give players more options than they have. They have eligibility rules, too. Here are two things the NCAA could do:
1) Allow players to get drafted without losing their amateur status. Both the NFL and NBA drafted players as undergraduates years ago and I have some old preseason magazines stating things like "when he leaves college, he'll play for the Cleveland Browns, who drafted him". Larry Bird was drafted by the Celtics before his last year at Indiana State. A player should have the option of returning to his college team, if he has eligibility left, until he actually signs a pro contract. Didn't Manhattan just take back Steve Masiello as coach when the South Florida job fell through? Can we do the same for a player who didn't get drafted where he had hoped to or don't get a contract offer they like?
2) I know this is way outside the box but I still like it. If a player goes to the pros when he still has eligibility left, he should be able to come back to college at the conclusion of his contract, after he is cut, etc. to get his degree and work on his game for a second or even a third attempt to make it in the NBA. The colleges have functioned as a sort of minor league farm system for the NBA and NFL. In a farm system, guys who aren't ready yet are sent back down. Injured guys play in the minors on injury rehab. A non-athlete can leave school for a job and alter come back to get a law degree and become a lawyer. Why can't we take back guys who left early and let them play out their eligibility? We could replace Tyler Ennis with Jonny Flynn. It's not something we are used to but does that make it a bad idea?
Meanwhile the talent level in college has dissipated. Comparing this year's "gang that couldn't shoot straight" Syracuse team, (which was still able to win 25 games in a row) to the teams of a generation ago when we flew down the court and scored 80-90 points a game is depressing. We used to have the "Pearl Washington Era" followed by the "Sherman Douglas Era". Now we have the "Michael Carter-Williams Year" followed by the "Tyler Ennis Year" followed, probably, by the "Kaleb Joseph Era".
One wonders if the thought occurred to MCW this year that he might have enjoyed quarterbacking a team that won 25 in a row in college more than and NBA team that lost 25 in a row. I guess we know the answer but I'll be he wondered about it. Did any of our other "jumpers" ever regret it? Pearl Washington recent said he did. But what can you do about it years later?
The NBA makes the rules about when and how players can enter their league. But ti doesn't mean the colleges can do anything to negate the talent drain and give players more options than they have. They have eligibility rules, too. Here are two things the NCAA could do:
1) Allow players to get drafted without losing their amateur status. Both the NFL and NBA drafted players as undergraduates years ago and I have some old preseason magazines stating things like "when he leaves college, he'll play for the Cleveland Browns, who drafted him". Larry Bird was drafted by the Celtics before his last year at Indiana State. A player should have the option of returning to his college team, if he has eligibility left, until he actually signs a pro contract. Didn't Manhattan just take back Steve Masiello as coach when the South Florida job fell through? Can we do the same for a player who didn't get drafted where he had hoped to or don't get a contract offer they like?
2) I know this is way outside the box but I still like it. If a player goes to the pros when he still has eligibility left, he should be able to come back to college at the conclusion of his contract, after he is cut, etc. to get his degree and work on his game for a second or even a third attempt to make it in the NBA. The colleges have functioned as a sort of minor league farm system for the NBA and NFL. In a farm system, guys who aren't ready yet are sent back down. Injured guys play in the minors on injury rehab. A non-athlete can leave school for a job and alter come back to get a law degree and become a lawyer. Why can't we take back guys who left early and let them play out their eligibility? We could replace Tyler Ennis with Jonny Flynn. It's not something we are used to but does that make it a bad idea?
