Monday, April 20, 2015
One-Year Wonders Equals Long-Term Success
One-and-done vs. the college experience.
NBA factories vs. schools that put student in student-athlete.
Parody is starting to slip away from college basketball; turning instead into a new debate that was sparked by Bo Ryan moments after his Wisconsin team fell to Duke in the NCAA title game. The sport is seeing two types of programs; those who are recruiting massive amounts of NBA talent, knowing they can have them for one year and then move on and those who are recruiting players that are most likely to stay four years.
The majority fall in the latter category. Unfortunately for them, the former is winning.
Duke's national title certified two things. First, Mike Krzyzewski is even more brilliant a coach than recognized. Remember, Coach K was the same guy who was winning with players that stayed four years 20 years ago. In fact, you couldn't have a jersey raised to the rafters at Duke without a degree in hand. The game has changed and Krzyzewski changed right along with it. He adjusts to the current state of affairs and never stops winning.
Secondly, the "one and done" theory in college basketball works for programs that do it. There is no doubting the success that both Duke and Kentucky have had in recent years despite having to refill their rosters each year. The quality of talent that is willing to play for the Blue Devils or Wildcats for a year is worth the payoff. Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, and Jahlil Okafor easily made the new recruiting process better for Duke. And while Kentucky's Harrison twins leave with no national title, the seasons they gave Big Blue Nation were memorable ones that they certainly will remember fondly.
And, with their leaving for the NBA not having a negative effect on the school's APR, the trend is going to continue for years to come.
Sure, you're going to have a Wisconsin, or Michigan State, or Arizona come in and challenge for the title each year with more of a traditional program approach. The fact is, though, Kentucky, as long as their players decide to be a cohesive unit, is going to go deep each season with the system they have in place. And their place as a factory for NBA talent leaves a lot of schools in the lurch who have one or two players decide to declare early. The talent pool shrinks when seven or eight great players decide to play for one team in one recruiting class.
So, for now, it looks as though we'll have a status quo of several of the top schools going with one year college players (except, obviously for Wisconsin, as Ryan stated he'd never be "a one and done school"). The only thing that could change the current state is if the NBA decides (wisely, I might add) to allow high school seniors to declare for the NBA draft again.
Should that happen, parody should come back in full force.
Should that happen, Coach K will adjust yet again.