Disagreed, he would be better off sharpening his 3nD skills around top tier NBA prospects on Ignite. He'd look like a lottery pick playing off Green and Kuminga, if his shot is as good as advertised. They get NBA level coaching, 100% focus on basketball and physical development, much higher levels of competition, access to scouts, 10 year+ veterans on the team, their future employer, and 100k+ salaries as the gravy on top. College will always be there if they need to get a degree. The exposure is not comparable in value to everything I mentioned above, even though the exposure they got this year was very good.
Ya.
So I guess you aren’t watching the tournament any more.
And the notion that for most of these kids college is anything but a place to practice basketball until until they become draft eligible is a joke too. My personal view is that the NCAA should penalize schools that have 1-dones (say you lose that scholarship until the player would have graduated) and the NBA should sign kids out of high school to the g league or the NBA if they are good enough. After all, the 1 year rule came about from the union to protect older and second tier players, not the younger guys Coming into the league. You very nicely lay out the benefits of a college experience. Unfortunately that isn’t the experience most of these players have. I want to return to it.
I trust the individuals to make appropriate decisions for their own lives.
If there 'has to be some type of penalty for backing out of a contract', then the contracting parties should include that in the contract. If I agree to join a new company and then get a better offer at the last minute, I can back out with no problem... and that is for a job I'd be getting paid for. An NLI is a very one-sided arrangement that gives way more leverage to the school. Players should do what they feel is best for them, period.
I have to agree with that too. We are short changing these kids. Its abusive on all sides. The rule has to be the athlete commits and they have 5 years to finish. If f they don't the school is punished with a loss of scholarship. If the NBA poaches a kid, then they have to pay up for inference with a contract which equals the cost of a four year education, and that goes to another disadvantaged kid. (non-sports).
There is no working agreement between the NCAA and the GLeague. They are separate entities. The kid wasn't poached. He was offered an alternative. The NLI has consequences within the NCAA but means nothing to the GLeague. The kid didn't quit he chose a different path. What type of penalty are you imagining for this type of situation? Who is going to be penalized?
Say an athlete makes the commitment you suggest and after his sophomore year decides to go pro and says he has no intention of coming back and getting his degree. You want to punish the schools/programs? Have they done anything wrong? Your second suggestion wouldn't make it to a court of law unless the NCAA and the NBA signed an agreement. The NBA would never agree to that idea. The best thing that could happen to NCAA hoops is for the NBA to allow players to be drafted directly from high school again.
Yup. I don’t care if there is an agreement between the NBA, GLeague and/or the NCAA. I don’t much care if the kid leaves. That’s his choice. But I want to end the charade that these guys who leave for the NBA after a year or 2 are at the schools for any purpose but to play basketball. So just make a rule. Once you award a scholarship it is ” committed” for 4 years unless the player graduates in 3. If he leaves to sign a pro contract, good for him, but it sucks being the coach who now has to get by with one less Scholarship player. If you are John Calipari, you are screwed. Plain and simple. If you are Dan Hurley, it isn’t that bad. It puts pressure on the coaches to recruit players who are committed to playing college basketball and taking advantage of all the things Bluedog mentioned. And it encourages guys who really have no interest in those things and just need a place to hang until the draft to go to the G or for that matter to sue the NBA over its restrictive rule. My guess is that after a year or so it will all shake out. Oh there will be the story of Johnny Jumpshot who didnt get a scholarship to Whatsamatter U so he had to go to the G League, got injured and is working at a car wash, and everybody will say it’s sad. And it will be but lots of guys don’t get basketball scholarships.
Nobody is suggesting you should. I’m saying just the opposite. If you are just looking for a place to play basketball for a year by all means go to the G league, Europe or directly to the NBA. If we are honest most guys who end up drafted have zero interest in being in college. They just want to play basketball.
IMO, this is a terrible idea. This would incentivize coaches to act against the player's best interest. Take a Bouknight situation for example. If Hurley is hearing what the vast majority of observers expect (that Bouknight will be a lottery pick), he should and almost certainly will be telling Bouknight to go to the NBA. In a world in which the coach is getting punished above and beyond losing a star player, there is even more incentive not to look out for the player's best interest. The reality is right now that there is not a good developmental alternative outside of those top few players who are basically ready to jump to the NBA straight from high school, so there will still be a need for players like Bouknight to stay for a couple of years and then leave.
And, the exposure may be worth the money down the line if you can get a narrative built around you. Not in the draft, but in licensing. But that's an if.
Not Hurley’s job nor UConns actually to look out for a player’s interests when they conflict with its. Hurley’s job is to look out for the best interests of UConn basketball. You can make an argument that advising Bouknight to go pro is good for the program long term under the current system. Under my proposal it might not be. But ultimately Bouknight will make the decision that is best for him. Plus in my system Bouknight most likely goes the the G league because he wants to play pro basketball much more than he wants to learn about the Rise and Fall of the 3rd French Republic.
Just no. Hurley and other coaches who make their money off of unpaid players have a responsibility to act in the best interest of those players, which will also generally be in the best interest of the programs long-term. I disagreed whole-heartedly with your view there. And is your suggestion that Bouknight in that situation would have gone to the G league right out of high school? I think the world of Bouknight but that would have ended poorly. To my earlier point, there is currently no good alternative for players like Bouknight that aren't at the level of making an immediate jump to the NBA (i.e. Kuminga), but will likely only need a couple of years in college before they're ready. Until that happens, I think your suggestion is a really bad idea.
A scholarship is a contract. The NBA cannot knowingly and intentionally interfere with the performance of that contract. It certainly could be. It’s just never been done, because schools are afraid of the consequences. The way it should be handled is through an NCAA contracted clearinghouse which would allow the NCAA to enforce globally fir schools.
I looked at the roster of G coaches. It sucks. Most coaches don’t last more than a year or two. Almost none could get a top 30 college coaching gig. I’ve seen the comment more than once that the coaching is better. I don’t buy it. You might have one or two coaches who have a future. Good NBA coaches don’t develop players - they maximize talent with offensive and defensive schemes. They game plan. They build rosters. That’s what these coaches are trying to learn.
Brian Shaw is a very experienced coach.
