http://sports.yahoo.com/news/john-c...g-kentucky-players-get-drafted-052626258.html
Pat Forde calls Coach Cal out in this article on his statements that he considers his number one goal to be getting his players drafted as high as possible. Forde's position is that Cal values having first round draft picks far above winning a national title, and believes this is a serious disservice to the people who support his program.
I would tend to agree. College basketball is about team competition first, not placing players in the draft. Player development is important - so long as it is subsidiary to team development and success of the team as a whole.
Forde also hits Cal on how the draft turned out for the Harrison twins - going from potential lottery picks to only one of them being drafted.
I am not a fan of Cal's approach to the game. He has taken a fundamentally team sport and prostituted it. I believe that the increasingly strong linkage between the NBA and college basketball hurts the collegiate game, and Cal's statement points out one tangible way in which college basketball is harmed by this linkage. The shortening of the shot clock, increased adoption of offenses that mimic the NBA, the early drain of talent from the collegiate game, the increased physicality of the collegiate game, etc all dilute the collegiate game and shift it more and more to being no more than a developmental league for the NBA.
But the college game should be for all of the players and teams, not just a way to satisfy the desires of a few high fliers or of NBA brass who look at college basketball as no more than a way for them to have someone else prepare players for them and reveal unforseen weaknesses in their games. The denigration of the national championship as the highest goal a team can have is a tragic but predictable outcome of this mentality.
If the NCAA sees this as an important issue, I believe that it needs to move the collegiate game away from mimicking NBA ball - making college basketball less attractive as a free minor league for the NBA. A longer clock might help force college coaches to begin coaching again instead of twiddling their fingers for 15 or 20 seconds followed by a flurry of individual basketball at the end of the clock. There are others steps that can be taken unilaterally to force the issue with the NBA.
I am not a fan of where the NBA has gone lately - an opinion that is apparently shared by Phil Jackson. Consider these comments from Jackson:
"When I watch some of these playoff games, and I look at what's being run out there, as what people call an offense, it's really quite remarkable to see how far our game has fallen from a team game," Jackson said. "Four guys stand around watching one guy dribble a basketball."
"I watch LeBron James, for example," he said. "He might [travel] every other time he catches the basketball if he's off the ball. He catches the ball, moves both his feet. You see it happen all the time. There's no structure, there's no discipline, there's no 'How do we play this game' type of attitude. And it goes all the way through the game. To the point where now guys don't screen—they push guys off with their hands."
"It struck me: How can we get so far away from the real truth of what we're trying to do? And if you give people structure, just like a jazz musician—he's gotta learn melody, and he's gotta learn the basic parts of music—and then he can learn how to improvise. And that's basically what team play is all about."
It sees to me that this is where the collegiate game also is headed. I am not fond of these changes in the game.
Pat Forde calls Coach Cal out in this article on his statements that he considers his number one goal to be getting his players drafted as high as possible. Forde's position is that Cal values having first round draft picks far above winning a national title, and believes this is a serious disservice to the people who support his program.
I would tend to agree. College basketball is about team competition first, not placing players in the draft. Player development is important - so long as it is subsidiary to team development and success of the team as a whole.
Forde also hits Cal on how the draft turned out for the Harrison twins - going from potential lottery picks to only one of them being drafted.
I am not a fan of Cal's approach to the game. He has taken a fundamentally team sport and prostituted it. I believe that the increasingly strong linkage between the NBA and college basketball hurts the collegiate game, and Cal's statement points out one tangible way in which college basketball is harmed by this linkage. The shortening of the shot clock, increased adoption of offenses that mimic the NBA, the early drain of talent from the collegiate game, the increased physicality of the collegiate game, etc all dilute the collegiate game and shift it more and more to being no more than a developmental league for the NBA.
But the college game should be for all of the players and teams, not just a way to satisfy the desires of a few high fliers or of NBA brass who look at college basketball as no more than a way for them to have someone else prepare players for them and reveal unforseen weaknesses in their games. The denigration of the national championship as the highest goal a team can have is a tragic but predictable outcome of this mentality.
If the NCAA sees this as an important issue, I believe that it needs to move the collegiate game away from mimicking NBA ball - making college basketball less attractive as a free minor league for the NBA. A longer clock might help force college coaches to begin coaching again instead of twiddling their fingers for 15 or 20 seconds followed by a flurry of individual basketball at the end of the clock. There are others steps that can be taken unilaterally to force the issue with the NBA.
I am not a fan of where the NBA has gone lately - an opinion that is apparently shared by Phil Jackson. Consider these comments from Jackson:
"When I watch some of these playoff games, and I look at what's being run out there, as what people call an offense, it's really quite remarkable to see how far our game has fallen from a team game," Jackson said. "Four guys stand around watching one guy dribble a basketball."
"I watch LeBron James, for example," he said. "He might [travel] every other time he catches the basketball if he's off the ball. He catches the ball, moves both his feet. You see it happen all the time. There's no structure, there's no discipline, there's no 'How do we play this game' type of attitude. And it goes all the way through the game. To the point where now guys don't screen—they push guys off with their hands."
"It struck me: How can we get so far away from the real truth of what we're trying to do? And if you give people structure, just like a jazz musician—he's gotta learn melody, and he's gotta learn the basic parts of music—and then he can learn how to improvise. And that's basically what team play is all about."
It sees to me that this is where the collegiate game also is headed. I am not fond of these changes in the game.
Last edited:
