Real Sports 9-26-18

Is the 'One and Done' Rule a Problem for the NCAA?

College basketball has grown into a game of 18 or 19-year old superstars. Players stay only long enough to improve their draft status. Is this a problem for the NCAA? Should they try to change the direction college basketball is heading? Read about it in Real Sports!

One of the most widely used terms in NCAA Men's Basketball is 'one and done'. This term is used to describe an athlete who stays in college for only one year, before leaving for the NBA Draft. This is done to get around the rule which says athletes must be at least one year apart from their high school graduation to play in the NBA. The player doesn't have to go to college, he could play internationally, or just train for a year. But nearly all of them choose to play in the NCAA. Because of this, quite a few of the stars in college basketball are freshman and only play for one year. For some people, the one and done rule has grown out of control. They think it is ruining college basketball. Should the NBA and NCAA work to change it?

Kentucky Coach John Calipari is famous for loading up his Kentucky teams with one and dones. He says, however, that he doesn't support the rule. In his book, Players First, he gives his idea of what should happen. He writes that the NCAA should require athletes to stay in school for at least two years. That way, under the way college athletes are educated, they would have finished almost three years of school. They would be one year away from a degree, not three. This would entice some players to stay long enough to get a degree, or at least strongly consider coming back after their professional career. He also expresses his desire to have the NCAA change its rules to give players an incentive to stay, rather than have them barely even consider another year.

Looking back thirty years, college basketball has changed significantly. One and dones were very rare in the 1980's. For the 1987-88 season, the best player in college basketball was Danny Manning, a senior. He led his Kansas team to the Final Four, and a national title. Also in that Final Four were Duke and Arizona. Duke was led by seniors Billy King and Kevin Strickland, and junior Danny Ferry. Arizona's point guard was fifth year senior Steve Kerr, now the coach of the Golden State Warriors. Arizona's all time leading scorer, Sean Elliott, was a junior that year. Mike Krzyzewski, who was the head coach of Duke, appeared in his second Final Four in three years. The 1985-86 team was a senior dominated team. Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie, David Henderson, and Jay Bilas were all starters. Point guard Tommy Amaker was a junior, and the other starter. The year before last, Coach K had one senior starter, Grayson Allen. Krzyzewski pulled in one of the greatest recruiting classes ever, bringing in the #1 ranked point guard (Trevon Duval), shooting guard (Gary Trent), power forward (Wendell Carter, Jr.) and center (Marvin Bagley, III). Those four freshmen are just some of the young stars today. Wooden Award candidates Miles Bridges (a sophomore), Trae Young (a freshman who is leading the country in both points per game and assists per game), and Deandre Ayton (freshman) are a few more. But there are still older stars in the game. Allen, Trevon Bluiett (Xavier), Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson (both Villanova), and Devonte Graham (Kansas) were all either seniors or juniors. Injured Bonzie Colson was also a senior forward for Notre Dame. But those just can't compare to one-and-done stars and non-stars.

In The Legends Club, author John Feinstein quotes Coach Krzyzewski as saying, "I'm gonna recruit kids who want to play college basketball for three or four years, not kids who are passing through to the NBA." Coach K has obviously changed his mind, and has recruited one and dones like Jabari Parker (first round pick to the Milwaukee Bucks) and Jahlil Okafor (first round pick to the Philadelphia 76ers), and Jayson Tatum (first round pick to the Boston Celtics). Kyrie Irving didn't even play a full season, but was the number 1 overall pick in the draft to the Cleveland Cavaliers. But Krzyzewski isn't happy with the one and done rule. Feinstein also quotes former Georgetown head coach John Thompson, who won the 1984 NCAA Championship, as disagreeing with the rule. Thompson asks, "Are most of these kids ready for the NBA… no. But they have to go. The money is too big and they don't want the stigma of being a college sophomore while all the guys they played AAU ball with are in the NBA."

As a fan, it is sometimes disappointing to see your team's roster change so much every season. You can never know whether or not your favorite player will be back, or in the NBA. Your team could win the national championship, then not even make the NCAA Tournament, like Kentucky. The 2011-12 Kentucky team was 38-2, the most wins ever for a team that won the national championship. The next year they lost in the first round of the NIT, and finished 21-12. Had the players from the championship team been forced to stay, no doubt Kentucky would have had a much better record. But there is also a downside to keeping the players in college for longer. Kentucky, which annually brings in some of the best high school players in the country, would have an overload of talent. Talented players would be forced to sit on the bench, while other, older players got the playing time. Kentucky had a problem similar to this in 2014-15. In 2013-2014, the Wildcats made a run to the national championship. While some players moved on to the NBA, some stayed. Coach Calipari had already recruited another dazzling class. To balance the playing time, he created the 'Platoon' system. This allowed for the players to split playing time. That team would finish 38-1, losing in the Final Four.

Division One power schools have ever-changing rosters, with new faces nearly every year. But is the lack of an older, experienced star a problem for the NCAA? The biggest stars in the game are just eighteen or nineteen years old. They don't even bother with degrees, they just stay long enough to win some games and improve their draft standing. There are thousands of kids who love college basketball, and they look up to superstars like Young and Bagley and Bridges. But these stars all leave before they are even twenty years old. Is this a good model for young kids? What happens when they make it to Division One, and the minimal percentage get drafted. Some of them will no doubt be cut or dropped or told they aren't good enough. What will they do then? They will have lost their scholarship, and have no degree. These questions have come up and gained momentum over the past few years. So looking at all this, recently the NCAA has changed some of its rules regarding draft eligibility. The new reforms may allow top high school and college players to be represented by a certified agent. This could help some players know their draft status, and potentially stay another year or two in school to boost their status. For the athletes who do leave school early, if they return to that same school in order to get a degree, the school will pay tuition, fees, and books. Also, underclassmen who attend the NBA Combine, then go undrafted are allowed to return to school. That will give them a chance to work on the weaknesses in their game before trying again. Perhaps with these changes, we can see college players for more than five months.

Sources cited: Calipari, John. Players First: Coaching from the inside Out. Penguin Press, 2015.

Feinstein, John. The Legends Club: Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, and an Epic College Basketball Rivalry. Anchor Books, a Division of Penguin Random House, 2017.