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Old 05-15-2010, 04:30 PM   #1
JasonS
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Eyes on the Game, Part 1-4: A Flawed System (Cnati)

Here is a good article from Cnati.com about College Basketball. It is going to be a 4 part series.

http://cnati.com/college/eyes-on-the...system-001954/

Eyes on the game, Part 1: A flawed system
By Paul Dehner Jr., CNATI.com Posted May 13, 2010 8:00 AM ET


This is the first of a four-part series viewing the central off-the-court issues facing the game of college basketball through the eyes of local college coaches forming one of the nation's most successful areas. The series will run every Thursday through June 3. Next week will focus on the challenges of recruiting/coaching an economically disadvantaged athlete.


Former UC forward Lance Stephenson. Photo by Brian Baker.Mick Cronin says he knew when he first landed Lance Stephenson. He says he still knew even when Stephenson made a public declaration he would return to the University of Cincinnati for a sophomore season.

"I knew he was going to leave," Cronin said. "I knew it was a one-and-done. My experience told me that."

Indeed, Cronin was right.

Stephenson served as the local poster-child in a college basketball epidemic. He shares the regional milk carton with Xavier's Jordan Crawford and Kentucky's quartet of John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton.

The system of college basketball players declaring for the NBA Draft is flawed. To players, the shortened time frame in which a decision needed to be made was unfair. To coaches, the concept of constantly restarting the process of building a program is extenuating.

To this country, the very nature with which basketball players are prohibited from joining the professional ranks once they graduate high school is nearly unconstitutional.

As the college basketball community mourns the departure of a record number of early entrants to June's NBA Draft, those coaches guiding programs in one of the game's most smoldering hotbeds all temporarily unwrap the gloves to agree on one central fact personal to all of them: The system must change.

Cronin spent his early years running drills at the ABCD and Five-Star camps alongside the likes of Kobe Bryant and Stephon Marbury and 15 more years following the paths of players from high school to college and beyond as a coach.

He insists he's never seen anything like the mass exodus which occurred this year.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "On our game, it doesn't look good."

A total of 50 collegiate underclassmen decided to stick with their decision to enter the NBA Draft as the early-entry deadline came and went this past weekend.

Since the rules were put in place to disallow players to jump directly from high school to the pros, that number had never been higher than 39. Even in 2005, when a contingent of high school seniors joined the underclassmen, that number only touched 49.

Coaches, players and pundits alike own theories for the 25 percent jump, ranging from an impending lockout to the poor advice of those surrounding these athletes. Regardless, of the reason, they don't believe the rules will be an issue much longer.




XU coach Chris Mack. Photo by Brian Baker."I think they are going to change, whether I want them to or not," Xavier coach Chris Mack said. "I think when this collective bargaining agreement comes around you are going to see kids have to stay in school at least two years. I am almost certain that is going to be the case."

Much of that confidence comes from recent comments made by new NCAA president Mark Emmert, who addressed the one-and-done phenomenon as an issue he plans on tackling.

"I think it creates difficult problems inside universities when we're trying to promote an emphasis on (players being) students as well as athletes," he said to USA Today. "It certainly creates a challenge for individual programs."

As to what exactly will happen, nobody really knows. Though, everyone has suggestions. Perhaps those thoughts should begin with the man more associated with the trend than anyone else in the business: Kentucky coach John Calipari.

A total of four one-and-done players came through his system this season in anticipated No. 1 overall draft pick Wall along with Cousins, Bledsoe and Orton. While another string of likely one-and-dones enter next season and will probably keep Calipari near the top of the polls, he agrees even for someone consistently snatching the top recruits, this system fails.

"I don't like the rule," Calipari said. "The kid should be able to go directly to the NBA, but if they come to college they should stay two or three years. I have never wavered, but we have a rule that I have to deal with. I am not going to be one that tries to convince kids to stay. I have never done that and I won't do that. My job is to help prepare them for life after basketball and prepare them for their future and then their family will make those decisions."

Cronin views the problem through a similar looking glass as Calipari. He would prefer to see high school players allowed to bolt, but once they declare choose college, be forced to stay in the program for two or three years. It returns the focus as much toward academics and developing young men as it does developing basketball skills.

"Lance Stephenson came here and got a 3.0, and went to class, had pride, worked hard on redoing English papers with teachers," Cronin said. "He is the exception. I am not taking credit for that; I am giving Lance the credit for that.

"There is nothing good about one-and-done for us. Forget about the college coach that is trying to build a program, because we know what we are getting ourselves into. But on our game, it doesn't look good...In college sports - the history of it - kids are in your program. Now, Deonta Vaughn in the rarity."

Perhaps one of the greatest reasons the program a few miles down the road has flourished is because of an ability to retain and develop athletes. The Musketeers are one of two programs to advance to three consecutive Sweet 16s and have done so with a plethora of three- and four-year players.

In fact, the departure of Crawford, who wasn't technically a one-and-done due to his first season at Indiana and consequential transfer, was one of the first major early departures by a non-junior at the school.

Seeing the quality basketball players and young men the program turned out makes Mack a believer in some attempt at holding kids in college and continuing to keep them from jumping directly from high school to the league.

"If you make kids leave after high school or have to stay a few years, you are going to have a lot of kids that make bad decisions," Mack said. "Not that they are making the most intelligent ones now, but a kid who doesn't have enough feedback, doesn't have enough maturity about himself coming out of high school is going to say, 'I'm ready.' Unfortunately, he's not."

Cronin tells his players, "if you want somebody to lie to you, you can find them."

Usually, the players don't have to search for long. Agents and handlers will find them.

If they can't convince a player he will be drafted in the first round, they will point out names like Trevor Ariza and Monta Ellis, both drafted in the second round before becoming well-paid, successful players in the NBA. They probably won't mention Ricky Sanchez and James Lang, also drafted in the second round, with a total of 11 NBA games between them.

"There are high-quality agents in that world and they take a beating," Cronin said, "but there is always going to be one or two that need a client. They are willing to tell a kid what he wants to hear, versus the successful agents at the top of their business. If you look, they don't represent those guys. They represent the guys that are going to get drafted. They actually turn down those guys.

"They don't want their blood on their hands."

And, in the eyes of the local coaches, until the rules are changed, the blood is on everybody's hands.
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Old 05-20-2010, 11:24 AM   #2
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Part 2

"The biggest challenge is," Xavier coach Chris Mack began, "the kids that have it all - the grades, the mom, the dad, the ability - those kids are very hard to find."

As in life, not every situation is perfect. Many of the most talented players in the country come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds or broken homes - many of them in the traditionally poorer ghettos of America, though some not. In these rough neighborhoods, however, at 17 years old, some have seen enough violence to last a lifetime. Others have felt the weight of the family's financial future fall on the shoulders of their 16-foot jump shot.

There is an inherent pressure in that which makes their cases different than the family with the two-car garage and winter vacations to Hawaii. When evaluating talent for a limited number of spots, recruiting requires a deep assessment of how well they can handle another level of pressure and possible disappointments.

"You get guys who have had different trials and tribulations emotionally as children," UC coach Mick Cronin said. "It leaves scars. You have guys that have major trust issues is a big thing because they have been lied to so much at times. They have been through a lot, seen a lot.

"Certain guys, you got to ask yourself, you want to help the guy, but, 'Is this going to be too much?' You assess the situation and ask yourself 'Do I want to take this on?' It is not just you, that guy brings all of his issues to your locker room."

Cronin spoke midseason about some of the pressures affecting then-senior Deonta Vaughn. As Vaughn struggled through his final season-long audition for NBA scouts, Cronin mentioned the pressure of coming from a less fortunate background as Vaughn does and knowing the hopes of supporting many of those close to him were hinging on his ability to start draining 3-pointers.

"You come from some of the backgrounds these guys come from you can imagine the kinds of pressure these guys put on themselves," he said in February. "Combined with just individually knowing you would love to make it as a player you have people that would like to help maybe take care of that you have watched maybe struggle their whole life."

Few recruiting web sites or magazines talk about these types of intangibles, but to many coaches who recruit players to a specific profile, they are as important as vertical jump or court vision.

"It's about being able to identify why a kid has struggled academically," Mack said. "Why as a freshman he didn't post the grades he should have? Because everybody is not the same. There are certain situations that arise for different factors. You have to figure out as best you can, trust the high school coach, people around the kids and try to make as intelligent decision as you can. Do you think while they are under your leadership at your school that you will be able to get them going in the right direction? That is where you take some chances on some kids."

The concept of getting them going in the right direction once they reach the program spurned the development of a personal strategy for Cronin. His ex-wife was a counselor and he says witnessing the use of it firsthand made him a believer.

Some of the players on the Bearcats he makes go to counseling, others he only recommends it.

Regardless of background, but certainly for those who deal with extreme financial or emotional pressures, he's seen it make a significant difference on and off the court.

"As a coach, we have a tendency to say, 'Well, I'll talk to him,'" Cronin said. "But these kids have been through real hard life things I can't relate to. Some guys need real help I am not capable of giving."

http://cnati.com/featured-stories/ey...lasses-001997/


(there is more of the article, but I posted the UC/X quotes)
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Old 05-27-2010, 09:51 AM   #3
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Part 3

A misconception exists of coaches sitting in a smoky, dark room after an AAU tournament tossing duffel bags of unmarked, non-sequential bills at top recruits like a bad sequel to Blue Chips.

Local coaches insist the dirty underworld of college basketball isn't that. In fact, very little dirt remains at all. But to claim cheating and the payment of recruits doesn't exist would be foolish.

"It has become pretty melodramatic and it is perpetuated by a lot of myths, but it goes on," Mick Cronin said. "It does go on."

To combat the underhanded few programs illegally positioning themselves for the next top recruit, the NCAA over recent years placed increasingly tighter limits on the recruiting periods. In particular, tightening contact in the summer AAU months.

The NCAA sought more contact under the controlled supervision of high school coaches and parents and less when intertwined in the sometimes ugly world of shoe-company powered AAU circuit.

For Xavier's Chris Mack, this solution serves as more of a problem.

Not only a problem, it's defeating the purpose.

"It is unfortunate, but the NCAA puts in more and more rules every year that we have to follow," Mack said. "The crazy thing is when you don't follow those rules or when you cheat, it is more advantageous to have more rules in place. It really hurts the people that are trying to do it the right way."

The right way as long as Cronin has been blazing recruiting trails was to outwork his competition. He recalls long nights spent sitting up with AAU and high school coaches and countless dinners spent building relationships with potential players and their families.

Those extra efforts -- and not necessarily watching summer basketball -- were how Cronin developed the reputation of a master recruiter. Six of his classes have been ranked in the Top 10 by national publications and he recruited eight NBA draft picks during his career.

Still, each year, the NCAA chips away at the soul of his recruiting mindset.

"For a guy like (28-year-old UC Director of Student Athlete Development) Chris Shumate on my staff or younger guys in the business getting on the road, how do you develop relationships?" Cronin said. "The rules are now you can't talk to the coach in the summer. They have eliminated April and there used to be September was AAU tournaments. If you were willing to put the time in you could develop relationships. You could outwork people. It is getting harder and harder to outwork people and develop relationships."

What they have is an onus placed on recruiting during the season. For all but five days between Oct. 6 and March 30 coaches are allowed to evaluate and make visits to official high school functions - games, practices, tournaments, etc.

Placing so many important recruiting days during months where coaches are preparing their teams for games causes a dilemma. How much do you focus on solidifying the future at risk of compromising the present?

Mack says it isn't much of a dilemma for him at all, but is frustrating to know the game's governing body is forcing him to make that decision.

"For me, and for us at Xavier, our team is the most important thing during our season," he said. "I don't want Jamel McLean catching coach running out of practice at the very end to go catch a high school game in Indianapolis. What does that say to him? For us, it's more beneficial and conducive to recruit in the offseason and those are the days that are getting more and more restricted - which I think is ludicrous, but I don't set the rules."

http://cnati.com/college/eyes-on-the...-pinch-002032/
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