The Oden-Durant debate officially jumped down the rabbit hole recently when Dick Vitale declared that a Texas, Ohio State Final Four matchup would’ve been the equivalent of Bird versus Magic. Not that Vitale should ever be taken seriously (even before the DiGiorno commercial), but the Oden-Durant babble, whether from him or more credible sources, has become wearying.
Full Tilt On The Irrelevance Scale
The lack of both historical perspective and even a modicum of basketball sense that fuels comments like Vitale’s and others who keep harping on what is a colossal non-starter as either debate or interesting discussion is exasperating. And that the players in question are ones who are already removed from or will soon be removed from the college basketball landscape after only a few short months makes the topic even more trivial and ephemeral.
Having listened since November to the white noise of hype that overlooks Oden’s obvious and considerable flaws and rightly, but incessantly marvels at Durant’s instant NBA impact basketball freakishness, let’s do a public service and quickly dispense with the topic so that we can move on to more interesting stories. Oden has been unfairly burdened with comparison to real collegiate deals such as Patrick Ewing and Bill Russell and suffers mightily for it. Durant is already a real deal.
Right Said Knight
Amidst the sea of carnival barkers heralding the one and dones as great for the college game and ignoring infinitely better stories such as Jeff Green, Carl Landry, and A.J. Graves, Bob Knight adds another layer to the already sequoia thick case against the new NBA age minimum of 19. While the myopic and naive trumpet that it’s gotten NBA scouts and agents out of high school gyms, it’s accounted for even more questionable contact and potential collusion or, at least, unhealthy symbiosis between college programs and coaches and the NBA interests.
The disruption of one and dones to program continuity over periods exceeding six months is obvious, but conveniently ignored by coaches like Rick Barnes and Matta. While turning his program into the Kevin Durant show for a season may have brought attention from the dilettantes, it will have done nothing for next year’s Longhorns. As Durant monopolized the ball this year, his returnees essentially idled as far as overall team development and will find themselves trying to create an identity from scratch next November. Similarly, the exodus out of Columbus could have equally disruptive results. Syracuse since the Carmelo championship run in 2003 is but one of several cautionary tales.
Fortunately, there are coaches such as Knight, Izzo, John Thompson, Jr. and Billy Donovan who are either smart enough or have long ago learned the pitfalls of catering to the early jumpers. Thompson’s and Donovan’s teams this year are formidable because they are led by upperclassmen, players who have been crafted and coached longer than six months into a team rather than mercenary identity. The results of the less expedient approach speak volumes for Florida and Georgetown this year and will find perfect illustration with Izzo’s Spartan juggernaut next year.
And returning to Knight’s point about academic integrity, it is disheartening to learn about players like Conley, Jr. and Oden who are supposedly college students but only leave their dorm room to eat and play basketball. And when they are in the dorm room it is to either watch movies or play video games? No mention of studying. Any clue about the location of the campus library?
Now the vapidity of the average blue chip athlete is far from a breaking story and athletes have long been hidden away in dubious majors of study that demand little of them, but the 19 year age rule will only exacerbate the pervasive farce of student-athleticism as above. More than one year players have to at least make a show of academic commitment and some of them may actually benefit from brushing up against higher education for two years or more. The one and dones don’t even have to bother.
And Knight and I aren’t the only ones who wish good riddance to these shallow show ponies and the rule that enables them (though it is likely here to stay for awhile). Imagine the poor undergrad premed major, the next Anthony Gonzalez perhaps, who is fighting to get some winks before his molecular biology final against the din of Conley, Jr.’s all night boombox and PlayStation in the dorm room next door.
In a perfect world the NBA would have an age minimum of 21 and the NCAA would tighten its academic oversight so that the kids either make grades in legitimate majors or are forced to spend three to four years in the CBA, NBDL, or overseas. Unfortunately we live in an age of rampant entitlement where such a rule would inspire rioting and fist waving about how these kids are being denied a livelihood. Telling them they can play for CBA or foreign professional wages until they are 21 would probably elicit more than a few sour faces. But it’s possible they might learn something and grow out of the video game phase a lot faster if they had to spend a few years either making a more legitimate attempt at student-athleticism or making only CBA money.
Basketball IQ Tests
Basketball IQ tests have and are still being administered to three of the conference’s athletic directors. With Joel Maturi’s sexy, but superficial hire of Tubby Smith and Gary Barta’s overtures to Bruce Pearl, it is clear we aren’t necessarily dealing with basketball geniuses. Bill Martin is still hunched over the exam, but may soon be exposed as similarly basketball challenged.
With superb opportunities to set their programs up for decades by making inspired, thoughtful hires such as the one Wisconsin made to bring Bo Ryan to Madison and Painter back to Purdue, it’s quite possible Iowa and Michigan could end up with worse coaches than the ones they’ve just been freed from.
Did Barta and his search committee watch last weekend as Pearl squandered a twenty-point lead with quick, loose shots that enabled Ohio State to get back in the game in the span of five minutes? Getting outcoached by Thad Matta’s cardboard sign wielding, low wattage brain trust is hardly a powerful case. His NCAA mini-runs at UW-Milwaukee and Tennessee are exactly the kind of fluffy eye-candy that cause certain folks to go gape mouthed and reverent, but surely an athletic director with bottomless access to good advice would see through Pearl’s run and gun, rah rah first layer and find that there might not be a whole lot beneath it. Apparently basketball know-how is a rare commodity even at the toniest of programs as Self at Kansas continues to prove.
Barta got a few extra minutes with the test thanks to Pearl’s demur, but if his first choice is any barometer of what’s to follow, the fans of Iowa could be stuck with a big, shiny rock of a hire that at first glance seems like gold but turns out to be zirconium. Depending on whether Bill Martin proves upper percentile on the hoops IQ scale, Michigan may also be bemoaning a counterfeit a few years from now. Hopefully, though, both will locate a cheat sheet and bring in the caliber of coaches that will elevate the conference’s bench talent.
