NBA draft highlights college rent-a-freshman dilemma
As if anyone needed to be reminded of the popularity chasm that exists between the NFL and every other competitive enterprise in the universe save the World Cup, the occasional presidential election and American Idol, we need only to look at how each league's draft is treated by the media and received by the public.
The NFL draft arrives with the pomp and circumstance of the Roman legions returning from Gaul. The NBA draft needs the constant drumbeat of its feverish media acolytes to even momentarily distract the general sports public from its mid-season review of baseball fantasy teams.
The first three picks of the NBA draft yesterday were Derrick Rose (Chicago), Michael Beasley (Miami) and O.J. Mayo (by Minnesota and traded to Memphis). The real news there is the historical footnote that for the first first time all three were freshmen. And that highlights the problem for college basketball programs who now find themselves having to buy in to the cynical practice of rent-a-freshman when they recruit.
You wonder if university basketball recruiters even bother to mention that they actually confer degrees at their institutions of higher learning when they try to lure some hotshot high school senior who has as much chance of finishing college as Steve Trachsel had of pitching a complete game or I would have finishing the Boston Marathon. Mount Airy's Joe Alexander, a junior from West Virginia, was the first "veteran" college player to be taken at No. 8 (Milwaukee). The seven taken before him were mostly freshmen plus one sophomore and a teenager from Italy.
Yes, plenty of college juniors are drafted into the NFL but at least they spend enough time on campus to know how to get to the library without asking directions. OK, maybe the cafeteria.
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Comments
Rent-a-freshman? That makes it sound like the players are getting paid or some other compensation for their trouble. Borrow-a-freshman is more like it.
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Rick,
Thanks for writing. I see the technical difference that you make ... on the other hand, they are getting the scholarship and the room and board and considering that in some cases there is little intent on actually using the time spent at the university to get an actual degree, I'm not sure whether your use of borrow or my use of rent is the better choice of words.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Rick Rottman | June 27, 2008 12:13 PM
You know bill i am very critical of md's basketball program, but when i look at the current drafting format in the NBA i guess you are dammed if you do and dammed if you don't,. Even if Gary Williams recruited blue chip players which we know by now that he doesn't they would only be 1 and done, so what good does that do any university. The only thing that i am confused about is how does NC keep there whole team together when they were all number 1 draft picks on there as well. VERY INTERESTING.PLEASE EXPLAIN BECAUSE I AM MISSING SOMETHING. I know you will probably tell me they want the chance to win a national championship.Well what about the rest of the schools in the NCAA they must get the poor kids that need the money.
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Bob,
The Carolina situation just happens to be a good one for the school. Hansbrough simply decided he wanted to be a student-athlete for one more year and a couple of their other real good kids couldn't secure first-round guarantees so they decided to go back and hope for a better situation in 2009 with a national championship run. If one or two of those guys had come out of the pre-draft camp with better results, it might have been a different story.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: bob lancione | June 27, 2008 12:40 PM