CBB needs to be cleaned up!

[BSpringsteen]

We read the interview with Gary Williams, and the anonymous coaches survey and I truly believe more than ever that the integrity of CBB is going tob ein question soon.

I don't blame the coaches or the fans, I blame players who look at LeBron james, "The Decision" as a role model and bottom feeders who stake their financial futures to a 17 or 18 year old kid.

The fact of the matter is that every player in Div. 1 BB, including Iowa was the star of their high school team. They were almost all, all state. everyone wants to be crowned king without doing any work.

Possible solutions for this recruiting madness:

1. Outlaw AAU coaches from taking any positions with any Div 1 school. Any hiring of an AAU coach should lead to an immediate NCAA investigation.

2. Have the NBA create a true developmental league for players who can't qualify or have no interest in going to class. Think you're good enough to go pro, then go play in a developmental league for 18K a year in Peoria. Stop making CBB a necessary evil for one year. If you want to go pro, go pro.

3. Make contact between college coaches and AAU coaches illegal. Contact should go through high school. AAU is a fraud and we all know it.

The point is this... people don't watch CBB because players are great, they watch because they are fans of teams. Players will always be great when juxtaposed to eachother. Do we really care if Josh Shelby goes to college for one year? No we don't. Do Kansas fans? Not if there players are still better...

 

[Mac50702]

The only people I blame is the NCAA. Breaking rules has been going on in college athletics since the beginning of time. Just give the teams a salary cap and call it a day.

 

[troy]

We read the interview with Gary Williams, and the anonymous coaches survey and I truly believe more than ever that the integrity of CBB is going tob ein question soon.

I don't blame the coaches or the fans, I blame players who look at LeBron james, "The Decision" as a role model and bottom feeders who stake their financial futures to a 17 or 18 year old kid.

The fact of the matter is that every player in Div. 1 BB, including Iowa was the star of their high school team. They were almost all, all state. everyone wants to be crowned king without doing any work.

Possible solutions for this recruiting madness:

1. Outlaw AAU coaches from taking any positions with any Div 1 school. Any hiring of an AAU coach should lead to an immediate NCAA investigation.

2. Have the NBA create a true developmental league for players who can't qualify or have no interest in going to class. Think you're good enough to go pro, then go play in a developmental league for 18K a year in Peoria. Stop making CBB a necessary evil for one year. If you want to go pro, go pro.

3. Make contact between college coaches and AAU coaches illegal. Contact should go through high school. AAU is a fraud and we all know it.

The point is this... people don't watch CBB because players are great, they watch because they are fans of teams. Players will always be great when juxtaposed to eachother. Do we really care if Josh Shelby goes to college for one year? No we don't. Do Kansas fans? Not if there players are still better...

Boss,
...college basketball is a dud, stuck in the mud, somewhere in the swamps of Jersey.

4. College basketball players that get kicked off of teams need to serve suspensions, not just transfer time, in order to become eligible again.
5. Monitor athlete eligibility in the Mid-Term of the second semester. If athletes aren't attending class or are failing 2 classes, rule them ineligible.

 

[zhawk]

I'm currently reading an advance copy of "Play Their Hearts Out," a new book by SI reporter George Dohrmann. Dohrmann spent 8 years following an AAU team out in California, from 10 to 18 years old. The star of the team was Demetrius Walker, who was touted as the next Tyson Chandler, but has been something of a bust in college (he just transferred from Arizona State to New Mexico).

I hadn't paid much attention to the whole AAU scene before, but the stuff that goes on in this book is appalling. Dohrmann seems to lay a lot of the blame at the feet of the shoe companies -- Nike, Adidas, Reebok -- for throwing so much money and product at the AAU coaches that it encourages them to lie and cheat to assemble all-star teams of prospects. It's all about the money.