Why I hate John Calipari and by association, Kentucky

I have been saving this post for a while. I was going to write about it earlier in the tournament, but I did not want to take away from the tournament itself, so I figured I’d hold off on posting it until now.

For some background (you don’t need much to understand this post), the NBA (the professional basketball league in America) has a rule for high school basketball players that says you need to play one year of college basketball you can enter the NBA. As a result, basketball players are forced to go to college for a year before they can declare for the NBA draft. On paper, this is a really good idea. High school players are not ready for the NBA. They need time to develop into themselves and as 18 year old’s they are in no way able to compete with the grown men of the NBA. However, onto the real post.

John Calipari is ruining college basketball. He only recruits players known as “one and done’s” Just look at his starting roster this year:

C: Dakari Johnson Freshman

PF: Julius Randle Freshman

SF: James Young Freshman

SG: Aaron Harrison Freshman

SG: Andrew Harrison Freshman

This usually isn’t a bad thing. At any other program, a year like this would mean this season was a rebuilding year. In four years, these freshman would all be developed and barring serious injury, the team could compete for a championship. At Kentucky, they had the talent to not only make the tournament, but to also make the national championship game.

It is the same cycle each year. They have freshman come in, play for a year, and then they leave for the NBA. Then the next year, the same thing happens. This is not good for the sport and it is really not good for the player. These players are coming in for a year, just knowing they will run to the NBA at the end of the season. I’ll get to how this is affecting the sport later, for now I want to focus on the players themselves. They go to college for a year, a place where they are supposed to be “student-athletes,” just to leave after a year. That may be the biggest contradiction to the term “student-athlete.” You can’t tell me those kids actually go to class. If you watch the press conferences after the games, half of them can barely speak like a competent adult. I guarantee all of the Kentucky players who know they are entering the draft next year aren’t even going to class now. It’s not like they have to. They don’t need to pass. They are dropping out anyway. But then, once their basketball career ends, what do they have? An eighth of a college degree and maybe some money left over to live. If they are lucky. Ending the one and done policy will help these so called “student-athletes” because as of now, they are just athletes. I can’t call them students while keeping a straight face. Make them stay three years like the NFL makes the players do. I understand this is more of a policy for the NBA to fix, but the NCAA should have a say in it, if they actually care about their “student-athletes” like they say they do.

Not only is the one and done hurting the players, but it is also hurting the sport as a whole. The one and done rule is making it so no team has a clear stranglehold on college basketball like there used to be. When players wanted to stay in school, there were dynasties (a la John Wooden). Teams would be perennially good and it would be hard to beat them. Now a team could go from top of the country to losing in the first round of the NIT the next year (I’m looking at you Kentucky). Now mid- majors are emerging as the top teams in the sport due to their senior leadership. That’s why older teams always find ways to succeed in college basketball (look at UCONN this year, they have 3 seniors). And why upsets are much more common now than they ever were.

Now, I’m going to be honest. I love upsets. I love watching Duke fall to Mercer, or Dayton running all the way to the Elite Eight, or UCONN winning it all as a seven seed, but it doesn’t mean as much any more. In today’s world, upsets are expected. No team is supposed to stay at the top of a ranking for a whole season. Some mid-major beating a power school back in the eighties and nineties meant something. Now, we look at it and say wow, who is next.

This was more of a rant than a blog post, so I apologize if it is hard to read, but this is something I really think the NCAA needs to address. It is seriously detrimental to the sport and the players. I’m not sure the solution to the problem, but any true college basketball fan needs to think long and hard before the go cheering for the next team of freshman that steps out on the court.

By the way, I’d like to congratulate the University of Connecticut Huskies on their National Championship. My congratulations also go out to Minnesota, who won the NIT, Siena, who won the College Basketball Invitational, and Murray State, who won the CollegeInsider.com tournament.