One of the focal points of this weekend's Final Four is going to be the influence of one-and-done players. This isn't anything new, mind you, but Kentucky and coach John Calipari have become the face of modern day one-and-done culture, and a lot of people aren't very happy about it.
One person who couldn't care less? David Stern.
"A college could always not have players who are one and done," Stern said. "They could do that. They could actually require the players to go to classes.
"Or they could get the players to agree that they stay in school, and ask for their scholarship money back if they didn't fulfill their promises. There's all kinds of things that, if a bunch of people got together and really wanted to do it, instead of talk about it ..."
None of these options are plausable --- what school is going to tell a blue chip basketball player "thanks but no thanks" because he might want to leave for the NBA after a year? If there is a true fix for the one-and-done issue it is in the way the NCAA looks at student athletes, amateurism, and compensation. More on this later.
Right now, links:
Justice Hayes, three early enrollees among Michigan football spring standouts - More spring rumors and impressions. Now that the three early enrolling freshman have gotten a taste of football in pads, the coaching staff has given them high marks. On the other side of the ball, Justice Hayes has begun to flash some of the talent that made him a cornerstone of the 2011 recruiting class.
A Look Back: Five Low Points of the 2011-12 Season - Next up at UMHoops, a rundown of your five favorite deceased childhood pets. Twist that knife, guys.
But in all seriousness, this list isn't going to surprise you, but it will make you think. For example, it is very backloaded with three of the low points coming in the final six games. So yeah, twist that knife.
Jordan Canzeri Tears His ACL Because We Can't Have Nice Things (Or Running Backs) - Angry Iowa Running Back Hating God laughs in the face of Angry Michigan Secondary Hating God then calls him a pussy and a quitter.
Four Strategy Questions for Spring Practice - Ross Fulton at Eleven Warriors talks about the biggest things to look for strategy wise this spring. Go figure, three of them deal with the offensive side of the ball.
Penn State Spring Practice Depth Chart: The Numbers Game - Take some time and peruse Penn State's spring depth chart, or just click over to point and laugh at the state of the quarterback position. Your choice.
Bret Bielema needs to change his approach to recruiting quarterbacks
When you bring in only one quarterback per class, you can find yourself in some trouble when that quarterback gets hurt or just plain doesn't work out like you'd planned. While it's impossible to avoid injuries or misses altogether, if Wisconsin looked to bring in two quarterbacks per class, it would give the Badgers more options at the position. It would also lead to even more competition on the roster, which in turn could lead to better quarterback performance.
This one goes out to all the people who said, "we don't need a quarterback in 2012, we have Shane Morris coming in next year."
Mark Hollis, Trey Burke and the Twitter Thing - Tremendous takes on not just the Hollis tweet, but twitter as a whole in the recruiting world. A solid read.
What I didn't recognize then is, failure is inevitable in the road to success. If William Buford is to fully harvest his basketball talents, he will fail at time en route to his ultimate destination. Failure is supposed to happen. To say he's "never going to let that happen again" is to set himself up for failure and gut-wrenching disappointment. The kind of gut-wrenching disappointment which can linger.
Who knows if Wille "or won't he" Buford will show up this weekend, but if he does, OSU could make a strong push for the national championship.