What Does It All Mean?
by Matt Jones
A famous rock philosopher (who looked really old Sunday night at the Golden Globes), once said… “You can’t always get what you want… but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.” With the news that freshman sensation Joe Crawford has made the decision to return to the University of Kentucky to rejoin the basketball team, one would hope that all parties involved will get what they need out of the situation. Having said that, the experience between Joe Crawford and the Kentucky Wildcats during the past week truly illustrates all that is good and bad about college basketball, the highlights and the hypocricies, the selfishness and the togetherness and the institutions versus the individuals. In short, the Joe Crawford situation at Kentucky is about college basketball with all its dimples and its warts, and thus is interesting to any college basketball fan.
For those of you who do not live on Planet Big Blue Nation, and thus have not been following every minute detail of this story, a quick summary is in order. Last Sunday, Kentucky played Kansas in a nationally televised game that was billed as one of the biggest of the college basketball season. Sports Illustrated came to town, and used the game as the backdrop of its most recent cover story claiming that “College basketball is back!” Ashley Judd was in attendance (verifying her status as my dream woman – beautiful and a college basketball fan), NBA scouts were up and down press row and college basketball’s resident villain Billy Packer was annoying all the viewers. In short, it was college basketball at its highest form minus the Final 4.
Former McDonald’s All-American Joe Crawford, came into the game obviously excited, and his family used the occasion to make a trip from their home in Michigan to see their freshman son in action. Unfortunately for them, on this national stage, Crawford saw very few minutes as Coach Tubby Smith played Joe for only 3 minutes, preferring instead to rely on his slightly less talented, but ultimately more experienced, veterans throughout the game. After the 65-59 Kansas victory, something happened, the details of which are a bit murky. All parties agree that a meeting took place between the Crawford family, Coach Tubby Smith and Athletic Director Mitch Barnhardt. Some claim that the meeting was heated, with lots of raised voices, others claim it was a calm discussion that simply ended in a mild disagreement. Whatever the result, Crawford ended up moving out of Wildcat Lodge, amidst reports that he quit the team and had the intention of transferring immediately.
Coach Tubby Smith was clearly taken by surprise by this situation, and publicly made remarks insinuating that if Crawford wanted to return to the team, he would be welcome. The Crawford family however had different ideas, and gave multiple interviews to the press (never a good idea) where they made it clear that they were unhappy with the Kentucky experience, and that they believed that Joe was not playing nearly enough as to befit his elite high school status. It must here be mentioned that Crawford was averaging 13.6 minutes a game, 6th on the relatively deep Kentucky squad, but most importantly to the Crawford family, only third amongst the highly touted Kentucky freshman class. The Crawfords made their intention known, and it quickly became clear that they wanted their son to join Tom Izzo at Michigan State, where their champagne wishes and caviar dreams could be fulfilled by Joe getting increased playing time.
What the Crawford family did not take into account however, was that Kentucky held some say in the ultimate future of their son. Because Joe (as all freshman) had signed a national Letter of Intent to play at Kentucky as a freshman, the University essentially held, for lack of a better word, his rights for the entire season. By NCAA rule, any freshman who transfers during this freshman season not only has to sit out an entire season, as is the case for all transfers, but also loses a full year of eligibility. When combined with the NCAA rule prohibiting schools from counting half-years of eligibility, the end result became that if Joe transferred, he would be eligible to play next January, but he would only have 1 1/2 years of eligibility remaining, moving him from a second semester freshman to a second-semester junior. Essentially this rule would require Crawford to be a Carmelo Anthony, a player so talented that after one year, the NBA would be knocking down his door. Since the Kentucky starting lineup was not yet knocking down his door, the prospects of this were low at best.
The University of Kentucky did however, have the power to waive this rule. But theUniversity made clear that this would not happen, arguing that it did not want to set the precedent that a stud athlete such as Crawford could use Kentucky as a “training ground” for a semester and then transfer onto greener pastures.
The Crawfords now realized that they were in a very difficult position. They could hold to their guns and transfer to another university and hope that Joe could showcase his star power immediately, or they could head back to Kentucky and beg forgiveness. They chose the latter. Tubby Smith, who has learned in his tenure at Kentucky that the last thing he needs in such a small fish bowl is controversy, was thus left with a difficult decision. He could either let a kid back who had not only quit the team, but also had a set of parents who had criticized both the university and him in the press after he left, or he could essentially tell Joe “tough” and risk the criticism of not only the Crawford family, but the Kentucky fan base who would be upset at losing such a potentially important player. Tubby chose to let Crawford back, and he is now (at least temporarily) a Kentucky Wildcat again.
Now you are likely asking yourself, Matt that is a fine story and would be nice to tell at the National Storytelling Festival in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but why is it so important to the future of college basketball? As I see it, the Joe Crawford saga exposes three things that are important about college basketball.
First, college coaches at the top programs are under an immense amount of pressure and often will have to make decisions that will always leave someone unhappy. As his post-game press conference after the Cats 76-55 win against Georgia on Saturday was ending, a smile seemed to creep onto Tubby Smith’s face. It was as if he was a school kid who thought he was about to get away with forgetting to turn in his homework. When the Kentucky Sports Information Director said, “final question”, one reporter asked, “Tubby, I hate to do this, but what is the situation with Joe Crawford?” The sly smile went away as it became clear that Tubby could not escape without addressing Kentucky’s version of “As The Cat Turns”.
Tubby had to make two decisions during this saga, both of which led to derision by members of his press and fan base. First, he (and the administration) had to make the decision to play hardball with the rules of the National Letter of Intent, thus allowing the university to set a precedent that it would not become a training ground for young players with visions of NBA glory dancing in their head. However in doing so, he essentially was limiting the options of Crawford, thus allowing for many to shake their fists at big, bad Kentucky. Many members of the national media, including the beloved Dick Vitale, said it was wrong for Kentucky not to let Crawford go and that the university did not have the kid’s best interests at heart. Then, after Crawford decided to return, Tubby had to accept the prodigal son, opening himself up to the possibility that Joe would just leave again at the end of the season and was not interested in being a Wildcat as much as preserving his eligibility.
Both of these decisions took a lot of guts, and were made by a man whose character far outweighs his coaching skill. What Tubby Smith has done at Kentucky is remarkable, and his ability to make the right decision in the face of much difficulty should be commended. However what Tubby Smith had to face this week is not much different than what Mike Davis, Roy Williams, Coach K and Bill Self see every week as well. In places where college basketball is hot, coaches can often do no right. Whatever they do will lead to criticism and second guessers. To be able to face this pressure day in and day out is truly something and makes these men earn their (hefty) salaries.
Second, college institutions have a high degree of control over their players. I believe that Joe Crawford made a mistake in his initial decision to leave the University of Kentucky. Having said that, it truly is amazing that the NCAA’s rule is currently in place. Under the rule a university can essentially keep the rights of a player as punishment for his (or her) decision to go to another university. The reason for this role is two-fold, one being to preserve the interests of the institution, but the other being more paternal, mainly to stop a player from making a rash, and ultimately negative decision. While both of these justifications are understandable, the rule as a whole does leave the NCAA open to charges of inconsistency. There is currently nothing that stops a coach from recruiting players to a university, promising them that he will be there to oversee his four years and then immediately splitting when a new, better job opens up. Such inconsistency opens up the NCAA to charges that it is ultimately not concerned with the well-being of the players, but rather is more concerned with its own bottom-line. This is not the column for me to rant about how the NCAA uses players and gives them very little in return (and please spare me the e-mails saying that “an education should be enough”), but this little-known Letter of Intent rule is just another example of the power inequities in the current structure.
Finally, and most importantly, the Joe Crawford saga is truly a reflection of the changing nature of the expectation level of basketball players in the college game. It was just a little over thirty years ago that freshman were not even allowed to play for the varsity, and were instead required to use their freshman year to concentrate on academics (there is a novel concept). However now the success of Carmelo Anthony and the prospect of instantaneous success has led many to come to college with an oversized set of expectations. We should suspect that when Crawford came to Kentucky he not only thought he would be in the starting lineup, but that if he were to be the 6th man, that would be completely unacceptable and would be worthy of a transfer. That is truly remarkable. It is made even more so by his decision to play for a coach in Tubby Smith who has shown an ability (see Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans) to take star players out of high school and mold them over the course of four years, into the type of team-first player that is coveted by NBA scouts. Some highly touted freshman do accept their lesser roles (see for instance Marvin Williams, who has a chance to be the number one overall draft pick in this year’s draft, yet has accepted coming off the bench for North Carolina), however many come into college with the expectation that they not only should, but they must, play right away. The trick for coaches like Tubby Smith is to sniff this attitude out during recruiting, a task easier said than done.
How the Joe Crawford situation will end is unknown. However what is known is that it has been entertaining to watch from the outside. In addition to the factors I have just showcased, the saga has shown how the world of sports journalism is changing a bit as well. With the increase of web-based sports sites (such as Hoopville.com), fans are beginning to go to alternative sources to receive their sports news. Both the decision by Crawford to transfer, and his decision to return to school, were both initially reported on Kentucky fan sites. Each of these reports were initially dismissed by members of the more traditional media. Some reporters (such as ESPN.com’s Andy Katz) were openly disdainful about the Internet reports, saying that there was “no truth” to these Internet “rumors”. Just as the world of Matt Drudge and internet blogs showed an impact in this year’s presidential election and during the Dan Rather scandal at CBS, so too the world of Internet reporting is beginning to rear its ugly head in sports. Watching the traditional media outlets squirm (and in this case miss a story) was interesting for this web-based columnist.
Until we meet again….
