Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. We’re a few weeks into the off-season, and a lot is happening.
That would be the case most years, but this time around, something additional is in the works. On Wednesday, the Commission on College Basketball released a 60-page report from its work, a report full of recommendations for the NCAA to clean up the sport. We discuss the details, then give our take, which is that this is a starting point but also a mixed bag.
Not surprisingly, the commission recommends an end to the NBA’s so-called “one and done” rule, better stated as an age minimum and being at least one year removed from high school. Everyone expected this, but we must note that this affects a tiny number of players each year, so while it is often invoked in the context of this subject, if the NBA got rid of it tomorrow very little would change.
The report recommended changes with agents, which we discuss to some degree in part using a column by Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com as a jumping-off point. This, too, would not be a panacea, but in theory it would solve perhaps the biggest of the problems if done right. However, it is not as trivial as Gary makes it sound, or anyone else who has proposed the same thing, and we talk about that reality as well.
Along the way, we mention that in the report, they say if the NBA does not get rid of its age minimum, it will look into ideas such as making freshmen ineligible or locking a scholarship for a few years – both bad ideas. If the former came into play, many more players who aren’t good enough to be high draft picks out of high school would bypass college to play in the NBA G League or overseas. The latter comes off at first glance as being a bit like the 5/8 rule that came into play a couple of years ago – why lock a scholarship because of something the NBA does even if a player ultimately leaves early? Why should a team be punished because a player does something they feel is in their best interest?
An item of note in the report is about investigating alleged violations and punishing those found guilty. Some of that is already in good shape, but the reality is there is already a show-cause option that follows coaches, and the NCAA doesn’t have to go strictly by the book for extreme cases.
The report also recommends that the NCAA get into the grassroots business, and it is here that we see how little they really know of the goings-on, although we have had a good look at that before. There are many things the NCAA has to do, and better, for this to come to fruition, and that’s before we get to the fact that there is almost nothing the NCAA can do about the many events that take place outside live periods for college coaches (although they have certainly tried with things like making it a violation for a Division I facility to host an event). In addition, college coaches have been getting less and less access to evaluate players here all the time; aren’t college coaches thought to be a better influence on the kids than those in the grassroots world? In addition, less college coach access ultimately leads to more missed evaluations and more transfers.
After all of this, we talk about two matters where rosters are in flux for next season: NBA Draft early entrants and transfers. Over 130 players declared for the NBA Draft, with over 50 having agents. The reasons are myriad, and we get into some of them. Some are no-brainers, while some are players who are at a point where it is time to become a professional whether it is in the NBA or not. We also look at the impact of this on some teams like Villanova and Miami, drawing in part from our first pass at a preseason top 25. Related to that, I mention John Gasaway’s excellent column recently looking at an apparent ceiling of teams led by one-and-done players.
The transfer world is exactly what we figured based on the past few seasons, with over 500 players have already transferred according to Verbal Commits. We talk about a few aspects of what is happening with transfers, including the idea of players transferring down a level. While we often figure a player who transfers from a conference like the Big East to a conference like the MAAC will be good at that level, or even a star, that is far from a guarantee.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and the many bases we cover, and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Come back again soon for our next podcast.
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