No Time For MCAT

Has any college program produced as many serious NBA rotation players in the past five years as UCLA has?

Consider:

Jordan Farmar (drafted 2006 by Los Angeles Lakers)

Arron Afflalo (drafted 2007 by Detroit)

Russell Westbrook (drafted 2008 by Oklahoma City)

Kevin Love (drafted 2008 by Memphis, traded to Minnesota)

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (drafted 2008 by Milwaukee)

Jrue Holiday (drafted 2009 by Philadelphia)

Darren Collison (drafted 2009 by New Orleans)

Other prolific college programs include:

LSU (Brandon Bass '05, Tyrus Thomas '06, Glen Davis '07, Anthony Randolph '08, Marcus Thornton '09)

Florida (David Lee '05, Joakim Noah '07, Al Horford '07, Corey Brewer '07, Chris Richard '07, Marreese Speights '08)

Washington (Nate Robinson '05, Brandon Roy '06, Spencer Hawes '07)

USC (Nick Young '05, O.J. Mayo '08, DeMar DeRozan '09, Taj Gibson '09)

Arizona (Channing Frye '05, Jerryd Bayless '08, Chase Budinger '09, Jordan Hill '09)

North Carolina (Raymond Felton '05, Marvin Williams '05, Ty Lawson '09)

However, I believe UCLA is the king at star-making in recent times. Many of Coach Ben Howland's players listed above (notably Afflalo, Westbrook, Mbah a Moute, and Holiday) are noted for their excellent pro-level defensive abilities, reflecting the aggressive defensive culture in Westwood. Whatever Howland is doing should be bottled and spread across the ballin' land.

Hoyas, Oh Boya!

Georgetown is typically thought of as having one of the strongest basketball programs in the NCAA. They have had a number of good players, but with the recent implosion of Allen Iverson down in Memphis, I started to think about whether G-town has produced any really great players.

Some would say that Iverson is a really great player, but given his recent antics it is probably safer to say he was a great player. He has aged like a fancy bottle of wine that has been corked. So much potential, such a disaster. My current feeling towards him is pure disappointment.

But what about the others? Here is the list from the top of my head:

Othella Harrington
Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje
Jahidi White
Roy Hibbert
Dikembe Mutombo
Alonzo Mourning
Patrick Ewing, Jr.
Jeff Green
Paul Tagliabue (former NFL commish)

and of course the best player on the list

Patrick Ewing

I used to like Ewing when I was younger, but after his famous strip club incident, I started to like him less. (I'm sure some of my fellow bloggers might say they liked him more after this incident. What do you say, Bhel?)

Patrick Ewing is the first G-Town player of the modern era to make the NBA Hall of Fame. Even though I admire Alonzo's story, I suspect Ewing will remain the only one for quite some time. It seems like the lights are dim for A. I.

In Support of Stern

My colleague Earl da Goat, in his post immediately below, wants to know why the NBA is happy to re-distribute the rents from young players to the NCAA.

As Bissinger notes in the article, the NBA benefits from drafting proven talent with an existing popular following, rather than nobodies from rusty gyms in the Mississippi Delta. Of course, without the age rule in place, no GM wants to be the guy who misses out on the next Garnett, so he feels compelled to take the risk. The age rule in the collective bargaining agreement solves the coordination problem and achieves an outcome that is better for all teams. (It seems to me that a similar problem bedeviled Wall Street in recent years; traders, fund managers, etc. felt compelled to take on more risk to keep up with the Joneses [or the Goldmans] even as the collective volatility of portfolios became untenable.)

Additionally, it is not even clear that the NBA loses anything economically from forcing Derrick Rose, Kevin Love, etc. to delay their entry into the league by one year. Despite the extra mileage on their wheels from the college games, the players will likely play the same number of pro seasons as they counterfactually would have without college; everyone feels he is entitled to "get paid" a certain amount. Jersey sales and other merch will likely be the same over time, even discounting the cash flows.

As for "Why do the players agree to this nonsense?" have you ever heard of negotiation, Earl? You give some, you get some. In the last round of bargaining in 2005, players received a bigger cut of revenues and the NBA won shorter contracts (as well as the age limit and dress code).

I support the age limit, and furthermore, I hope the limit is raised to age 20, so that players are forced to spend at least two years in college. Or perhaps the NBA could adopt Major League Baseball's model, where high school players must choose to either enter the draft at age 18, or commit to three years of college. "One and done" players who show up on a university campus for eight months and don't even bother attending class during their second semester make a mockery of the whole exercise. I do believe that college is a useful transition period for young people to test their independence in a controlled environment and learn the folkways of adulthood. What's more, a variety of prep-to-pros such as LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Monta Ellis, and so on have become illegitimate fathers since entering the league. (To be fair, James reportedly spends time with his children.) Surely a bit of campus time with peer counselors waving around condoms could have helped them. Additionally, a little time with some college hotties would have relieved Young Mr. Bynum's hot desire to make a spectacle of himself at the Playboy Mansion.

I Can Show You The World

Tonight’s 60 Minutes feature on LeBron James yielded few new insights, other than his amazing ability to hit trick shots. What really wowed me was that CBS chose to run the piece at all, immediately following their coverage of March Madness and pre-dating by six days CBS’s broadcast of the semifinals of the NCAA tournament. Remember, CBS has not shown pro basketball since the days of Dick Stockton and Hubie Brown in the late ‘80s. Why would CBS give free advertising to the NBA, which represents direct competition for CBS’s long-term college basketball commitment, and particularly just a few days before CBS’s highest-rated college basketball broadcast of the year? Given that 60 Minutes is more entertainment than news, this decision struck me as curious at best. Of course, if the 60 Minutes crew legitimately applied their investigative skills to the college basketball scene, what they discovered would likely not be pretty.

I was also puzzled at CBS’s decision to give free promotion during its segment on internet security to both Symantec and Google, both of which would be very glad to sell anti-badware products to the masses. Are there not academic or non-profit institutions tracking malware that could provide exactly the same neat-o demonstrations of security risks as the Symantec fellow provided? Why, I seem to recall the New York Times featuring a report by an internet security center at the University of Toronto just this very day.

Curious all around. I really and truly wonder whether David Stern, Eric Schmidt, and John Thompson (the CEO of Symantec, not the retired basketball coach!) will compensate CBS News down the road for 60 Minutes’ generosity.