Todd Faces One-And-Done Quandary..

Posted on Sun, Apr. 04, 2010

UK notebook: One-and-dones pose quandary for Todd

By Jerry Tipton
Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Presumably, Kentucky Coach John Calipari is looking to replace one group of so-called one-and-done players with another this recruiting season. He's selling a fast track to the NBA and holding up past one-and-done players such as Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and, we can assume, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins as enticing examples of what he can do for a prospect. And how quickly he can do it.

Having to play only one season of college basketball before entering the NBA is a powerful message on the impressionable minds of high school prospects.

"Every player in every class wants to be a one-and-done," McDonald's All-American Josh Selby said last week. "And I can't lie. I want to be one."

Meanwhile, UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. sits uneasy at the head of an educational institution.

"If you don't recruit them, you'll play against them very likely," Todd said of one-and-done players in a recent interview. "It's a system problem, I think."

Todd, who will join the NCAA Division I Board of Directors later this year, said he feels obligated to voice his concerns before that body.

"It is a question being discussed, and we need to be in there telling what we think about it," he said. "I'll be glad to bring it up."

Todd said he had no specific proposals to suggest. But like many in college athletics, the UK president likes the baseball model. In that sport, a player is free to go pro out of high school. But if the prospect chooses to attend college, he commits himself to three seasons.

Basketball has only the NBA rule, which requires prospects to be a year removed from high school before being eligible for the draft.

Through his success at Memphis and now UK, Calipari has become synonymous with one-and-done players. Dajuan Wagner in 2002. Shawne Williams in 2006. Rose in 2008. Evans in 2009. Wall, Cousins, maybe Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton in 2010.

In a Southeastern Conference coaches' teleconference last month, Calipari noted that you recruit the best players you can recruit. It's impossible to predict which players will be draftable a year later. He cited Darius Rice, a McDonald's All-American and supposed one-and-done player who played four seasons for Miami. Then there was Chris Wilcox, who went to Maryland as a four-year player and became an NBA lottery pick after two seasons.

"You try to plan as much as you can," Calipari said. "You can't plan much. Midway through the year, you have a pretty good idea, and you go from there. I don't know if you can do it any other way."

Hall of Fame Coach Bob Knight criticized Calipari earlier this season, in part, because one-and-done players mock the idea of a college education. But Calipari is hardly alone.

"We all want guys who are good enough to go to the next level," Georgia Coach Mark Fox said. "We can't control how quickly they develop into that. How many coaches are going to turn down a guy like that if they thought he'd want to come? C'mon. I'm not."

In saying he'd take a one-and-done, Louisiana State Coach Trent Johnson quipped, "Because my wife likes to shop."

Translation: the best players bring victories, which bring pay raises and contract extensions for coaches.

But Fox and Johnson acknowledged the strain that comes with fitting one-and-done players into an educational system.

"It's not the developmental league for the NBA," Johnson said of college basketball. "Obviously, you have to recruit (one-and-dones) because that kid can make an impact. No way around it till the powers that be have a different rule."

Added Fox: "When they're there for that time frame, they're going to work toward becoming educated young men."

Todd suggested that not all one-and-done players are equal. Some are basketball nomads who pose as college students as they wait out a year before turning pro.

"That's very bad," Todd said.

The UK president held up Wall as an example of a one-and-done player who takes the academic work seriously.

"John Wall really changed my impression of what the one-and-done player is," Todd said. "... The system needs change. But under the present system, I'd take every John Wall I could get, if he's a one-and-done."

Of course, Calipari seeks a fourth one-and-done point guard in four years this spring. Rose begat Evans who begat Wall who will begat, maybe Selby.

"Having three back-to-back one-and-dones impresses me a lot," Selby said. "Not many schools do that. It means he might have a chance to make me a one-and-done."

That's the idea.

"John (Calipari) has a tendency to find these kids," Todd said. "They want to play for him. You'll play against them if you don't play with them. There (were) a few other schools wanting John Wall than just us."

It's a NCAA problem, not school problem with the one and doners.

I put other, I don't see us every year losing 5 or 6 guys, I can understand if these kids want to make some money and maybe help their families out, I really most coaches well tell them the truth if they aren't ready.