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**Tom** · 10-01-2003, 07:25 AM

How has your perception of the game changed over the last 5 years. I still love the game very much, but i will admit that players leaving early so much now has left me a little empty...its taken me a while to sit back and relearn how to appreciate the college game for what it is. I guess its just hard for me to try and make a connection to players when they won't be there more than a year or two.

JuniorNoboa · 10-01-2003, 07:41 AM

College basketball was never about connecting to players anyway, as players only stayed for four years. As a fan, it was about change, and trying to keep up with the change. Different teams win every year, programs slip and rise up, a great diversion from what is the monotony of the NBA, where it is fairly predictable what will happen each year.

There is much more mystery entering an NCAA basketball season. Many new stars rise each year, and there are more surprise teams.

**WKU Topper Jeff** · 10-01-2003, 08:23 AM

College basketball has been in a decline for the past 10+ years. Teams no longer will play other teams because it would be a bad "loss" or not enough money to be made. I would have loved to have been able to witness college ball in the 50s-70s when teams would play anyone and go anywhere. Where money and RPI didn't control schedules!! UGH College Basketball is the last truely great sport, and it is being ruined... soon it will be as bad as college football... a great sport ruined!!

Don't get me started!!

**Tom** · 10-01-2003, 08:25 AM

i see what your saying, but i did have a connection with say Kenyon Martin who played 4 years as opposed to Demarr Johnson, who played 1...and showed no intrest in the team.

I guess i just live in a fairy tale world.

JuniorNoboa · 10-01-2003, 09:30 AM

Tom, I see your point too - you want to see guys develop within the program. Kenyon is sort of an isolated case. He was nothing as a fresh and sophomore and OK as a junior. But if he had left as a freshmen or sophomore he would not have been drafted. Even if he had left as a junior he was barely first round material. In those cases staying is fine - but most prospects are "better" then Kenyon was aw freshmen and sophomore, and have established themselves as draft material.

I would love to see players stay the whole time - but that would be a somwhat selfish decision as a fan. IMO, the players are doing the right thing by leaving early (those who are first round material). IMO, they learn to play better while in the NBA (in college they get by on athleticism alone), draft position is rarely helped by staying all the years (kenyon being an exception), and they get financial security.

**kansasalumn** · 10-01-2003, 04:49 PM

Don't get me started on this topic.

I think it is on a decline. I hate that playes leave for the NBA after HS, Frosh, and soph years (Junior years are okay b/c they can go back to school and finish up in a year or two after leaving early).

**xubrew** · 10-01-2003, 07:21 PM

the game has DEFINITELY changed. players leaving early is just a drop in the bucket. i'm gonna back it up further and say ten or fifteen years ago.

back then, coaches weren't being fired left and right. today, if you win more than twenty games for seven years in a row, and then have a losing season, chances are you may be fired. what effect does this have on the players?? a lot. they come to a university, they are recruited by the coach, and a year or so into it the coach is gone.

players leave too early too often. some make it, more don't. i personally like the idea of the developmental league because if all a player wants to do is play basketball, i strongly suggest going there rather than going to college. anyone who has ever been to college knows that there are other opportunities there other than basketball. when players leave early, they kinda close the door on that. if they didn't want those opportunities to begin with, then they shouldn't have to go to college.

the relationship college athletes have with their teammates, friends, and coaches at the university can be invaluable and i think with so many players leaving early, they miss that. if i would have had the chance to graduate a year early from xavier and start on my career, i can say in all honesty that i would not have done it. i'm not saying that these people should pride themselves on their college experience and think of it as the best time they had, but i do think they should take advantage of it while its there. you cannot go back and i think when players leave early, they rob themselves of some of the things all of us who have been to college really treasured about the experience. you can, however, stay in school and still go to the nba. more times than not, you are going to have more success. in the case of david west last year, he got to play on a highly ranked team, go to the ncaa tournament, and play a lot on national tv, and had a chance to go far in the ncaa tournament (although they lost early). he had another year of coaching, his stock went up, and i think he got more out of staying than he would have in leaving the previous year.

not to mention, he got another year to be around his teammates and enjoy that last year of xavier. i think that is the biggest change. there are more people today that don't want to submerge themselves into being a college student athlete and milking it for all its worth than there were ten or fifteen years ago.

**HKF** · 10-01-2003, 07:31 PM

I don't begrudge anyone who wants to go pro. Go pro out of HS or leave after a few years in college. It is your life and you should be allowed to do what you want.

College fans that don't like the NBA, only like college players because they played at their school. Most could careless about them if they didn't.

To me that fickle nature of it, if I have a chance to grab the cash as I high draft pick I go for it. If I am not a first round pick, then I don't go.

JuniorNoboa · 10-01-2003, 07:44 PM

The Stock of David West did not go up last year, it went down if anything. Like most seniors they have little to gain (Draft position wise) by coming back.

Hitman · 10-01-2003, 08:11 PM

College basketball is nowhere near where it used to be. Ten years ago, when you had Lattner and Hurley and Hill at Duke, and the Running Rebels of Jerry the Shark, and the IU with Damon Bailey and Calbert Cheaney and Purdue with the Big Dog and Kentucky with Mashburn and the rest....I mean, I used to LOVE college ball. LOVE IT.

Heck, if LeBron were going to Carolina this year, imagine the hype of Cuse vs. NC on ESPN.

Imagine if Kwame Brown was going for a second national championship with Kentucky but Eddy Curry and Louisville had something to say about it...

I'm a big hoop fan, but I could not tell you who is favored, who will be good or who will stink this year in college hoops. I actually pay more attention to European and NY City High School ball now.

**HKF** · 10-01-2003, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hitman!
College basketball is nowhere near where it used to be. Ten years ago, when you had Lattner and Hurley and Hill at Duke, and the Running Rebels of Jerry the Shark, and the IU with Damon Bailey and Calbert Cheaney and Purdue with the Big Dog and Kentucky with Mashburn and the rest....I mean, I used to LOVE college ball. LOVE IT.

Heck, if LeBron were going to Carolina this year, imagine the hype of Cuse vs. NC on ESPN.

Imagine if Kwame Brown was going for a second national championship with Kentucky but Eddy Curry and Louisville had something to say about it...

I'm a big hoop fan, but I could not tell you who is favored, who will be good or who will stink this year in college hoops. I actually pay more attention to European and NY City High School ball now.

Kwame was set to go to Florida and Curry to DePaul. But irregardless the parity is what makes it the games good to me. You don't need Lebron and Carmelo in college if they don't want to be here. They want to be in the league with money and groupies. I say let them and don't cry over it.

Nowadays lower profile schools have a shot to make it much further than they ever could and that should be good for fans of mid-major programs.

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