The NCAA's Most Wanted
Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.
Or, if you're the NCAA, everybody moves and college basketball gets
hurt.
Its that time of year again when ill-advised and unprepared
underclassmen make their migratory flight to the NBA.
They're bolting in record numbers this year.
Some do it for fortune. Some do it for fame. Some do it because of
delusions of grandeur created by an opportunistic agent. Some do it to
help their family. And a few do it because the time is right.
But there is an alarming trend of underclassmen who don't declare for
any of those reasons. Why are they bolting college basketball?
Because they are on the NCAA's most wanted list . . . and if you're a
college basketball player, that's the equivalent of hell.
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Run for the border --
unless, of course, you're Bobby Knight, then none of the rules apply.
This year's 'Most Wanted' striking. Erick Barkley, DerMarr
Johnson, JaRon Rush, Joel Pryzbilla, Mike Miller, Jamal
Crawford, DeShawn Stevenson, Darius Miles and the beat could
go on . . .
Barkley and Johnson caught the NCAA's wrath for taking scholarship
money from an AAU coach. Both players were fined and told they had
to pay the fine before they could graduate. Barkley's fine was $3500.
Money he didn't have which is why he accepted the scholarship in the
first place. How is he going to repay it? The NCAA wouldn't let him
earn it or borrow it. 'I guess it means he's not supposed to eat,' said
Barkley's coach Mike Jarvis. Of course if Barkley and Johnson left for
the NBA they would technically be off the hook for the money--the
NCAA can't enforce the fine if he is no longer a college player.
This wasn't Barkley's first run in with the NCAA. He'd already been
suspended for swapping SUV's with a relative. JaRon Rush was in a
similar predicament. Rush was suspended for 29 games and fined
$6325 for money he received from an AAU coach while a high school
player at Pembroke Hill. With further investigations pending, he, like
Barkley, was unsure he'd even get to play for the Bruins next year.
Mike Miller was caught up in a recent scandal with agent Andy Miller.
Phone records and diary entries show that the agent had numerous
phone conversations with Miller. That wasn't the only thing pushing
Miller to the NBA, but a pending NCAA investigation was floating in the
back of his mind.
Joel Pryzbilla was ousted for refusing to go to class--something most
college sophomores are acutely adept at. Pryzbilla blamed the
suspension on a lack of communication 'I made a mistake by not
attending classes on a regular basis,' he said, but he added he wasn't
worried about his grade-point average: 'My GPA was over 2.0, so there
was no danger of being ineligible to play.' It was clear that Pryzbilla
thought of college as little more than a pro training camp -- something
the NCAA encourages with its often draconian rules that apply to
student-athletes and no one else.
High schooler DeShawn Stevenson, on the other hand, wanted to go
to KU. He was worried about not qualifying academically until he
retook his SAT and raised his scores over 500 points. He proudly
announced he would honor his commitment to KU when the NCAA
cracked down and ordered him to retake the test despite no evidence
that he had done anything illegal. Stevenson was caught between a
rock and a hard place. Retake the test, miss the deadline for
declaring for the draft and risk not qualifying academically. Or put his
name in the draft (thus ending his college eligibility). Stevenson is
now in the draft, though he'll be lucky to get drafted in the first round.
And the saga of Michigan freshman Jamal Crawford might be the
most bizarre of all. Crawford, a cocky high school senior last year,
thought he had 'some skills' and decided, 'what the hell' and threw his
name into the NBA draft. However, Crawford had no idea that doing so
would preclude him from playing college basketball. High school
players, unlike college ones, do not have the one-time option of
withdrawing their names before the draft. The NBA, after reading his
declaration letter, knew Crawford was misinformed and rejected his
application. Once Crawford found out he would've been ineligible, he
withdrew his application. The result? Crawford was suspended by the
NCAA for 14 games, sealing the fate of the budding freshman this
spring.
What do all of these players have in common? Dumb mistakes? Yes.
Immaturity? Yes. Incredible basketball potential? Yes. The desire to
stay in college? Yes (with the exception of Pryzbilla). Pushed out of
college by the NCAA? Yes.
Dick Vitale can moan about the agents . . . and many of them are
shady. College basketball can continue to mourn the loss of its stars
prematurely. And the David Stern can continue to try and keep
underclassmen out of the NBA. But nothing will stop the annual
exodus from happening until the NCAA changes the way it does
things. These student athletes are kids. Many of them are poor.
Most of them need and want an education that they could not afford
but for their basketball skills. No one blinks an eye when a kid skips
college to play minor league baseball or skips college to be a figure
skater. But we have an obsession with college athletes. Especially
when they are black and when they are basketball players.
As long as the rules unfairly stifle their ability to live and learn while
they are in college and student-athletes are punished for decisions
they make when they are 16 and 17, while coaches in the 50s get off
relatively unscathed . . . the migration will continue, the NCAA will
suffer and the NCAA's most wanted will continue to be the NBA's most
wanted.
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