As players test the waters, college coaches get testy
"I don't like it at all," added Florida's Billy Donovan.
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| Kansas coach Bill Self doesn't know whether Final Four hero Mario Chalmers will be back next season. (Streeter Lecka / Getty Images) |
"The bottom line is that the NBA's getting what they want and the college game is getting hurt," chimed in Nevada head man Mark Fox.
The current rule allows underclassmen to test the waters and then return to college — as long as they don't sign with an agent.
It also makes for a long and tenuous couple of months for guys like Self, UCLA's Ben Howland and Alabama's Mark Gottfried — who have multiple players in limbo land.
Self is coming off a national title, but he'll sweat it out with the fate of Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers to see if his team is NCAA-tournament caliber next season. Howland has four of his five starters in flux while Gottfried has his top three players debating whether to leave early for the NBA.
The deadline for underclassmen to make a decision whether to declare came and went on April 27, but that precedes another six weeks or so before they ultimately decide whether to make the jump to the pros or return to college in mid-June.
"We have three kids in the abyss and you just don't know," said Gottfried, who has watched as Ron Steele, Richard Hendrix and Alonzo Gee have all declared for the June 26 NBA Draft. "Do these kids really need 2½ months to decide?"
Donovan is actually in favor of kids being able to go to the NBA out of high school. Ditto for Fox. But they also believe that there shouldn't be any such thing as testing the waters.
"Either you're in or you're out," Self said.
While underclassmen have been allowed to test the waters since 1995, this is the first year that the players don't have to pay for their own travel and other expenses to work out for NBA teams. It's translated into fringe second-rounders such as A.J. Abrams (Texas), Alonzo Gee (Alabama), Josh Akognon (Cal State Fullerton) and Danny Green (North Carolina) going through the process because they feel they have absolutely nothing to lose.
"It's the trend," Howland said. "It encourages the kids, but the reality is that certain kids hurt themselves going through the process. They get a reputation that sticks with them even though they improve."
Take Marquette guard Dominic James, for instance.
James went through the process a year ago as a junior and watched his stock plummet with a poor showing at the Orlando Pre-Draft Camp. While he still doesn't understand the potential ramifications of decisions, one NBA executive said James should have waited and has become the poster child for those who have been hurt by the process.
"I would still do the exact same thing," James said. "I took advantage of the opportunity and came back to school. It's a great rule and it's helped me mature as a player."
The new rule certainly has its advantages and it allows those who don't necessarily have the money to showcase themselves in front of multiple NBA teams.
But it's got plenty of detractors.
"All that does is add fuel to the fire," said Fox, who watched talented big man JaVale McGee bolt for the NBA and sign with an agent this year.
It's resulted in a record-setting number of players tossing their hats into the ring. A year ago, there were 58 college underclassmen who tested the waters. This time around, the number has swelled to 69.
One year after losing Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook to the NBA after the trio spent just a lone season in Columbus, Ohio State coach Thad Matta watched Kosta Koufos make the jump this year.
His feeling, along with Donovan and numerous other college coaches, is that the early entry deadline should be pushed up where kids have to make a decision one way or the other a couple of weeks after the Final Four.
"They need to make the process quick like football," Matta said. "There's too much in-between and what happens is the people advising these kids are ones that aren't in the know. A lot of these people are just telling these kids whatever they want to hear to force them into bad decisions."
By "these people," Matta is referring to agents, runners and workout guys. Many of the players who have declared are off working out with so-called experts. That not only calls into question how they are paying for their extended stays out in Las Vegas or wherever else they are heading to get prepped for the draft process, but also who is in their ear filling their head with inaccuracies about their draft stock.
"Too many people enter in the equation," Gottfried said. "These kids are on information overload."
The NBA's advisory committee gives underclassmen feedback on where they are projected after talking to numerous NBA general managers. However, the committee often tells 30 players they are projected to go anywhere from 16 to 30 in the first round — yet only half of those kids will actually be selected in that range.
"I don't think they are lying to kids," Self said. "It's just hard for them to know for sure."
Nearly 70 players will head to Orlando on May 27th for the start of the NBA's Pre-Draft Camp looking to earn a guaranteed contract by playing themselves into the first round. Then many of them will take off on numerous jaunts around the country to work out for NBA teams and get a nice meal and hotel room courtesy of the Washington Wizards, San Antonio Spurs or whoever.
Then many of them will head back to college.
"If they put their name in, they should go," Donovan said.
"When they declare, I don't really think they want to be here, anyway," Self added.
Don't let these guys test the waters. Too many of them can't swim.
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