NCAA Coaches Critical of NBA Age Limit

Could the NBA and its minimum age requirement really be guilty of hypocrisy?

It certainly appears that way to Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel and some other Big 12 coaches after watching the most recent NBA Finals and seeing which NBA players were pushed as the faces of the league throughout the season.

The straight out of high school players, who are the type of players the NBA no longer wants to be associated with, are now carrying the torch for the world's best pro game.

"If you follow the NBA, if you look at the guys who are promoted as the face of the NBA, you are talking about Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett," Capel said. "Those are four that jumped right out and none of those guys attended college and I don't think it hurt them."

---

---

Most college coaches have been steamed for some time at the NBA rule that requires players to be at least 19 and one year removed from high school, thus giving birth to the sometimes destructive one-and-done college players.

Legendary basketball coach Bob Knight was one of the first big name coaches to boisterously speak out against the one-and-done phenomenon two years ago when he made the point that the NBA rule has opened the door for players to come to college and not be serious students. Other coaches have since joined the growing chorus.

The NBA, during its 2005 collective-bargaining agreement, passed the minimum age requirement to protect the integrity of its game. The NBA no longer has to bank on the pure potential of players who may or may not pan out. But the NBA's gain has become college basketball's problem.

"It's a bad rule, it's a really bad rule," said Capel, whose sophomore forward, Blake Griffin, is expected to be the first player taken in Thursday's NBA Draft. "In my opinion it makes a mockery of education in college and also I think it's condescending on the NBA's part."

Conversation about the feasibility of the rule has heated up with this year's NBA Draft upon us and the likelihood that up to three one-and-done players -- Memphis' Tyreke Evans, USC's DeMar DeRozan and UCLA's Jrue Holiday -- could be lottery picks and a fourth, Ohio State 7-foot center B.J. Mullens, could also go in the first round.

It also hasn't helped that the alleged actions of two former one-and-doners, Derrick Rose of Memphis and USC's O.J. Mayo, have threatened to rock their respective programs. Rose has been accused of cheating to get into Memphis, while there are illegal payment accusations surrounding Mayo, which caused head coach Tim Floyd to step down earlier this month.

Problems seem to be arising that college coaches didn't envision when the NBA instituted its minimum age requirement.

"I thought initially making kids go to school for a year was a good thing, but after the recent things that have occurred ... I don't think you can blame it all on one-and-done as the main reason things have occurred," said Kansas coach Bill Self. "Those things could have just as easily occurred if these kids were in school two or three years." "I think these kids should have the right to go straight from high school. To be quite honest with you, some of them aren't college material and the one-and-done rule makes a mockery of that."
-- Jeff Capel

But clearly what the college coaches seem to be asking for is some relief by the NBA. The obvious first choice is to allow high school students to go straight from graduation to the NBA riches. The second would be to require NBA players to be two or three years removed from high school.

"I do think there will be a movement to make it a year older," Self said. "My personal opinion is kids should be able to go straight out of high school or stay for three. I think it will move to two and that will be good because in all honestly is [if] somebody wanted to make a mockery of our education system, they could with the one-and-done, they could.

"You pass six hours in the fall and don't go to school in the spring, and next thing you know you are still eligible to play the whole year. It has been abused a little bit, but not sure the abuse we see is strictly because of the one-an-done."

Texas coach Rick Barnes has a unique perspective on the one-and-done players and how to keep academic integrity. He says he talks to perspective student-athletes who might have that opportunity to exit for the NBA early and explains if they do so that he is OK with their decision as long as they take care of their school work during that spring semester.

It worked with Kevin Durant, who left the Longhorns after one spectacular season in 2007. Barnes had the same conversation with D.J. Augustin, T.J. Ford and LaMarcus Aldridge. He hasn't had a problem with the NCAA and its APR guidelines.

"If a person told me they wouldn't do that then we wouldn't recruit them," Barnes said. "That's a decision we have to make it so we lay that out."

While the college game has been left holding the bag on these dilemmas, the NBA has just gone about its business. NBA commissioner David Stern has only offered that his league's primary concern is nurturing its game the right way and that is by bringing in experienced players. Players can get that experience either in college, the NBA Developmental League, and now Europe seems to be becoming an option.

Point guard Brandon Jennings raised some eyebrows last year when he left high school and went over to Europe for a year to play ball. And after an underwhelming season with Lottomatica Roma of Italy, Jennings seems poised to be a late lottery pick in Thursday's draft.

Self isn't sure Europe will be the answers, though the floodgates appear to be opening.

"People look at him and ask did it work? The jury is still out on if it worked," Self said. "You pay a 20-year-old young man a lot of money, but can he impact a professional team with 25 or 30-year-old men on it? That's hard to do. [Jennings] is obviously a great talent and everything but I don't know if teams in the future and the economic times, that guys are going to get million dollar deals over there.

"I think it's kind of pie in the sky with what a lot of people view overseas to be and it's not quite like that. Those are business people trying to make the best decisions. They're not just throwing away money."

But whose problem should it be if things don't work out overseas or if the NBA is forced to draft players on potential instead of proven talent or if players opt for pro riches before they are ready?

Capel says that burden should fall on the shoulders of the college basketball game. In the last two years Capel has had two freshmen who looked at the NBA but decided to return to school. Griffin considered the jump last summer and Big 12 Freshman of the Year Willie Warren weighed his options this spring before deciding to return next season.

"I sometimes think that we make a mistake and think that we have to save or protect kids from themselves," Capel said. "I don't agree with that, I just don't. I grew up with a father and mother, people that constantly taught me about choice and that you have to live with the choices and accept things that come along with your choices and that also include bad choices.

"I think these kids should have the right to go straight from high school. To be quite honest with you, some of them aren't college material and the one-and-done rule makes a mockery of that."