The House of Blue

College basketball will become a fringe niche sport because of the trend Calipari may start? Chuck, maybe you havent been paying attention, but it already is a niche sport outside of the states of Kentucky & North Carolina. It no longer has devoted national following outside of March Madness, not compared to NFL/College Football. UK-IU and UK-North Carolina back in December were excellent games that everyone who loves college basketball looked forward too....but did horrible overall TV ratings.

He's being a little bit of an alarmist, but overall he makes some good points. They may not set well with us as UK fans, but that doesn't make them less valid.

But it still misses on several points. One, Cal isn't the only one rolling the dice w/one and done players and the only reason he's had more over the last several years is he's out recruited everybody else (3 straight #1 recruiting classes w/another one very possible). Other teams ARE still recruiting the top talent and LOSING them after one year (Irving, Rivers at Duke, Josh Selby at Kansas to name a few). Secondly, who would have ever thought that Orton and Bledsoe would turn pro after 1 year when they signed their LOI's?? Those two really skew the numbers for that year and feed the revolving door mantra.

I hate the one and done system and until the Cats win a national championship, the argument will persist that this approach won't get you there (I got it, that's one of the points of the article). But irrespective of the fact if UK wins it all or not, coaches are going to continue to recruit the best players out there and these players, if good enough (or sometimes not good enough but believe their own hype) will leave after one year. That's the system as it's currently designed and UK winning a NC won't change that fact one bit. If Saint Mike of K is actively recruiting Shabazz, doesn't that indicate he's already bought into the one and done system particularly after losing to straight point guards to the league after one year???

BTW, minus Orton and Bledsoe, Cal's one and done's seem to be doing pretty damn good in the league which I think should provide him a bit more top cover than kids who just run to the league and flop abysmally.

What about UConn last year. They won with Freshman?!? Isnt that just as bad from this guys perspective?

He makes good points, I have to agree. Doesn't mean I can agree with those points, though. He basically accuses Cal as the one who is going to "kill" college basketball. Yet, Cal isn't the ONLY coach who follows the One & Done Rule. He just does it better than anyone else.

He wrote what every non UK fan wants to hear, and that is that Kentucky is bad for basketball. Nothing original there.

There are only so many ways of saying you don't like Kentucky. Congratulations Mr. Klosterman, you have just checked another one of them off the list.

That was a lot of handwaving over something that really happened many years ago. Just look at your Carmelo Anthony championship. Mike Bibby?

One and dones have been important to the game for many, many years. We've just taken it to another level.

That article is ridiculous. Cal isn't the only coach recruiting these kids, all the other coaches are already trying to recruit the one and dines too. Difference is that they flourish here and are desired by the NBA even more after Cal's mentoring.

Cal doesn't like the current system and wants it changed, he is merely playing by the current set of rules and doing it better than everyone else.

That 'please don't lose' article was rack!