Current state of college hoops

[MUBasketball]

I don't know about others on here, but to me college hoops is by far my favorite sport and I'll watch it before anything else. Lately, there's been a lot of debate about the one-and-done rule and whether or not the NBA will change that rule.

I'm listening to Dan Patrick's radio show at work and he was talking about it and being very critical of the college game. Then, he had Reggie Miller on and they were discussing it and both DP and Reggie said the college game is "unwatchable" and "terrible". Then Reggie said "and I have to call some games!". They were also critical of the NBA game and said the product has suffered because these kids come into the league and they aren't ready, but I thought their criticism of college was a bit much.

What do you guys think?

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I find college to be more watchable than the NBA, but maybe I'm biased because college hoops is my favorite American sport. I do think the one-and-done rule is a problem, however. I really like the idea of following a hybrid NFL model. If a player is good enough to declare early, they can be drafted as freshmen and go into the NBADL or straight to the league. The addition of a minor league makes this a far more viable option than we saw when high school draftees were so popular before. But if you go to college, you stay there for a minimum of three years. Players can't declare until after their junior or redshirt sophomore year. It will help build continuity in college basketball and force players to actually develop rather than just using schools as a one year stop.

I also think it will make recruiting far more interesting. Rather than watching Duke, Kentucky, and Kansas compete for the same blue chips, you will see coaches forced to actually build teams. I will say that I understand the some of the unwatchable commentary if you are only watching teams with these one-and-done types. I watched Kentucky recently and the basketball IQ on many of these kids, including the Harrison twins who were touted as being such high BB IQ kids, just seems lacking. And when you put four or five of these guys out there at the same time, yeah, there's highlight reel moments, but also a ton of "what the **** are you thinking" moments.

At the highest level the game may be suffering, but I think on the whole the game is still very entertaining. As much as I dislike Creighton, Doug McDermott is one of the most impressive college ball players in the past 20 years. They're just watching the wrong teams.

[MU/Panther]

The NFL model has to be the way to go! There is a reason why the NFL and college football are the two most watched sports.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Yeah...but it's not the 3 years before getting drafted rule. It's that Americans love watching the gladiatorial carnage of someone getting hit so hard they are looking out their earhole, or blowing snot bubbles, or whatever Maddenism you prefer ;)