There was an article on ESPN.com the other day that made reference to the developing recruiting wars between Duke and Kentucky for the nation's top high school talent. Kentucky has won the recruiting wars for several years, consistently signing the #1 recruiting class. Coach K from Duke seems to have settled on the belief that the only way he can compete with Kentucky on the recruiting wars is to recruit many of these same "one and done" players that Kentucky does. Not only is college basketball big business but promoting high school basketball players is big business as well.
I have never had much respect for Coach K or John Calipari at Kentucky anyway because they seem more worried about pushing their own brand or promoting their own image. They are both great "X's and O's" coaches but all either one of them has to do most of the time is roll the ball out onto the court and tell them to play like on the blacktop back home.
The institution of college basketball has taken the student out of the student-athlete. The best players only go to college for one year because that is all they are required to go. Most of the major programs has at least one player leave early to go pro and it has been that way for 30 years. Kentucky has entire freshman classes, five or six deep, go pro after one year. I would love to take a peak at their class schedule, their SAT scores, or just about anything academic related. College football players have to be on campus for at least three seasons as do college baseball players.
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