Issue 6 - North Canton City Schools - sparcc

Yoos got nothin’ on me
Clint Yoos
Why be played instead of being paid?
37
Well, I figure
this is long
overdue,
but the time has
come for me to pay
my small homage
to the University
of Kentucky’s head
basketball coach,
John Calipari.
So here’s to you,
Coach Cal! You managed to put
together one of the most impressive
squads that the NCAA has seen in a
long while. There was a small snafu in
the SEC conference final, but it makes
little difference at this point. After you
win the national championship, all’s
well that ends well, right?
Well, seeing as Coach Calipari is the
top recruiting head coach in the country, I
would normally say so. Just recently, it was
announced that the number one recruit,
Nerlens Noel, has committed to the
University of Kentucky, making Kentucky’s
recruiting class one of the best in the
country... again. In related news, the UCLA
Bruins got the number two recruit in the
nation in Shabazz Muhammad.
On a quick aside, its about time UCLA
became relevant again. They didn’t even
make it to the NCAA Tournament this year,
and since they are the only school that
has more championships than Kentucky, it
“... you win the national championship,
all’s well
that ends well, right?
felt strange that they were nowhere to be
found.
But now that they’ve got a strong
recruiting class, we may see the Bruins
recapture some of the glory that was once
there when John Wooden and Lew Alcindor
(Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) were there.
That being said, with Noel going to
Kentucky, I can’t help but look back with
a certain amount of regret. They had a
chance to be one of the greatest basketball
teams that the NCAA has ever seen. Yes,
they were that good. Add another top
recruit to the ranks, and you have a line-up
that rivals the Fab Five of yesterday.
However, the thought of such
a dream is crushed by the fact
that everyone knows many of
Kentucky’s starters are destined
to be “one-and-doners.” Meaning,
they only go to college because
they have to. A lot of them, if given
the chance, would’ve left high
school for the NBA. Why sit around kicking
your heels in college when you could be
making a pro salary in the big-leagues? It
just doesn’t make good sense when you
think about how short a professional
athlete’s career can be.
This brings me to my main point.
Why do we make these tremendous
athletes go to college for one year?
It serves little to no purpose in my
opinion. If they were truly interested
in getting an education, they would
stay for four years and get their
money’s worth in scholarships.
However, very few of college
basketball’s best athletes last longer
than their year requirement.
It’s a hard pill to swallow when I
think back on how many truly amazing
teams The Ohio State University could
have had if players had stuck around.
But at the same time, you absolutely
cannot blame these players for wanting
to collect their pay checks. If I was in
their shoes, I would act no differently.
So, finally, I believe the rule requiring
high school basketball players to spend
a year in college should be abolished. If
they’re good enough to be in the NBA,
playing one year in college won’t help
them. There have been high school
basketball players who didn’t pan out
in the NBA; why wait a year to find out
if they can or can’t play? •
The Viking Views.sports