NCAA Basketball: Pros and Cons of ‘one-and-done’ programs

The Cons

One-and-Dones don’t guarantee championships or even wins

In the pros, I mentioned the number of wins and championships the 21 teams had combined for.

That’s only two titles out of 21 tries.

Talent is great, it is needed, but it is the lack of continuity that is keeping these schools from greater success.

This can be seen in the NBA super team model. Each super team has needed at least one season to gel. Sure they often reach the championship, but they falter there. Same is true with the one-and-done programs.

In the past 12 seasons, upper classmen-led teams have won 10 such championships. Additionally, they represented the entire Final Four in 2017.

This past season saw six one-and-done programs, the most by far. Only four of the schools made the tournament and only one made it past the sweet sixteen. In fact, five of the 21 schools failed to even reach the sweet sixteen, while six of them failed to even make the tournament.

Wins are never a given as two of the 21 programs failed to even finish with a winning record.

If Markell Fultz goes number one then the past two top picks would’ve been one-and-done freshmen who played for schools that didn’t make the tournament and failed to break even in the win column.

All in all is the system truly successful if it doesn’t guarantee success as much as the traditional way of mixing freshmen with upperclassmen does?

The student athlete is devalued

The term student-athlete, in all honesty, is a joke. Jay Bilas has been saying this for years, but it is true. The better term is athletes compensated with an education.

However, with the one-and-done this isn’t even true. One-and-done players stop attending classes in December. The reason is that the new semester doesn’t count toward their eligibility. Again these guys are only going to school because they have to. If they could’ve gone pro a year earlier most would have.

Now, this isn’t a new thing. Kids have been doing this for a while. It is a problem that needs to be fixed. However, all the one-and-done programs have done as made it worse.

These kids aren’t getting educations. They don’t want to be at the schools they are at and it is obvious by the way the don’t attend class.

Furthermore, the schools and programs aren’t punished for it. As long as they aren’t the idea of student-athlete will continue to be the laughing stock of collegiate athletics.

Early Buzz does not lead to recognition

Yes, the media loves these teams. The AP Poll ranks them high. But who are the players?

This was best illustrated to me a couple of weeks ago. I was telling my Kentucky friend that Devin Booker scored 70 the other night. He looked at me and said who?

I said Devin Booker, he went to Kentucky. His response was oh well I can’t keep up with all the one-and-done players the Wildcats have.

To me that’s sad. I love the Psycho T stories. It is great to see a player like Joel James break out a couple of seasons or go. Luke Maye isn’t a hero if he had left after one season. Brice Johnson needed time to be an All-American, so did Justin Jackson.

The growth makes the college game great and it leads to memories. The one-and-dones lead to “who?” and “he played at my school?”