The dust has settled and the first number one seed to lose in this tournament happened to be the team that hadn’t lost since last year’s tournament. Every year around this time I keep thinking this is the best March Madness I’ve ever seen and then something like this happens. The Wichita State Shockers fell to the college basketball giant Kentucky Wildcats by only two points last weekend. In probably the most exciting game of the tournament, the usual script was flipped and the powerhouse Kentucky was the underdog to a number one seed from a mid-major conference. I really want to argue how this was the best game of the tournament thus far but that is another matter. Beyond a right to be in the Sweet Sixteen, this game may have just been the most important game in the history of college basketball.
Yes, I said that.
It was the popular One-and-Done system of Kentucky versus the traditional Build-a-Program system of Wichita State. In those terms, it was more than just a basketball game but rather a clash of ideology that has affected basketball from the AAU level to the All-Pro level.
So let me set the scene for you.
The Kentucky Wildcats since returning to glory under Head Coach John Calipari have transformed the purpose of college basketball. He recruits every single one of the High School All-Americans, stockpiling a freshman-heavy team that on paper will look unbeatable. But in return, all of these kids are encouraged to go to the NBA the next season. So for that one year, it is all or nothing for that group of kids. John Calipari and the University of Kentucky lose half their team every year to the NBA lottery draft and then the next year the cycle repeats. Since Calipari arrived, it has won them a national championship in 2012 but then they have also missed the tournament the following year. The lack of depth and inexperience got them booted in the first round of the 2013 NIT.
Then there are the Wichita State Shockers. The Shockers with Head Coach Gregg Marshall have quietly built a strong and deep program. From the Missouri Valley Conference this group has been able to stand up with major conferences and play tough. All those players that didn’t get recruited by Kentucky or Florida or Ohio State land in similar places but the Shockers have utilized team work and years of playing together to make themselves winners. In other words, it didn’t happen overnight. But they got it figured out. Last year they made an unprecedented trip to the Final Four after having the first back-to-back tournament appearances in school history and this year they amassed a record of 35-0 which was the most wins in the history of college basketball for a team in one season. With cohesive seniors, young exciting players they have experience and leadership.
I appreciate the Shockers’ way of doing things and I think any normal person would too. It is how life works; you put in the time and effort, you work with others, sometimes you may fail but then you succeed. It may not happen right away but you will overcome adversity and come out stronger on the other end. That is how this group of guys made it work and have learned a lot from basketball I’m sure. The Kentucky way is fabricated, with illusions of grandeur believing a bunch of 18 year-old phenoms can win you a championship – that year. It has worked yes, but it’s very misleading – Exhibit A: the following season. It just doesn’t seem fair or right to put that kind of pressure on those kids either. Then besides, they just leave for the NBA the next year anyways. They just walk-away with no allegiance to program nor the process of maturing their bodies, minds, or skills for becoming NBA athletes.
So with the clash last weekend we finally got to see the extremes of each system and then in our own minds decide which is more valuable to stand by. Whoever would come out on top may give a guiding light for how to achieve success for other programs. Almost like a blueprint.
But Kentucky won. So that changes everything.
Will it mean more players will think it’s OK to submit their names to the NBA draft early? Does it mean that less glamorized talent will be immediately overlooked by all major conferences? So many questions suddenly arise that erase the entire purpose of the team aspect of college basketball.
So much can be learned and achieved at the collegiate level and many have squandered it to join the NBA. Nonetheless, the NBA is nothing like it once was because of this very issue. It is a dying league with a lower average attendance than the new Major League Soccer or the National Hockey League. More immature talent is being ingested into the NBA every year that is has become diluted with underdeveloped talent. Almost an invaluable product for many people to even go sit in the stands and watch.
In other words, much of the product on the floor is crap and that is directly correlated to how John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats do business.
This is how teams like the Charlotte Bobcats never get any better.
I’m not saying the University of Kentucky or John Calipari is bad or evil because they are just taking advantage of what the NCAA and the NBA have created for them. Then, last weekend, it was proved that it could work above one of the strongest most cohesive teams ever assembled in Wichita State.
It romanticizes a bad example: So many younger kids who are climbing the recruiting ladders in high school may take for granted the opportunities to get a discounted education and learn from the game of basketball to instead go to a brand-name school for a cup of coffee and money in the NBA.
Of course you could suggest I am not in these kids positions and that I don’t know what their needs or dreams are. Sure you could. But look at the greats, Magic Johnson spent three years at college so did Shaquille O’Neal and even Sir Charles Barkley did his time. Larry Bird got a degree and Michael Jordan didn’t short himself at school either. So if these kids are so amazing at basketball, what’s the rush? Stick around, learn a thing or two and then go make your millions, I just don’t understand the mentorship process behind it – what are we really teaching them? Not everyone can be LeBron James, just ask Trevor Ariza.
However, one team that did understand the process to how it all works (uhh life) is the Wichita State Shockers. I applaud what they have built and the way they compete. They stood up and played a great game against the Wildcats in a way that many critics were surprised to see. Hopefully, the coaches and teams out there that had to be watching basketball that day instead of playing it noticed too that great heights can be achieved even if you don’t come out on top in the end.
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