re: A Stanford fan's take on Trent Johnson

quote:

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My question about recruiting. Football coaches sell "playing time" to get top recruits to sign.
With fewer scholarships to give in basketball, that would seem to beg the question. Why can't LSU and other SEC teams offer "immediate playing time" to 4 star recruits? Tell them come on down, we got a spot for you.

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I think the current state of affairs between the NCAA and the NBA makes college basketball a huge risk to invest time and effort in. You go get a decent player, and he will be actively encouraged to go pro early. Unless you have a legitimate program, like Duke, UNC, etc, you have little chance to retain talent, so you may look at 25 wins one year, and rebuild the next.

This may be just a bit extreme, but it seems like the entire SEC has taken that viewpoint. Nobody seems to have invested any serious effort into basketball, as long as football is solid at that school. Even Kentucky, which should easily be able to have a perennial top 10 team, is sitting around "bubble" status.