MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — It begins with a phone call or text message and eventually develops into some kind of hurried relationship between college athletes and the runners of professional agents who try to become a part of their lives.
The athletes are told what they want to hear from someone, who they assume, knows exactly what they’re talking about.
The runners throw out other big names from the past they’ve worked with and then tell the college kid he can be just like that if they sign on the dotted line.
“In a lot of instances, the’re dropping things off and taking care of their family,” West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins said. “They’re doing things that ensures that they’re the ones who represent them so they can get their chunk of the money.”
As a college hoops coach, Huggins has thousands of things to worry about.
Somewhere near the top of that list are his players listening to the wrong people and making poor decisions about a possible pro career.
“Our biggest deal is to try and make some sense and educate our guys as to the reality of it is and not what some guy off the street tells them,” Huggins said. “The challenge is hard. It’s harder than what you think. It’s harder when they’re in their ear constantly and they’re on the phone with them constantly. That’s what is hard for young people to understand, they’re not doing those things for you, they’re doing it for themselves.”
If for no other reason than this scenario, Huggins and the top college hoops coaches throughout the country should be thankful for the new G League’s developmental program for elite prospects.
You’ve probably seen the news of Jaylen Green, one of the top prospects from the 2020 recruiting class going this direction rather than spending a year in college.
Recently, former Michigan recruit Isaiah Todd decommitted from the Wolverines and chose to go the same route.
What exactly is the program? It plans to pay the top high school players a salary of $500,000, and they get instruction from pro coaches and will play in exhibition games against other G League and international teams.
Basically, it’s the NBA answer to deter top high school prospects from going overseas for a year, as well as help alleviate the one-and-done problems college teams face in signing top prospects.
Is it a plan of perfection? No, but it’s a good start and our sports world right now could really use a good start.
To be honest, this program is not going to keep professional agents from walking around our nation’s college campuses, mostly because there is no avenue like this for the top amateur football players.
It does lower the barometer, though, and it takes away the farce that comes with top hoops prospects going to college for a year when they absolutely don’t want to be there.
The drawback is what happens to the college game without the top prospects playing each season?
The answer: Very little. Maybe the beauty of this situation is the NCAA’s marketing plan has always been about its teams and not necessarily the players.
Sure, maybe you checked out a Duke game to see Zion Williamson play or an Oklahoma game to watch Trae Young.
A year ago, maybe you watched Murray State in the NCAA tournament to check out Ja Morant.
But, March Madness has never been built around a single player. You watch it for the upsets and to see who advances to the Final Four.
You spend an entire month watching it for the results, not the star player.
As a whole, that is college basketball.
Would you have spent any less time watching WVU play this season if Oscar Tshiebwe had the option then of going to a G League development program rather than play for the Mountaineers? Doubtful.
Other players will be developed. The NCAA tournament will still be a viable form of entertainment. College basketball will be just fine.
And if there are less chances for NCAA violations that spring up from top guys getting illegal benefits while in college, that’s a win, too.
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