<a href='http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050719/COLUMNISTS01/507190411/1002/SPORTS' target='_blank'>Dennis Felton</a>

"But what you've got to understand is even when some kids get the right formation, it's not what they want to hear."

This is so true. The NBA is such a pipe dream for most of the kids in high school today. So many don't have a strong guiding force in their lives and it seems now that any leach can tell a hot bball prospect he'll be a lottery pick. I would think that for every Moses Malone or Kevin Garnett, that is ready for the big show, there are dozens of talented athletes who really need to work on their game in a grounded environment that a college could offer. Man, I hope CLee is getting good advice.

topperjac Wrote:Man, I hope CLee is getting good advice.

Yes, good advice like stay all four years and petition for a fifth and sixth year! :laugh:

CLee will put his name in the hat after his junior year. Could happen after this year, BUT we/he would have to have a GREAT run(ala Dwayne Wade and Marquette in 03). Hopefully, he'll stay all 4 years and go #1 after taking us to 3 consecutive championships. Well, a guy can dream can't he?

rideOrDieTop Wrote:CLee will put his name in the hat after his junior year. Could happen after this year, BUT we/he would have to have a GREAT run(ala Dwayne Wade and Marquette in 03). Hopefully, he'll stay all 4 years and go #1 after taking us to 3 consecutive championships. Well, a guy can dream can't he?

I truly believe that he would be best served by staying four, all joking aside. Unfortunately for us, we are not dead center of the basketball universe at the moment. CLee's draft position is directly linked now with WKU, if he has a team around him. If he can take WKU to the tourny this year, make a deeper run next year, and then his senior year, with four years of experience behind him he would have the NBA salivating for him.

That and the fact that I believe the media is ready to have a story saying "look this is how good a player can be if he stays in school. This is how much he can contribute after maturing as a person and a player.

That being said, he will probably do something else. These are just the thoughts of a bald middle age man!

I really think the best thing for CLee is staying in school long enough to get into the high first round. I think the teams run has less to do with where he'll actually go in the draft and more to do with the validation in his own my mind that he is ready(regardless if he is or not). When he goes into the camps and the workouts, that's when everything will be determined. Period! Not what he did in college(see UK and Florida early entries). He needs to improve his shot, ball handling, and strength to be ready for the next level. Two more years should get him where he needs to be, anything else is gravy. If he leaves early and is picked it will not be a negative for us. It will only help recruiting.

When he goes into the camps and the workouts, that's when everything will be determined. Period! Not what he did in college(see UK and Florida early entries).

Very true. If the next Michael Jordon were at an NAIA school, they would find him. I'm sure there is already a buzz in the scouting circles about CLee's potential. But it seems that draft potential is a major factor in big guards, power forwards, and big centers (i.e. Chris Marcus.) I'm not so sure it's as much a factor with a 6-4 or 5 perimiter player with decent range. He needs to stay in school for awhile, if for any reason, to become more of a go-to guy.

"look this is how good a player can be if he stays in school. This is how much he can contribute after maturing as a person and a player."


I think Dwayne Wade should be the posterboy for this. Maybe put it in the NBA dictionary under "Improvement". If you look it up it will have his picture next to it, with the above description.

Chris Marcus got great advice.

" Chris Marcus got great advice. "

Galo, I'm assuming you're being facetious. If so, I'd say that it may have been worse for him with all that money and all of his demons if he came out early. But who knows. He was the exception to many rules.

His demons started after the injury. I used to be a big proponent of stay four years. But I've really changed my opinion. College isn't for everyone. For some players it is just the means to get to the NBA. Why do most people go to college anyway? Get a degree to make more money.

Marcus should have gone pro. If CLee can get drafted early, he should go too... if that is what he wants.

From what I've read and heard, it was very important to/for Chris to actually get his degree. Basketball was a nice means to an end for him. I don't believe he ever had it in his head to be a professional basketball player, until he started to get some notoriety while at Western. I think he did what was right for him, and I'm proud of him for having the guts to say "no" to the big money and fame (and who knows what would have come with it).

I believe he's at peace with himself after all of it. That's all that matters to me. If he's happy with his station in life then shouldn't we be fine with it too? (BTW, did you ever get to read the ESPN the Magazine article about him? It was really good, and he didn't say that he wanted to get back into playing basketball any time soon either. Down the road maybe, but right now he's just staying clean and sober. That's much more important.)

Leaving school early is different for every person. For some kids being in college, maturing, and becoming a better player is very important and needed. For others it's not necessary. There have been many players to come out early and be wonderful players, role models, etc. (and vice versa). Personally, I'd like to think the kids can only get better by staying in school, however, if my child (when that happens) ever has the opportunity to leave school early to make an unimaginable amount of money, then who am I to say "No, you're staying in school and getting a degree!"? I guess I'm greedy and enjoy watching the college kids play this beautiful game instead of the Hollywood version that the NBA presents.

galo, I agree, college isn't for everyone, but Chris' problem wasn't his foot. He had issues. I firmly believe he had some sort of social anxiety disorder. Which only manifested itself in the form of alcohol. It's probably best that he never went the NBA route.

Big Squirrel,

Do you have a print copy of the ESPN article? If so, what would I have to do to get you to make a copy of the article and mail/email it to me?

Felton's statement of "one and done" college players leaving for the NBA really struck me. What affect is this going to have on a school's all important APR? The NCAA has made it clear that grades and graduation need to be a bigger piece of the puzzle. If you've got the one and done in BB, some school's APRs may tank out instead of increasing.

This may sound bad, but I hope this one and done'rs go Europe, play a year there, and then try to get to the NBA that way. Why waste a perfectly good scholarship? Why build your vision of a team thinking the players are going to be there for the long haul? Too much turn over is going to hurt team chemistry. Yes I know frosh come in each year, but many schools red-shirt them their first year, so they can play their 4 years while spending 5 years in school. But at least these folks are expected to be puzzle pieces for the bigger BB puzzle. Not sure if you can really dichotomize frosh from one and don'ers (and transfers for that matter) but I think the possibiliy could still be there.

I don't know. I wish the rule was 3 years removed from high school diploma, or whatever the FB rule is. Sounds like a good sound rule to me.

Just my 2 cents.

RBM, I understand your scholly arguement and how players that actually want a degree are missing out. BUT the one and done will only hurt the BCS teams. That gives the rest of us a chance and will hopefully create more parity. I don't care about the NBA game and although I'm a fan of college hoops in general, I care way more about the success of WKU.

RODT, yes, I have the print article. I'll see if I can scan it here at work and email it to you.

RBM... you bring up a very important facet of the NBA age requirement. How will the NCAA change it's rules to deal with schools who have a ton of these type of players (the scoring of the schools based on graduation rates, etc)? I'm sure schools like UK, UNC, Duke, etc will be hurt significantly by this happening. You know, for sure, that the NCAA isn't going to let any of their rules hurt these schools, since they are the type of schools that "drive" the money making machine that is the N C Double A.

However, for the rest of us Mid-Majors, the NCAA could probably care less. We don't make them money, so they look past us. (BTW, I hate the term Mid-Major. I just used it based on how the NCAA actually views the smaller stature schools like WKU, Murray, etc.)

[I] I'm sure schools like UK, UNC, Duke, etc will be hurt significantly by this happening.

The new rule will most definetly hurt those BCS-type programs because I think most of the top recruits ego's would not allow a one year stay at a smaller school because of the lack of exposure. Would a player like that seven footer from Indiana that I can't remember his name want to play for a WKU, Murray, Ball St, Peperdine, or any other such program? Duke, UK, UNC, UConn, etc would offer the exposure the smaller schools could never provide. This new rule will probably play out like this: A hot-shot prospect will spend a season in the minors before being called-up to the NBA. It could become like a farwell tour.