Monday, April 30, 2007
What was once a rare event at Kansas could be turning into an annual event.
College players first started leaving school prematurely in the early ’90s, although the legendary Wilt Chamberlain gave up his Jayhawk uniform early at a time when freshmen weren’t even allowed to play varsity college basketball.
Former coach Roy Williams made it a point to recruit players he thought would contribute to the team for four years, so Kansas was mostly immune to the trend.
pullquote
You recruit guys that you hope are good enough to play at another level, and you hope they put themselves in a position to benefit the University.
-coach Bill Self
But with a new coach comes a new philosophy, Bill Self has been recruiting the nation’s best players, guys who are coming to Kansas to sharpen their skills before taking the next step.
“You recruit guys that you hope are good enough to play at another level, and you hope they put themselves in a position to benefit the University,” Self said.
The trend is unlikely to end with Julian Wright and Brandon Rush. Freshman Darrell Arthur will almost assuredly be a lottery pick in next year’s draft, and guard Mario Chalmers may not make it past his junior season.
With a new age limit for NBA players, the days of high schoolers turning pro are gone. Now, the top players in the country are looking for schools that will accommodate their one- or two-year stay, and coaches like Self are having to change the way they recruit and handle players to adjust to the new system.
After Wright left, Self said he wasn’t going to waste any time moping around, because high school players saw a Jayhawk turning into an NBA lottery pick after two years at the University.
“It’s not a totally bad thing,” he said. “That’s very attractive to some guys out there.”
Kansan senior sportswriter Michael Phillips can be contacted at mphillips@kansan.com.
— Edited by Ashley Thompson
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Basketball stars keep KU tenure short
"You recruit guys that you hope are good enough to play at another level, and you hope they put themselves in a position to benefit the University,” Self said.
Too bad they can't recruit other students for the same reason. The problem is, KU doesn't prepare the rest of us to quit after two years (or fawn on us) like it does its athletes.
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