A few days ago, I found a fascinating basketblog called “The Wages of Wins”* At its core, it discusses how a team’s highest scorer may not help, and in fact may even hurt their teams’ win total. Berri is an economics professor, so he uses formulas to ascertain how many “Wins Produced” or “Wins Produced per 48 minutes” each player has.

Even though these formulas are designed for the NBA, they can be tweaked for the college game. Thus, I wondered what his research would say about last year’s Gator team. And so, at the risk of a collective tongue-lashing in the comments section of this post, I will delve into Florida hoops once more.

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In one of the most surprising and controversial moves of the NFL draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars traded most of their picks to the Ravens to grab Gator defensive end Derrick Harvey 8th overall. The move was surprising, not only because Harvey was projected to Carolina at 13th, but also because Jacksonville staked a heavy portion of their future on the star prospect.

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Eloy Vargas and Kenny Kadji share more in common than they might realize. Both were snubbed for the McDonalds and Jordan All-America games. Both stand a lanky 6-10.

And both have moved down on the recruiting food chain. In the latest Rivals250 rankings, Vargas (American Heritage) slipped from 3rd to 9th in PF rankings. Kadji (Pendleton) went from 3rd to 5th. The worst part: both were demoted from five stars to four. But might this be a blessing in disguise?

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From Madison Square Garden to Beijing? Such may be path for Florida’s leading scorer and assist man.

According to the Independent Florida Alligator, Nick Calathes will try out for the Greek national team over the summer. If he makes the cut, he could potentially help Greece make the 2008 Olympic Games.

Nikos already has dual citizenship and will likely receive his Greek passport shortly. A medal probably isn’t in his future, as he’ll likely have to face Team U.S.A., Mike Krzyzewski, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and company if the team just happens to make the final rounds. But why not take a crack at it? This kind of thing only happens once every four years.

As one of only two college players who averaged 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists throughout the season (Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez being the other), Calathis certainly has a positive reputation.

Good luck, Nick.

Reports are coming out that NBA commissioner David Stern and the owners are attempting to increase the NBA age requirement to 20.  The current minimum age for the NBA is 19.  The institution of the 19 year old minimum two years ago forced a number of High School basketball players like Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose to attend a year of college before applying to the NBA draft.  An increase of another year would mean a two year stint for many of these top prep talents.  While the lure of the NBA has tremendously affected the college game in recent years, forcing young basketball players to college is nothing more than a superficial solution.
 
Sure, college basketball ratings are helped by the “big name” player.  These are recognizable for the casual fan who might watch a matchup of sure fire NBA draft picks like Greg Oden and Joakim Noah go at it while they might not tune into a matchup of unknowns who are nothing more than the name on their jersey.  There are a number of pundits who think that the Derrick Rose’s and Kevin Durants are good for the game and will bring more viewers.  To that I say quite simply . . . poppycock!!!  This benefits only one entity.  It’s not the colleges and it’s not the players themselves.  This benefits the NBA and NBA only.
 
College basketball has adapted quite well to the scenario of draft losses.  Mid-major programs are now more successful than ever while the turnover of McDonalds All-Americans at the top programs (Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, etc) has created more parity in college basketball than ever before.  An landscape has evolved where a player can develop and improve over his first couple years into a top notch college player.  The era where a team like Duke could stockpile a roster of McDonalds All-Americans is over.  No longer will great players be replaced by other great players who have a couple years experience as a backup.  Today’s athlete is looking for his future and won’t sit on a bench in Chapel Hill if he knows he can play a year or two in the spotlight at Wake Forest before jumping to the league.
 
This is not yet a done deal, there has to be negotiation with the NBA Players Union but if the owners are willing to offer something the CURRENT players feel is worth it, they will have no problem infringing upon the rights of FUTURE players to make a living.  As much as the NBA will put a positive public spin on how they intend on helping future players by making sure they are more mature before entering the league it is essentially a response to protect NBA franchises from themselves.  NBA executives PREFER to see a kid play in college for a couple of years in order to diagnose any weaknesses in a kid’s game as well as seeing them compete against higher caliber talent for evaluation purposes.  The truth is that there is just a handful of players who have the kind of ability to make a jump from High School to the pros and most of them are . . . hold your breath . . . SUCCESSFUL!!! (more…)