Enjoy the show, but don't buy the hype
by Jason Whitlock
Updated: March 20, 2008, 12:07 PM EST
Enjoy the Beasley and Mayo showdown tonight, but please don't believe the hype.
For reasons I will explain later in this column, I want you to understand that we're not being treated to a clash of two NCAA hoops legends. We're getting a look at two AAU legends who spent a season polishing their individual skills and biding their time before collecting phat checks.
You know what? Give CBS and the selection committee credit for milking the pair of freshmen for a ratings bonanza. In terms of seeding, the No. 6 Trojans, 21-11, are slightly overvalued and the No. 11 Wildcats, 20-11, are slightly undervalued, meaning the committee intentionally created this pairing with TV viewers and media storytellers in mind.
What's worse is that the No. 6 Trojans are being forced to play a dangerous road game in their opener. Sent to Big 12 country and a venue that's an easy drive for K-State fans, USC is going to play in an extremely hostile environment. With the Kansas Jayhawks also scheduled to play inside the Qwest Center, the arena is likely to be more than half filled with hoops fans from the wheat state.
Well, if you're going to exploit the one-and-done phenomenon, you might as well do it right and play the game in a genuine, intense college atmosphere. There is no use in Beasley or Mayo saying goodbye inside a passionless, one-quarter-empty arena.
Beasley and Mayo, NBA lottery picks in a few months, have been hailed as two of the greatest freshmen in the history of college hoops. They enrolled at K-State and USC hoping to Carmelo-ize programs that have been out of the spotlight for quite some time.
Tonight's game is likely as close as either will get to putting a lasting stamp on the game Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, Larry Bird, Danny Manning, Ralph Sampson, Christian Laettner and the Fab Five made unforgettable.
Yeah, one-and-done is the perfect description of Beasley and Mayo's tournament and college basketball relevancy.
That's not a knock on the kids. It's acknowledgement that we're quickly putting into perspective the impact the NBA's new draft-eligibility requirements have had on the college game. Implemented for the 2006 draft, the rules now basically stipulate that America's best high school players must spend one year masquerading as a college student-athlete.
A year ago this meant that we all jumped to the conclusion that Kevin Durant was the greatest freshmen basketball player we'd ever seen. The feathery shooting big man was a near-unanimous choice as the college player of the year. He averaged 25 points and 11 rebounds and led the Texas Longhorns to a 25-10 record, a third-place finish in the Big 12 Conference and an embarrassing, one-sided second-round tournament loss to none other than USC.
Durant looks a whole lot different in the rearview mirror. The Longhorns were significantly better this year without him, tying for the league championship and securing a No. 2 seed.
In addition, Durant hasn't added a winning touch to the Seattle Sonics, the team that claimed him with the No. 2 pick. Seattle is in heavy contention for the NBA's worst record, and Durant looks like an upscale, thin version of Donyell Marshall. Durant is a defensive liability, non-factor on the boards and very streaky shooter. He's averaging 19 points, four rebounds and three turnovers.
Losers of nine straight, the Sonics recently surrendered 168 points to Denver. Durant is the leader of a bunch of losers.
I say all of that because Durant's newly defined career has made us justifiably skeptical of Beasley's and Mayo's freshman campaigns.
Beasley was 26 points and 12 rebounds every night he took the court. On many nights he was 30 and 15. If he wasn't so damned tired, he would've toasted Baylor with 50-plus. He finished with 44. Against Missouri in mid-February, he could've gone Wilt Chamberlain, but Beasley settled for 40 points in 27 minutes.
Mayo, a guard, was just as dominant on the perimeter as Beasley was in the post, averaging 20 points, 4.6 rebounds and three assists. He dropped 30-plus points four times in his rookie season.
Oh, they're tremendous players with bright pro futures. But they haven't learned to win yet, and their mammoth numbers are at least partially distorted by the fact that virtually all the best 22-and-under talent is in the NBA.
Imagine what kind of freshmen seasons Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley and a handful of other great players would've had had the college game been stripped of all of its most mature, talented players by NBA defections.
Suppose Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James had been forced to spend a season in the one-and-done league. You think their numbers would surpass the numbers being posted by Beasley and Mayo?
There are no sop res and juniors playing college basketball with close to equal raw talent as Beasley and Mayo. That's why their numbers are so gaudy. It's why Durant terrorized the college game.
Magic, Isiah, Jordan and Barkley faced stiffer compe ion while in college. And the all-time greats before them faced even tougher compe ion.
I'm not sure Beasley and Durant were as good as Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson was in his first season (he sat out his freshman year because of Prop 48). Robinson dominated a Big Ten Conference that had great teams and players at Indiana and Michigan. Beasley and Durant never saw anything like Chris Webber and Juwan Howard at Michigan or Bobby Knight with Alan Henderson and Calbert Chaney.
Look, if a just-out-of-high school LeBron James was turned loose on today's college sop res, juniors and seniors, the NCAA would've re-outlawed the dunk midway through the season to bring LeBron's scoring average below 50.
Remember that while you enjoy Beasley and Mayo tonight.
http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7934566?MSNHPHMA
I agree with the article. And, the le is a little bit deceiving. Whitlock is calling college compe ion and this particular USC-KState match-up overrated more so than the actual individual players. I mean, he's still calling them overrated, but it wasn't as harsh as I thought when just reading the le.
Beasley > Whilock
kstate is gonna do some damage. too bad they arent showing this damn game in dallas.
MORE COWBELL!!!
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