Bottom Line Communications

    To fans of college basketball there is simply nothing that compares to the excitement of the NCAA’s March Madness. The playoff system starts with selection Sunday on March 16, and then after 63 games, ends on Monday night (April 7) in Indianapolis with the famous “One Shining Moment” song.

    People who don’t know a basketball from a soccer ball will join serious gamblers and wager millions of dollars on the games. The team that wins it and many of its players and coaches will become instant legends.

   Winning a national championship could be easily worth millions of dollars to a college.  Big donors now step forward.  Alums who swore they would never give money all of a sudden start to write checks.  Merchandise sales skyrocket.

    This year is shaping up as another fascinating tournament.  Will some very talented one-year-wonder step up like Carmello Anthony at Syracuse and carry his team to the national championship before punching his ticket to the NBA?

    The question this year is shaping up as “Can Michael Beasley carry Kansas State to the National Championship before he heads to the NBA?” He is a special player who almost single-handedly could pull it off.   It is very likely he will be named the college player of the year as a freshman.

     In reality, though, isn’t it about time that we simply scrap the term “student-athlete” when we are talking about the truly phenomenal players like Beasley?   He is an athlete who happens to be in college for a year.  It could be any school.

     In a recent interview in Sports Illustrated Beasley made if very clear that he simply was going to any school that hired his AAU coach, Dalonte’ Hill.  When KSU hired Hill, Beasley announced that he was going there.  Beasley had never seen the campus.  In fact, he admitted “I couldn’t find Kansas on a map.”

    On the other hand, you have to wonder how much KSU school officials scrutinized Beasley’s transcripts before accepting him.  The discussion might have gone along these lines:

    KSU Admittance Officer: “Okay, we have a star basketball player who has applied to our school.  How does his transcript look?

    KSU Counselor:  “Sir, I must admit I am concerned that in high school he was caught slashing tires in a mall parking lot.  Oh, and he also put a dead rat in a teacher’s desk drawer.”

   Second KSU Counselor: “Sir, his transcript shows he actually attended seven schools in five years. 

   Third KSU Counselor: “This might be a red flag.  It says here he was kicked out of Oak Hill Academy after being caught vandalizing the headmaster’s car. I’d hate to see that happen to your new BMW, sir…”   

  KSU Admittance Officer:  “Okay, it’s unanimous.  He sounds like the type of student-athlete we can use here at Kansas State.  Let’s admit him right away.”

    This is really what big-time basketball has become these days at many schools. If a player has “game” he can pretty much write his own meal ticket to just about any major college in the land. Academics are for other kids to worry about.  

   Whether Beasley pulls a Carmello and takes the Wildcats to the promised land or not, he will eventually be a very rich man playing in the NBA.  Of course, that is barring an injury.
    The reality is the vast majority of very talented basketball players in this year’s NCAA tournament will never make it into the NBA.  Many have been given a free pass for most of their lives and accepted at some Division 1 college only because of their athletic talent. 

    The sad reality is that once their collegiate playing days are over the colleges will discard them like yesterday’s newspaper. If the athletes try to stay in school they will find that their professors are not so quick to automatically give them good grades like they did when they were athletes. Forget those “special” tutors who used to write their papers.  At that point reality starts to set in big-time.

     That’s the really sad part about big time college sports today.  When the dust settles on March Madness a few players will head to the NBA and the good life. However, the facts show there are lots of basketball players, but fewer than 400 will actually land in the NBA.