Great College Basketball Players Will Soon Be Hard To Come By

The game of college basketball has changed. It's no secret that the game has now become merely a stepping stone to the NBA for the top recruits coming out of high school. While most of the players that go through the "one and done" process are capable of being NBA players, it proves that a "great" college basketball player is hard to come by nowadays.

Hansbrough was one of the best to play at UNC

Now before there's an uproar, let me explain that my definition of a great college player is a guy who played three or four seasons and left a mark on his team, conference, and the game itself. You can say whatever you want about the players who have played for John Calipari at Kentucky. Obviously guys like John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins have gone on to the NBA and had decent careers so far. But the fact of the matter is that they will never be considered great college basketball players in my mind. I don't say that to directly point at those two individually, I say that to any player that has only attended one or two years of college.

Take Kyrie Irving for example. He is quickly climbing the point guard ranks and establishing himself as one of the best in the NBA. He has the talent to be a memorable NBA player. As for his college career? He might as well have not had one. He played eleven games at Duke before bolting for the NBA draft. As we have seen, he clearly has the talent to have been a historic player at Duke and break a few records. However, young players don't hang around anymore. The mindset has become a "get me out of here" thought process that leaves coaches and fans wondering if the one and done players really attended their school or if they were just passing through.

Personally, I believe the last great college basketball player was Tyler Hansbrough. Hansbrough is a guy that you will always look back at and remember him and his ACC-dominating career. He played all four years at North Carolina and played in 142 games for the Tar Heels. He racked up 2,872 points and reeled in 1,219 rebounds. Hansbrough was also a consensus All-American all four years of his career and capped it all off with a Championship run that culminated in Detroit in 2009. Hansbrough is a college legend and his number will hang in the rafters forever. How many one and done players will ever see their number in the rafters?

Wiggins and Parker are predicted to be one-and-dones

There will always be those players that take us as college basketball fans on a great postseason ride. Last year we watched as Trey Burke led the Michigan Wolverines all the way to the championship and earned a Player of the Year award. Yet Burke, who left after his sophomore year, left too early for his career to be fully defined. Players can have great seasons, but to be a great player you have to demonstrate consistency. With everyone wanting to leave after their first year, there is no chance to see if they are truly great in the college game or not.


So with this in mind, the hype this season has been focused on Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, and pretty much every new freshman at Kentucky. When referring to the excitement built around Wiggins, Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart said it best when he simply said that Wiggins would have to prove that he was the best in the game. The media has formed the distasteful habit of pinning players as "the greatest in the nation" before they even touch the floor for a regular season game. The definition of great has changed through the years. Could Wiggins have a great season? Absolutely, and you're a fool if you're not excited to watch him. However, he will not be a great college player if and when he leaves after this season. Again, greatness takes consistency. The one-and-done process has just about ruined our chances to see another great player any time in the near future. While there are still GOOD players who stay three or four years (Peyton Siva, Tim Hardaway Jr., Aaron Craft), the Tyler Hansbrough's of the college basketball world will be few and far between thanks to the one-and-done culture that has recently been adopted.

Incognito's Bullying Brought Into Public Eye

By now the news has spread all over the internet that Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito has been banned due to the senseless and downright offensive bullying of now former teammate Jonathan Martin. Proof of racial slurs and multiple threats have been presented via social media and TV news and most if not all of us, sports fans or not, are not quite sure which question to ask first:

1. What caused the bullying?

News of Incognito's bullying has dominated headlines

 We've all been through elementary and middle school and we've all heard the preconceived reasons as to why bullying happens. The bully is mistreated at home which translates to aggression towards other or they don't have friends and choose to channel their anger into being mean. The thing about this situation is that Incognito is a grown man and a millionaire at that. He's obviously got a job he loves and the only reason that comes to my mind is that he got a real kick out of being an idiot to a younger teammate. A guy like Incognito strikes me as a guy who would look at this situation and simply say "Oh come on, you guys know I was joking." Joking or not, it doesn't matter. You don't treat an individual like that and you sure as heck don't speak to another individual as he did. There's a fine line to be drawn where joking becomes hurtful and it's not hard to see that Incognito crossed that line. There may not even be a specific reason as to what caused this sudden uproar, but no reason, in my mind, will ever justify the emotional damage Incognito has caused.

2. Where were Martin's teammates?
The threats and racial slurs were mostly made via text and voice mail which obviously means that it would have been a one-on-one interaction between Martin and Incognito. With that being said, Martin clearly felt so affected by what was going on that he left the team. To me that means that he must have at one point or another shown a hint or two that he wasn't doing so well. I may be wrong, maybe he carried himself just as he would if he wasn't being bullied and nobody could tell he was hurting. But if he willingly left the team then that shows that Martin wasn't exactly bottling this up. Where were Martin's teammates? We refer back to those elementary school lessons at this point and ask where was that one person who was willing to stand up for a hurting friend? The professional locker room is not like a junior high or high school locker room. This is a job for these athletes meaning they spend much more time around each other than younger athletes do. SOMEBODY had to know what was going on and yet we haven't heard whether or not any Dolphins' players attempted to step in and end Incognito's actions.

That's not how a team works and honestly I feel as if the teammates that potentially knew about this are guilty as well. Obviously Incognito is the main bully, but everybody (if anybody) who knew what was going on and didn't say anything is just as guilty and clearly doesn't understand what being on a team is about. You're supposed to have each others backs and look out for each other whether you get along or not. Like Denzel Washington says in Remember the Titans: "I don't care if you don't like each other, but you will respect each other." Jonathan Martin left his job because he was being disrespected by a teammate who was verbally abusing him. In my eyes, the guys that stood idly by and didn't help were only contributing to the abuse.

3. Where does "Hazing" go from here?

"Hazing" is something every rookie goes through.

If you've ever been to a Major League Baseball game you've probably seen a rookie pitcher carrying a girly book bag to the  bullpen. I've seen plenty of different examples from Dora the Explorer to Hello Kitty. It's funny and it's something that's become a bit of a tradition. There's even a little "Hazing" that goes on at the high school and college levels as well. More often than not the youngest guys on the team are in charge of the equipment. It's something that comes with the age you're at the paying your dues. Nobody means harm by it, it's simply an expectation that you as a player need to meet until the next wave of guys comes in.

All of that is simply good fun. Never in a million years would I think that professional sports would take away the "Hazing" experience that rookies and new guys go through because, at the end of the day, they're all grown men and women who are expected to be mature and handle themselves professionally. Yet one has to wonder what sports will be like after the news of Incognito's actions. Not only is this heartbreaking, but you're downright foolish if you think that Incognito's the only guy who has acted like this towards a younger player. This kind of thing is probably happening more often than we care to know which is exactly why I think professional sports will be keeping a much closer eye on what goes on. The fun won't be ruined, but I'd be shocked if the leagues didn't crack down on things that may cross the line into bullying.

I've never been bullied. I always had the luxury of being bigger than everybody else so I never felt the pain of being picked on relentlessly. Quite frankly, this story breaks my heart. As a kid, we all look up to these athletes and put them on a pedestal that can't be reached by anyone else. How as a parent do you explain to your son or daughter that their favorite athlete was a bully and verbally abused a teammate? That doesn't set a good example for the youth of this world whether they strive to be athletes or not. I'm all for joking around with a teammate and throwing sarcastic comments in every now and then, but Incognito clearly took this much too far and deserved to be banned. There's never a time or place for bullying. Ever. Here's to putting a stop to bullying not only in sports, but in the everyday world as well.

Derrick Rose Just Isn't The Same...For All The Right Reasons

It was exactly what the Chicago Bulls had lacked all last season. It was the problem that they could not find a solution for on a consistent basis. It was the issue that cost the Bulls a handful of wins simply because they had no one to fill the role. That role was the role of a finisher. A guy who you could give the ball to with five minutes to go in a close game and say "Here. Take us home." And while last night's game didn't go exactly as the Bulls would have liked, former MVP Derrick Rose proved that when it came time to close out a game, he was one of the best in the business.

The floater said it all: DRose is back

With Rose's baseline floater over Raymond Felton and former Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler, the Bulls snagged their first win of the season on Rose's regular season Homecoming to the United Center. Yet the floater itself, though as pretty as it was, doesn't quite do Derrick Rose's comeback to basketball justice. Everyone has noticed that his game is coming back to him and coming back quickly. He's just as quick (if not quicker), his shot has improved, and his work ethic is as noticeable as ever.

However, his overall performance and athleticism is something that fans and players expected to eventually change for the better. What people have not seemed to notice is how Derrick Rose's attitude as a whole has changed for the better. After hitting that floater on the night of Halloween, Rose was quoted saying "If I'm going to miss the shot, I'm going to miss it. If I'm going to hit it, I'm going to hit it. I just love taking it." Love him or hate him, you have to admire his confidence.

That's exactly what has changed since he suffered the infamous knee injury over a year and a half ago. Coming into the league as the number one draft pick, the native son of Chicago, and the 19 year old kid who was the first piece of the puzzle in raising a seventh banner into the rafters of the Madhouse, Derrick Rose had the weight of an entire city on his shoulders. And he knew it. Through the first two or three years of his career we saw Rose shy away from the media and keep a low profile. He even admitted to not being a fan of the media simply because he didn't want the attention. God only knows what life for him was like knowing that every eye in Chicago was on him, and continues to be.

But then came the MVP season. DRose quickly established himself as one of the best in the league by being the youngest player to ever accomplish the feat. Just as the expectations grew and began to become realistic, Rose fell to the ground on the baseline during game one of the first round in 2012. The city was deflated and Rose went unheard of until he sent out a video on YouTube during his recovery phase.

Rose was emotional at the release of his new shoe last year

Amidst all of the physical therapy and work outs, Rose released a new shoe through Adidas. Even though he wasn't on the court, the hype was through the roof simply because Rose was once again in the public eye. Yet it was at the release of his shoe that we saw the human aspect of the All-Star point guard. While being interviewed, he visibly teared up saying how thankful he was for the support and continually emphasizing that he felt he didn't deserve all of it. That's the humble Derrick Rose that Chicago fell in love with. The kid who grew up in the same city he now plays for was taking the time to appreciate those that were pulling for him. In the days of guys like Dwight Howard, who could care less about loyalty, Rose was showing his appreciation for his fans, and meaning every word of it.

Now let's fast forward the clocks to these past few weeks. Derrick Rose is back. He's healthier than ever. He's quick as hell and is on a mission. Somewhere along the line, the old Derrick Rose vanished and we are now witnessing a drastic change in attitude. The once quiet kid has now become a demonstrative man. It shows in his answers to reporters' questions, it shows in how he conducts himself on the court, and it shows in how he speaks about the improvements he has made. Derrick Rose is no longer going to shy away from the media, rather he's begging everyone to watch what he does. Rose wants your attention, he wants you to criticize him, and he wants you to doubt him and his teammates.

All the hype about the Heat winning their third consecutive championship and LeBron claiming his third straight MVP have been all over ESPN since last June. And while Rose once said just a little over a year ago that he didn't deserve anything that he had, his mindset has quickly changed into "Screw it, that MVP trophy is mine and I'm going to prove it."

Rose now expects to be the best and expects to have a championship ring on his finger at the end of this season. You could see it in the way he reacted after he hit the game-winner last night. He didn't pump his fist or beat his chest like he did after he buried a game-winner in the face of Brandon Jennings a few years back, he simply jogged to the bench. That's when you knew that Derrick Rose expects to be great and won't stop until he is. He wants the ball in his hands and wants everyone to watch closely. Chicago's quiet and unassuming native son is gone. It's now time for the new and improved Windy City Assassin to take the stage.