Power To The Brow: Wildcat’s Recent Basketball Success Raises Questions: Hi-Line Blog

Jeff Daniels/Staff Writer

Calipari finally has the gorilla off his back. He’s won his national title. Now he and his young Kentucky phenoms will go and take on the Charlotte Bobcats in an exhibition game after the end of the NBA regular season to see which team is “top cat.”

Kidding aside, many people that followed college basketball this year had a running joke going the entire season that Kentucky could beat an NBA team. After going 38 to 2 and blowing by every team they played in the NCAA tournament en route to a 67 to 59 victory over Kansas in the Championship game, that running joke became a real thought for many people. It shouldn’t come as a surprise; in a recent NBA 2012 mock draft, the entire starting line-up for Kentucky was picked in the first round, with two in the top three. Anthony Davis, also known as the unibrow guy, was picked number one, while his teammate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was picked number three.

Great for the kids, right? Well, many critics have come out and called Kentucky a “One-and-done University.” Even a week after the Championship game’s conclusion, many are bickering and seething with outrage over the idea that kids can go to college for one year just to play a sport, disregarding their education in pursuit of their dreams and aspirations of becoming a professional athlete.

However, it’s not entirely the student-athlete’s fault. A recent NBA rule states that NBA players must go to college for one year before becoming pro.

This has worked great for Calipari, Kentucky’s head coach, who has brought in two to four of the best freshmen in the country every year for the past couple years, promising that he will make you a better player and get you to be a lottery pick in the upcoming draft. It’s a system that has worked out great for Calipari, but he had never won a championship until this year. The old saying, “Experience beats youth,” didn’t work out this year.

Will this become a trend? Will Calipari continue to rake in the talent and win championships as easily as it seemed for him this year? Should the NBA get rid of their rule on forcing athletic freaks like Anthony Davis to go to college for a year instead of going straight to the NBA, which has happened in the past? Does the name Lebron James ring a bell? Either way, Calipari has an excellent business model that has many critics calling it a “travesty” and a “complete façade.” They’ll just keep winning.