If your team’s mascot is real and carries a bone, add 10 points. (Butler)
If your team’s mascot is real and carries a firearm, deduct three points. (West Virginia)
If your team’s mascot has a gigantic head and occasionally scares children, add two points. (Michigan State)
If your team’s mascot is a dork with a pitchfork, deduct five points. (Duke)
Likability Index: Butler 20, West Virginia 2, Michigan State 7, Duke minus-10.
The NCAA/NBA system has created a strange construct that gives temporary advantages to the 20 or so universities that are in a position to benefit from the system. It’s a huge moneymaker during a down economy, and Calipari isn’t the only one recruiting and enrolling these guys. He gets more flak than others because he’s proven he can make it work. Which, in turn, means he’ll no doubt have many more chances in the future.
In fact, it’s starting to look like Calipari is hinging his coaching image, reputation and (eventually) legacy on these guys. Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, Wall, Cousins and Bledsoe — attracting the one-and-dones is either a wildly coincidental series of random occurrences or a strategy.
Again, they have to go somewhere, and they have to be coached by someone. There are a lot of super-talented high schoolers out there who would like to spend their mandatory pre-NBA year at Lexington Prep. Anyone can complain about fairness, and Calipari probably feels unfairly singled out on this topic, but you can’t complain when people believe a Final Four is the least they should receive in compensation for the compromise. And make no mistake, it is a compromise.
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