Collier11
7/3/2010, 05:58 AM
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=2&articleid=20100626_202_B1_LOCALL39069
LOCALLY, THURSDAY night's NBA draft results ran the gamut from good, to bad to really ugly.
The good actually bordered on great for Tulsa and Oklahoma State. Oklahoma, meanwhile, endured a bad situation that could turn really ugly for the Sooners' program next season.
Four years after Jerome Jordan arrived at TU as an extremely raw rookie, coaching and work ethic transformed the 7-foot Jamaican into a second-round selection.
OSU junior forward James Anderson, the Big 12's Player of the Year, became the eighth player in the Cowboys' rich hoops history to go in the first round.
While Jordan and Anderson didn't go as early as projected, both wound up in good situations. The 20th overall pick by San Antonio, Anderson went to one of the NBA's best franchises. The 44th selection by Milwaukee, Jordan was traded to the rebuilding New York Knicks.
A school normally would be thrilled when it has two players taken in the same draft. But there was little reason for OU to celebrate after Milwaukee took freshman forward Tiny Gallon at No. 47 and the Los Angeles Clippers drafted sophomore guard Willie Warren with the 54th selection.
The fates of Warren and Gallon demonstrated why the so-called one-and-done rule is beyond bad. The NBA couldn't care less about college teams,
even if its draft rule has the potential to do serious harm.
If the NBA didn't require players to attend college for one year, Warren, Gallon and freshman guard Tommy Mason-Griffin probably wouldn't have signed with OU. All three contributed in various ways last season to a messy situation that could linger long after their departures.
Mason-Griffin was a reluctant student. So the minute he met the NBA's requirement, the point guard bolted and ended up going undrafted.
"To be quite honest," OU coach Jeff Capel told Sooner fans last month during a booster meeting in Tulsa, "there are a lot of kids that don't want to go to college. They want a chance to try to go to the NBA."
Warren and Gallon might not have been selected had they entered the draft straight out of high school. But at least they wouldn't have wasted all the money and time OU invested in them, and then burned a school they never wanted to attend.
Gallon's situation is the most distressing. OU and the NCAA continue their investigations into allegations that Gallon and former OU assistant Oronde Taliaferro may be tied to a serious rules violation.
The frustrating part for Capel is that the school and the NCAA reportedly are making very little progress into a report Gallon had $3,000 wired to his bank account by an investor connected to Taliaferro.
If Taliaferro and stock broker Jeffrey Hausinger continue to refuse cooperating with OU and the NCAA, the investigation potentially could go on for years, much like the five-year probe just completed at USC.
The slow-moving investigation has already had a negative effect. Capel wasn't able to attract big-time, experienced assistants for two openings on his staff because potential candidates didn't want to join a team in NCAA limbo.
"There's all kinds of things that make this (investigation) look bad, but there's really no evidence," an OU source said. "The hard part is trying to find evidence whether (Taliaferro) did anything or not. It's bizarre."
Would OU be in this pickle if the NBA didn't have the one-and-done rule? Probably not, because Gallon thought he was NBA-ready after high school.
Capel declined to discuss the investigation's status when he was in Tulsa. But he told Sooner supporters he's hopeful the NBA and the players' union will agree to change the rule when the two sides reach a new collective bargaining agreement in 2012.
"The one-year rule is one of the worst rules (the NBA) put in. It makes a mockery of the educational system," Capel said. "One of the biggest mistakes people can make is to think the NBA cares about college basketball."
Capel noted the NBA promotes players who made the jump from high school before the one-year rule was implemented. That includes superstars Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett.
College coaches want the NBA to follow Major League Baseball. If a player doesn't turn pro directly out of high school, he must play college baseball for three seasons.
"You could see a change in that (NBA) rule to where you can go straight to the NBA from high school," Capel said. "But if you go to college, it would be mandatory for two years."
OU's problems aren't totally a result of the NBA rule. But it contributed to an ugly situation that could still be a mess by next year's draft.
Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=2&articleid=20100626_202_B1_LOCALL39069
LOCALLY, THURSDAY night's NBA draft results ran the gamut from good, to bad to really ugly.
The good actually bordered on great for Tulsa and Oklahoma State. Oklahoma, meanwhile, endured a bad situation that could turn really ugly for the Sooners' program next season.
Four years after Jerome Jordan arrived at TU as an extremely raw rookie, coaching and work ethic transformed the 7-foot Jamaican into a second-round selection.
OSU junior forward James Anderson, the Big 12's Player of the Year, became the eighth player in the Cowboys' rich hoops history to go in the first round.
While Jordan and Anderson didn't go as early as projected, both wound up in good situations. The 20th overall pick by San Antonio, Anderson went to one of the NBA's best franchises. The 44th selection by Milwaukee, Jordan was traded to the rebuilding New York Knicks.
A school normally would be thrilled when it has two players taken in the same draft. But there was little reason for OU to celebrate after Milwaukee took freshman forward Tiny Gallon at No. 47 and the Los Angeles Clippers drafted sophomore guard Willie Warren with the 54th selection.
The fates of Warren and Gallon demonstrated why the so-called one-and-done rule is beyond bad. The NBA couldn't care less about college teams,
even if its draft rule has the potential to do serious harm.
If the NBA didn't require players to attend college for one year, Warren, Gallon and freshman guard Tommy Mason-Griffin probably wouldn't have signed with OU. All three contributed in various ways last season to a messy situation that could linger long after their departures.
Mason-Griffin was a reluctant student. So the minute he met the NBA's requirement, the point guard bolted and ended up going undrafted.
"To be quite honest," OU coach Jeff Capel told Sooner fans last month during a booster meeting in Tulsa, "there are a lot of kids that don't want to go to college. They want a chance to try to go to the NBA."
Warren and Gallon might not have been selected had they entered the draft straight out of high school. But at least they wouldn't have wasted all the money and time OU invested in them, and then burned a school they never wanted to attend.
Gallon's situation is the most distressing. OU and the NCAA continue their investigations into allegations that Gallon and former OU assistant Oronde Taliaferro may be tied to a serious rules violation.
The frustrating part for Capel is that the school and the NCAA reportedly are making very little progress into a report Gallon had $3,000 wired to his bank account by an investor connected to Taliaferro.
If Taliaferro and stock broker Jeffrey Hausinger continue to refuse cooperating with OU and the NCAA, the investigation potentially could go on for years, much like the five-year probe just completed at USC.
The slow-moving investigation has already had a negative effect. Capel wasn't able to attract big-time, experienced assistants for two openings on his staff because potential candidates didn't want to join a team in NCAA limbo.
"There's all kinds of things that make this (investigation) look bad, but there's really no evidence," an OU source said. "The hard part is trying to find evidence whether (Taliaferro) did anything or not. It's bizarre."
Would OU be in this pickle if the NBA didn't have the one-and-done rule? Probably not, because Gallon thought he was NBA-ready after high school.
Capel declined to discuss the investigation's status when he was in Tulsa. But he told Sooner supporters he's hopeful the NBA and the players' union will agree to change the rule when the two sides reach a new collective bargaining agreement in 2012.
"The one-year rule is one of the worst rules (the NBA) put in. It makes a mockery of the educational system," Capel said. "One of the biggest mistakes people can make is to think the NBA cares about college basketball."
Capel noted the NBA promotes players who made the jump from high school before the one-year rule was implemented. That includes superstars Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett.
College coaches want the NBA to follow Major League Baseball. If a player doesn't turn pro directly out of high school, he must play college baseball for three seasons.
"You could see a change in that (NBA) rule to where you can go straight to the NBA from high school," Capel said. "But if you go to college, it would be mandatory for two years."
OU's problems aren't totally a result of the NBA rule. But it contributed to an ugly situation that could still be a mess by next year's draft.
Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=2&articleid=20100626_202_B1_LOCALL39069