Texan Mosaic

by STEVEN GEHEGAN//Staff Writer

The National Collegiate Athletic Association finally put in a rule that benefits the players, and John Calipari is taking full advantage of it.

The new rule that the NCAA put in place allows college basketball players to enter the National Basketball League draft and get a draft grade from the NBA, before graduation. If the player is not happy with the grade, he is allowed to return to school, as long as the player does not hire an agent.  With this new rule in place, all players should take advantage of the rule as Calipari, head men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, is doing.

Calipari is sending his whole team to the NBA draft, including the walk-ons. This way all of his players will receive a draft grade so they can make an informed decision about their future. Not all of the players will actually enter the draft, but all of the players will have a good idea of what the NBA thinks of them. That is what more schools need to be doing for the better players. The more that schools do this for their players the better players, will want to come to their school.

It might not sound like an effective way to run a college basketball team and build for the future, but this action will help out already dominant Kentucky even more.

But not all players who put their name in the draft will keep their name in the draft. Some of the bench players who do not show enough to get the draft grade that they would want will come back for another season.

Even though the names of all Kentucky players went into the draft, it does not mean they will stay there. For the players who do come back, they will know what the NBA thinks that they need to improve on so that next year they can raise their draft stock.

Then there is the way this will help Kentucky recruit. Since Kentucky and Calipari are already great at recruiting, it might seem that they cannot get any better. But they just did. Since most of the top recruits have an eye on the NBA and want to jump after one year, knowing they will have the support of their head coach no matter what will go a long way. Even if a player needs to come back for a second year at a university, he will know that he has the support of Calipari, who will do what it takes to get them to the NBA.

This new rule put in by the NCAA has made a great Kentucky team even better.