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I have often wondered why it is that the top basketball talent in the country always seems to end up at one of the so-called power conference schools. I understand about exposure and level of competition and all that, but it seems to me it is more of a challenge for one of these high school All-Americans to go to a mid-major school than to blindly go to a perennial top-10 program.
Let's say I am a 5-star player, around 6'7" with the talent of a Lebron James or similar. I can go to any school in the country and be a star. I know that. To me the question becomes where can I go to experience the biggest challenge to me as a player and a person? I have no doubt about my ability to excel at these schools against the level of competition they regularly face. But what kind of program would offer me the greatest sense of accomplishment once my career is over? I say it is a mid-major like, dare I say Bowling Green.
If I go to UNC or Duke or somewhere like that the most I can hope to accomplish is to simply help maintain that program at the level they already are. A top ten program like North Carolina, Duke or a dozen others will still be a top ten program with or without me. I will be more or less a maintenance man, maintaing what is already in place.
However, if I go to Bowling Green, or any other mid-major program I can help build that program to the level of the elite programs. I trust my abilities and now I can use them to elevate my school rather than simply maintain it. When I watch the "big boys" play I look at the benches and wonder how many high school All-Americans are sitting on the end of those benches, stagnating, because they have never had the opportunity to play and get better. They would have been better served going to a school that offerred an opportunity to play rather than simply spectate.
I think of what Larry Bird did while at Indiana State. He lifted that non-descript program from obscurity to the championship game of the Final Four. Playing at Indiana State didn't seem to hurt his career in college or the pros. I wonder how far do you think Akron could have gone had Lebron joined his high school teammates, Romeo Travis and Dru Joyce? They might have been a Final Four team. That's my rant for the week. What do you think?

Interesting thought about the top notch players deciding to go to a mid-major school. For some it would probably be a good thing, Maybe not those with the talent of Lebron James. I dont think it is the McDonald all American crowd that gets stuck on the bench at these programs. Most of the time it is the kids in the top 60-100 range that might go to a power school and not get the playing time to develope. IMO it is better for the NBA prospects to go to big-time schools. Greg Oden and Dequan Cook are reaping the benefits. Kevin Durant took the challenge of leading a "rebuilding" Texas team this year. For the top notch kids, the challenge of being the man on a power team is there.

To answer your question of how good Akron could have been if Lebron James stayed with Joyce and Travis at Akron.... they would have dominated, but Lebron would have had to wait on his 90 million dollar shoe deal. Not many in their right mind are passing that up.

Just yesterday on WKNR out of Cleveland, Kenny Roda had Keith Dambrot, Akron's hoops coach on. They were briefly talking about "what if" Lebron had went to college. Dambrot seemed to feel that Lebron would have played for him, with Dru Joyce and Romeo Travis. He also felt that Akron, with those three could have hung with just about anyone in the country. As much as I love Lebron leading the Cavaliers, and as much as I'm not an Akron fan, I would have loved to have watched a player of his caliber at any MAC school. It would have been a great ride and we could have finally shut up some of the obsessed Big 10 fans who frequent these parts!

Most of you won't remember this but Walter Luckett who graduated from Ohio U in 1975 was the #1 high school player coming out in 1971 and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Was a good but not a great player. Number 2 draft choice of the Pistons but I'm not sure if he every played in the NBA.

LeBron is now saying that he would have played for o$u. He goes where the $ is.

Tricky_Falcon wrote:LeBron is now saying that he would have played for o$u. He goes to wear the $ is.

LB says that because he plays in Cleveland, and just about every uneducated reject in this town (and they are mostly uneducated, God bless this city) is totally gay for OSU (and I mean really gay (not that there is anything wrong with that (oh wait...there is, in this case))). That SOB would have played for Dambrot in a heartbeat, wherever he was.

I've often wondered about the same thing. There are a good number of kids in the 50-200 range sitting on big-school benches that could be actually playing elsewhere.

Let's think about a few names: Antonio Daniels, Chris Kamen, Wally Szczerbiak, and Bonzi Wells. Where would any of those guys be today if they had spent their 1st 2 years averaging 8 mpg at a school like UConn?