Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Best of the One-and-Done Era: 2006-Present




The Best of the One-and-Done Era: 2006-Present









 The one-and-done era in college basketball has taken coaching careers to the next level (Coach Cal, Thad Matta), brought down programs (U.S.C, Indiana), and changed the way the blue bloods (Kansas, Duke, UCLA) plan their recruiting classes. Unlike the high school to the NBA era, coaches must now plan to balance their recruiting classes between one year wonders and three to four year program guys. Recently, UCLA and UNC have been most successful at achieving this balance.

The Bruins have utilized some great one-and-done type talent like Kevin Love, Jrue Holliday , and Russell Westbrooks (2yr player but still a one and done type) while also recruiting solid program guys like Darren Collison, Josh Shipp, and Alfred Aboya.

Although UCLA has had great success in the one-and-done era, no program has mixed and matched short term talent with long term program builders. UNC has kept a keen eye on program guys (Hansbrough, Ellington, Lawson, Deon Thompson, Tyler Zeller) who also are talented. The secret to the Tar Heels success, however, is their ability to incorporate one-and-done players. Both Marvin Williams and Brandan Wright were key components to slick Roy’s two national titles. Without further ado here is my all-time one-and-done teams.

All-Time One-and-Done Teams

1st Team

Name
College
High School
Notes
Greg Oden
Ohio State
Lawrence North (IND) #1 Rivals
1st team AA. Nat’l title runner up.
Kevin Durant
Texas
Montrose Christian (MD) #2 Rivals
Nat’l POY
Michael Beasley
Kansas State
N.D Prep (MA) #1 Rivals
Nat’l POY
O.J Mayo
U.S.C
Huntington (WV) #4 Rivals
1st team PAC 10
Derrick Rose
Memphis
Simeon (ILL) #3 Rivals
3rd team AA. Nat’l title runner up.



2nd Team

Name
College
High School
Notes
Kevin Love
U.C.L.A
Lake Oswego (OR) #6 Rivals
1st team AA, PAC 10 POY, Final Four
Derrick Favors
Georgia Tech
South Atlanta (GA) #3 Rivals
ACC ROY
Thaddeus Young
Georgia Tech
Mitchell (TN) #5 Rivals
ACC all-rookie team
Eric Gordon
Indiana
North Central (IND) #2 Rivals
Big Ten ROY, 3rd team AA
John Wall
Kentucky
Word of God (NC) #1 Rivals
Nat’l POY


3rd Team

Name
College
High School
Notes
DeMarcus Cousins
Kentucky
Leflore (AL) #2 Rivals
1st team AA
Brandan Wright
U.N.C
Brentwood Academy (TN) #3 Rivals
Nat’l Title
Xavier Henry
Kansas
Putnum City (OK) #8 Rivals
1st team Nat’l freshman team
Demar DeRozan
U.S.C
Compton (CA) #3 Rivals
PAC 10 All Freshmen team
Tyreke Evans
Memphis
American Christian (PA) #6 Rivals
POY finalist.

1 comment:

Sumner Widdoes said...

It should be noted that Russell Westbrook was not seen at all as a one-and-done type when he arrived in Westwood. At that point he was just a long, rangy off-guard with few refined skills just trying to make the Bruins' rotation. I believe it was his freshman year, though, that Darren Collison injured his wrist and Russell was thrust into the spotlight. It soon became apparent that his athleticism was so phenomenal that, at least in the college game, he could mask some ballhandling and passing deficiencies. His development into a bona fide NBA superstar, therefore, can be credited as much to his unreal natural abilities, which I think is the defining characteristic of the one-and-done superstar, and coaching at the college level.

Blake Griffin is an especially interesting case, as far as the one-and-dones go. He ranked #21 on Scout.com in the vaunted high school class of 2007 (The entire cast of Gunnin For That #1 Spot) and was solid, if not tantalizing during his freshman year -- 14.7, 9.1, 56%. Jeff Caple's handling of that recruitment likely determined the fate of the Oklahoma program for the next three years, and ultimately cost Caple his job. Coming from VCU and after playing at Duke, I think it's safe to say the world of one-and-done recruiting caught him by surprise.