Let it be known that I watched a good portion of the NFL Draft’s 1st Round. And had I been at home and not at someone else’s house I would have made better use of my time. Here are some of things that caught my eye.
- It was six hours for 32 picks. Six. Freaking. Hours. Am I the only one who thinks this is a problem? Doesn’t the NFL care that they subject their own people to this level of tedious boredom? Six hours for the whole draft might be more in line but six hours for each team to take one turn picking someone borders on excessive in ways I cannot describe. I mean I can cook Thanksgiving turkey faster than that.
- Brady Quinn’s fall from potential top five multi, multi-millionaire to just plain multi-millionaire was humorous and sad all at the same time. And when I say sad I am not talking about the money. Quinn will get a good contract and with his endorsements he will make plenty of coin. The sad part was ESPN and their repeated beating of Quinn on every pick that went by after Miami passed on him. Quinn was getting shown even when a team that had absolutely no need for a QB passed on him. Someone at the NFL decided Quinn had twisted in the wind long enough and placed him somewhere private where he undoubtedly ripped his agent to shreds on the phone.
- Mel Kiper apparently graded everyone below A this year and I am really wondering if he was peeved some teams did not draft the players he thought they should draft. I think with Kiper this schtick started out as a great idea with him expertly projecting college players in draft has grown(along with his hair) to him expressing a bit of an ego as well. The problem with grades is no one knows how it will all turn out so grading the teams now is like evaluating seed.
- No Tar Heels were taken in the draft though Jesse Holley was picked up as an undrafted free agent. NC State had three defensive players taken to go along with the four from last year which included #1 pick Mario “I Drive 65″ Williams. Amazingly enough, despite the obvious NFL talent, NC State finished with the same record as UNC who had none.
- The funniest part of the draft was when the analysts were discussing Calvin Johnson and talked about his ability to adjust to bad throws while implying that he had learned to do so from many opportunities to practice. Of course if Johnson thought Reggie Ball was bad wait until he deals with the Detroit QB ranks.
- Roger Goodell is close to being a fascist dictator. All these years I thought David Stern was the unquestioned hardline commissioner who ruled with absolute authority. Then Goodell comes along and starts suspending players for things they do off the field of play which has usually been the purview of the team since they are the employer. Goodell has raised the stakes in an effort to the keep the image of the league as pristine as possible. So the question we really ought to be asking is not which one of these first rounders will make the Pro Bowl first but which one will be the first to get slapped by Goodell with a long suspension for being stupid away from the stadium. And yes, somewhere David Stern is taking notes and feeling awfully jealous.
Hat tip to Carolina March for this article which evaluates the previous 14 Tar Heels to declare for the NBA draft early. Basically the evaluations are made based on whether the player in questions made a mistake or not going early. Among those who are said to have made a mistake leaving early are: J.R. Reid, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Jeff McInnis, Vince Carter, and Joseph Forte.
I will give you no argument on Forte. As it turns out he is one of the more disappointing stories in UNC basketball history having such an incredible first two seasons only to go pro early and hit rock bottom. Two of the individuals in this group, McInnis and Reid, may have been in Dean’s doghouse. In fact I seem to recall it being said at one point that Dean received assurances from the then Charlotte Hornets that they would take Reid to entice him to leave. McInnis did not seem to be doing all that well after Wallace and Stackhouse left so it was better in terms of the program for him to leave.
As for the other three, I am a bit mystified why they are considered in the “should have stayed” group. Stackhouse was an All-American as a sophomore and SI named him POY. Like anyone else he would have benefited from another year but it is hard to think he made a mistake when he went into the NBA and averaged 19.2 ppg while being named to the All Rookie team. Looking at Carter, I am not sure how you say Jamison was right to leave but not Carter who was Rookie of the Year in his first season in the NBA. The biggest stain on Carter’s record is the fact he tanked half a season in Toronto to facilitate a trade somewhere else which is not a great character move on his part. Statistically he has been better than Jamison and has been a part of more playoff caliber teams. Where Wallace is concerned there may be some merit to the point but at the same time I am not sure another season would have altered his career too much from the path that it took. Wallace may have benefited from a quicker start to his career but I do not know that his maturity level would have been all that improved.
Among those who were “right to leave” no one in their right mind is going to argue with McAdoo, Jordan, and Worthy. Felton had to hit it when his stock was highest. As did McCants and May. If you remove that aspect of it then I would think the latter two should have stayed for the purposes of further development. Williams also had to go because the potential was high and thus far his career seems to be on an upward tick.
It will be interesting to see how it pans out for Brandan Wright. Roy said the Wright could use more physical maturity and strengthening so in respect to that and the fact he is being drafted high on potential, we will not know for a while what kind of decision this was for the freshman.
UVA’s Sean Singletary and Clemson’s James May tossed their names into the NBA draft but neither plans to hire an agent or do anything to jeopardize their amateur status. So now they can go through the workouts and draft camps to get a measure on where they might fall and what they may be missing in their game. If June 18 comes around and the draft experts are projecting them somewhere south of San Antonio’s pick then they can head back to their team.
Now I am fairly certain both of these guys are coming back. I think they are doing what a lot of juniors should do and that is use the process that is available to them to gain a better understanding of what the NBA scouts are looking for so they can do a better job of preparing themselves for when they will go to the draft after their senior season.
So while Cavalier and Tiger nation are probably feeling some pain right now, I would expect by June 18th they will see both these guys returning. If not UVa for sure and Clemson as well will be in a world of hurt.
From ACC Now:
“The NBA is not our partner; they can act like that all they want to, but they see college basketball as competition,” Williams said. “And every rule they make is what’s best for them. They don’t make rules for the good of the kid; give me a break.
“The rule that they changed that everyone go to college for one year, that enables them to evaluate Brandan Wright against great competition so they’ll make better evaluations. They don’t have to evaluate Brandan Wright against five guys that are 5-11 surrounding them in the post like they have … in high school. And when they make those evaluations in the past, they can make some decisions that weren’t the best in the world, but I think the rule of going to college for one year gives them the chance to evaluate that players against better competition.
“… Ninety percent of the time, it would have been a better scenario for the kids to go for two years — or pick a number, maybe even three — because Brandan himself knows the only negative is maturing, getting physically stronger, building his body up. And you can do that in college much easier, and be more ready to play in the NBA.
“But the NBA drafts on potential and I think every rule they make is what’s best for the NBA. And make sure we understand that.”
Roy nailed it perfectly and I really have nothing to add.
Now that Brandan Wright has decided to head for the NBA we can take a look at what this team will look like when practice opens up next season. Right up front I will state that I think UNC should open the 2007-08 season as the #1 team in the country. They will have the talent they need at every position with more than adequate backups. I also believe that the experience of last season, the loss to Georgetown, and the continued emergence of Marcus Ginyard and Tyler Hansbrough as vocal leaders will give this team the edge it was missing last season. I fully expect the Heels will have plenty of toughness as well as being highly motivated to redeem themselves from that final six minutes of regulation in the regional final.
Continue reading ‘Now We Can Talk About Next Year’
Update #2: It’s official. Wright is putting his name in the draft BUT is not hiring an agent, at least not yet anyway. Roy said it was likely he would not withdraw.
Update: UNC has scheduled a 4 PM press conference for today to announce Wright’s intentions.
According to Draft Expess the announcement will be made on Monday.
North Carolina freshman Brandan Wright will be announcing his intentions to enter the NBA draft on Monday, multiple sources told DraftExpress Saturday evening.
Wright had been going back and forth on whether to declare or not for the past few weeks, but finally decided to put his name in the draft after meeting with Roy Williams this weekend and being urged by the North Carolina head coach himself to not pass up the opportunity of being a top 5 pick.
Wright’s next move will be to hire an agent.
Of course this surprises absolutey no one and we wish Brandan Wright all the best heading into the NBA and thank him for his contributions this season.
I honestly have never been able to figure out why the NCAA is completely incapable of nuance. The powers that be in Indianopolis are set to hand down another edict, this one a complete ban on the use of text messaging by coaches during the recruiting process.
Now, I understand the concerns, the text messaging bills some recruit might get saddled with as well as the concern that coaches are using it as a loophole. Then again I also have to ask why the NCAA who is staffed and run by administrators who are allegedly smarter than the rest of us cannot come up with a reasonable solution which is not just an outright ban? Why is these folks are wholly inept when it comes to setting up some kind of framework with addresses the actual problem while at the same time cuts down on abuses?
The answer lies in enforcement and given the nature of text messaging it would be very difficult to track who is doing what without some level of reporting from the recruits themselves. Then again, why not allow the recruits to make that decision and cut off these coaches if it is overwhelming and if the coaches do not desists give them an option to report the coach to the NCAA for failing to back off. The logical fallacy I find in what the NCAA is trying to do is they are assuming that the coaches hold all the cards in these relationships when in reality it is quite the opposite. If a player asks a coach to stop messaging him and that coach refuses then that recruit should remove that school from consideration. In other words, the recruits can dictate the terms of communication because any recruiter worth a grain of sand is not going to do anything which upsets the relationship with the recruit. And I know this kind of self policing makes the regulation heavy NCAA a little queasy but I also think it is how it should work.
Also, let me point out that there is no way on this green earth that the NCAA found a majority of student athletes who told them they wanted text messaging done away with. There is a reason they all have cell phones and text messaging options, because it is a preferred method of communication. I think this is even more of the case when they are dealing with coaches because to one extent it permits communication that can be answered when it is more convenient for the recruit and allows them to drop a quick answer back to the coach.
In short the NCAA would rather throw a huge blanket on it rather than actually issue some common sense guidelines. It really does not get more asinine than that.
April 20th was indicated by Roy as the earliest possible day we could get some indication on whether Brandan Wright is staying or going. Given that news like this usually breaks 12-14 hours ahead of the actual press conference it looks like it will not be today. Also add to that the fact the Buckeye trio of Oden, Conley, and Cook(yes Cook) are declaring their intentions today and it is fairly certain nothing will be known on Wright until next week. If I had to guess I would think Tuesday would be the day.
So is Wright staying or going? I honestly have no idea nor do I have any sources. It does appear to be a honest struggle to make a decision and I cannot be sure to what extent Wright is waiting as long as possible to see who else comes out and how that might impact his status. The two greatest dangers for Wright coming back are the risk of injury and the possibility he could lose that “great potential/upside” label. I happen to think, given his skills, it really does not make a difference where his stock is concerned. The risk of an injury is very real and he also has to answer the question of whether he would like to take the money now rather than a year from now.
My own personal opinion is that it is 60-40 in favor of Wright leaving which is actually much closer than I thought at the end of the season.
Let me take a moment to put on my UNC Greensboro cap since that is what the degree says and point out that Winthrop has hired assistant coach Randy Peele to head the basketball program. Peele replaces Greg Marshall who finally got a clue that his star had risen high enough to get the heck out of Rock Hill.
Who is Randy Peele might you ask?
Peele was the head coach at UNCG from 1995 to 1999 going 46-69 before being dismissed for not being a very good coach. In fact of his 46 wins, 23 of them came in the first season when he took over for Mike Dement(who is head coach there again) when Dement took the job at SMU which incidentally is currently held by former UNC coach and player Matt Doherty. That 1995-96 team won the Big South and went to the NCAA Tournament losing by five to #2 seeded Cincinnati. It was all downhill from there and since I was working in the SID office my senior year I got front row seats for every home game as the Spartans sputtered along to obscurity. The fact of the matter was Peele could not recruit and his coaching was not all that spectacular either thus the fairly horrid record over the final years. In Peele’s defense he was around 37 when he took the UNCG job which is fairly young in terms of coaches which I would imagine makes recruiting a more difficult task.
Greg Marshall built a great program at Winthrop which means Peele will probably get the same early bump he got in Greensboro but could face a possible crash and burn if the recruiting pipeline dries up in the absence of Marshall. Let’s face it, Marshall made Winthrop what it was. If memory serves, Winthrop was a doormat in the Big South while I was attending UNCG and then Marshall showed up making into a mid-major threat. While Peele was apparently a key part of that success, much of the credit still goes to Marshall for getting the whole program rolling. Perhaps Peele can build on his experiences since the UNCG debacle and maintain much the same level as Marshall did.
Otherwise, folks in Rock Hill better prepare themselves for a stunning fall from mid-major glory such as it is.
![[Bloglines]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Technorati]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Loading ...
Recent Comments