College Basketball Preview: Coaches Aim to Recruit for Today; Players Have Eyes on Tomorrow

By BILL FINLEY

Across America, the college games have begun, the excitement is reaching a fever pitch, and coaches are imploring their players to give a little more blood, a little more sweat and a few more tears, all for the greater glory of So and So U. And the players all seem to have one thing on their minds: How and when do I make it to the N.B.A.?

"The kids we recruit are looking for the same things the kids at North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky are looking for," St. Joseph's Coach Phil Martelli said. "Every kid wants to play early and measure himself to see if he can pursue the lifetime dream of playing in the N.B.A."

N.B.A. teams have been allowed to draft college underclassmen since 1976, but it has only been over the last six or seven years that the mad dash from college to the pros and the promises they offer seem to have swept through the game with tidal-wave force. Twenty-nine college players made themselves eligible for the N.B.A. draft in 2003 and 38 did so in 2002. Of those 67, 31 were freshmen or sophomores.

The days of college seniors dominating the draft are gone. The first senior taken this year was the seventh pick, Kirk Hinrich, while the high schooler LeBron James was the top pick, and two freshmen and a sophomore went in the top 10. In 2002, the first senior selected was Melvin Ely, the 12th pick. Three sophomores and a freshman were taken before him.

The watershed year for underclassmen may have been 1996 when 29 college players declared for early entry, a bumper crop that included Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Stephon Marbury, Ray Allen and Antoine Walker. Since then, the world of college basketball has never been the same.

Teams are built overnight and crumble just as quickly. There is more parity. Coaches struggle to find the right chemistry and formulas, a proper blend of young talent and veteran leadership.

"When this all started, we all thought there'd be 15 or 20 kids who'd come out a year," said Bobby Cremins, the former Georgia Tech coach. "I never could have envisioned in a 100 years that it would be 45 or 50 kids. Where do they all fit in? The pro game gets hurt. The college game gets hurt."

Not always - there is an upside to successfully recruiting the best high school talent, even when they have no intention of staying for four years. Never was that more evident than last season when the freshman Carmelo Anthony averaged 22.2 points and 10 rebounds a game in leading Syracuse to the N.C.A.A. championship. Syracuse's opponent in the championship game, Kansas, was a veteran, tournament-tested team led by the seniors Hinrich and Nick Collison, but it made no difference. Syracuse had the best player, and it won.

It was a win-win situation for Anthony and for Syracuse - Syracuse won a championship and Anthony developed the kind of star power that led to a rich N.B.A. contract with the Denver Nuggets and millions of dollars in endorsements.

"It never crossed my mind that Carmelo would be here for less than two years," Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. "He was 185 pounds and then he gained 35 pounds in less than a year. He became physical enough. If he weighed 190 or 200 pounds, he wouldn't have been the player he became; he'd still be playing here and we never would have won a national championship last season.

"He had a great attitude when he was here. He never missed study table or class and he passed everything. At the end, it was obvious he had to go. He was ready. He made so much money from being here. He never would have gotten those kind of endorsements had he never been here."

It's not about how long they will stay or the consequences of their early exits. It's all about getting them in. Everyone wants to find the next Anthony. Maybe this year it will be Duke's Luol Deng, Arizona's Mustafa Shakur or California's Leon Powe. Maybe next year it will be Joshua Smith, a 6-foot-9 power forward who comes from the same program that produced Anthony, the prep basketball power Oak Hill Academy of Virginia. He has committed to Indiana.

"To them college is a steppingstone," Oak Hill Coach Steve Smith said. "They're all hoping to go to the N.B.A., even the marginal ones. I've had over 100 kids go Division I, and some of them have been really level-headed kids. They'll all skip two or three stones if they can. If they can get there quicker, they will. It's hard to blame them."

Next season, Joshua Smith will be one of those nice problems for Indiana Coach Mike Davis to have, that is if he doesn't go directly to the N.B.A. Steve Smith said N.B.A. scouts have shown up to every one of Oak Hill's games this season. Davis can only hope that he gets Smith and that he stays for a year or two, has a good attitude and is not a distraction. Anything else is an almost unimaginable bonus in the current climate.

"I don't even worry about it," said Davis, who lost Jared Jeffries to the N.B.A. after his sophomore year. "You just want to get them in and work with them for a year or two while they're here."

Davis said it was vital to surround the talented younger players who might not be around for long with steady veteran leadership, players who become role models through the hard work and steadiness they display on and off the court.

At Georgia Tech during the 1995-96 season, the sudden departure of a heralded freshman, Marbury, created problems for the program for years afterward. Cremins scored a coup when he enticed Marbury, arguably the top recruit in the country, to come to Georgia Tech. Marbury helped the team, but the season ended in the third round of the N.C.A.A. tournament with a loss to Cincinnati. Cremins was not prepared for Marbury's departure after that year and had a huge hole at point guard that he could not fill.

"I fell asleep at the wheel," Cremins said. "Stephon did the right thing, and he was a great kid I enjoyed coaching. We had a great year with him. But I was stupid. For some crazy notion, I thought he might stay two years. When he turned pro, I went out scrambling. We definitely took a dip after that. The year after he left, we really struggled. For the next four years, we didn't make the N.C.A.A. tournament and I resigned. I couldn't bring the program back."

But nobody can resist the Marburys or the Carmelo Anthonys. At the least, they will guarantee extra victories for a season or two.

With so many players leaving, there is less distance between the top and the bottom teams. Syracuse might have created a dynasty around Anthony had he stayed for four years. Instead, it will hope that the three returning starters and the highly regarded freshman Terrence Roberts can somehow make up for his loss.

Will the Orangemen be better than Gonzaga? The Zags are the type of mid-major team that cannot necessarily attract the very best high school players but can get solid athletes who will stay for four years. This year, they start four seniors and might be good enough to compete with anyone, something that may never have happened in the past.

It is the new reality of college basketball. Four years of college is almost a last resort, only for those who cannot yet fulfill their goal, to play in the N.B.A. Everything else comes in second.

Copyright © 2003 by The New York Times