ATLANTA – It’s time for college coaches to face up to their own folly.
They continue the dogged pursuit of the elite high school players whose intention is to use college as a pit stop on the speedway to the NBA. These players will get a coach some 25 wins. The coach will get a contract extension. The boosters will get to think their school signed the next Jordan.
What a school won’t get is a national championship. Unless it’s also recruited program players, players who will stay three or four years. Players such as Maryland’s Lonny Baxter, Juan Dixon and Byron Mouton.
They are the latest seniors to lead their team to the national championship. They combined for 37 points, 23 rebounds, eight steals, four assists, four blocked shots, and countless big plays in the Terps’ 64-52 win over Indiana Monday.
“They’re mature people,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said of his seniors. “They realize that college is a limited number of years. Whatever basketball holds for them after college, it’s going to be there. They’ve only improved their situation by staying the four years.”
The same is true of Duke’s Shane Battier and Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves. Those players have a national championship ring. They also have their NBA contract.
Not every player should stay the four. Maryland sophomore forward Chris Wilcox probably will forego his final two years for the NBA draft. At 6-foot-10 with springs for legs and the makings of a jumper, he can develop into an elite NBA player.
Wilcox made some big plays for the Terps, but it was Baxter, Dixon and Mouton who made the key plays. Wilcox was a terrific complement.
When Indiana took its only lead of the game, 44-42, it took Dixon just eight seconds to answer with a 3 that put Maryland back in front to stay.
When Steve Blake missed a 3 with 3:56 left and Maryland trying to protect a four-point lead, it was Mouton who made a great offensive rebound save that led to a Drew Nicholas layup.
Baxter was the unstoppable force inside, posting a double-double and neutralizing Indiana star Jared Jeffries, who should stay in Bloomington. Any player who describes himself as frail should stay in school.
Maryland won 110 games over the last four years. Dixon was there for every one of them. Baxter was there for 107.
None of the Maryland seniors is as talented as former Maryland star Steve Francis, who played one season (1998-99). The Terps won 28 games but were ousted by St. John’s in the regional semifinals.
A Seton Hall team built around freshman Eddie Griffin didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament. Alabama went 8-8 in SEC play last year with freshman Gerald Wallace and won the league title without him this year.
Dixon said many times over the weekend that Williams took a chance on a 6-foot-3, 163-pound shooting guard. It seems the coaches who go for the elite prep player are taking a bigger chance.