Written by Perry Missner at Hoops Manifesto
If a person were to look for easy sports narratives (and who isn’t?), then Tuesday night’s Champions Classic from Chicago made for an easy one for college coaches: to freshman or not to freshman. It’s not as if Bill Self and Tom Izzo wouldn’t give their eye teeth to get freshman classes laden with talent, but there are only one-and-done players to go around. Right now, Duke and Kentucky have nearly cornered the market, so Kansas has to take a flyer on the currently ineligible Cheick Diallo and Michigan State gets bench minutes from Devonta Davis. Izzo and Self can tout player development, but they have brought in one-and-doners before (remember Wiggins and Embiid, and to a lesser extent, Gary Harris?). So, if that hypothetical person in the first sentence were lazy, he could say that Kansas and Michigan State develop talent, while Kentucky and Duke just rent it. I am certainly lazy, but I’m not that lazy.
Every year the Champions Classic is an interesting referendum on four of the best programs in college basketball. It seems like it is best when the Blue Devils and Wildcats meet, but I can’t really complain about the other match ups. I just wish there were more events like this. Perhaps that is just being greedy, but why couldn’t four other teams meet annually. Let’s see: how about Arizona, North Carolina, Villanova, and Ohio State? For now, I’ll be content with the Champions Classic and let the wonderful people who run college basketball sort everything else out.
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