'One and Done' College Basketball Players

In the past few years, the concept of 'one and done' college basketball players - freshmen who enter the NBA Draft after just one season of college ball - has become increasingly prevalent.  There is much debate over this issue, and three common opinions prevail:
         
            1. 'One and done' is okay
            2. These players should be forced to play two years (or be two years removed from high school)
            3. They should be able to go pro directly out of high school. Something high profile players such as Lebron James and Kobe Bryant have successfully done.

While it is understood that star point guards such as Kyrie Irving and Derrick Rose missed out on their college experience by declaring for the NBA Draft after just one year in college, let's take a look at the impact eliminating the concept of 'one and done' would potentially have on the 2014 NBA Draft, which is being hyped as possibly one of the best of drafts of all time.

According to a recent mock draft, done by www.draftnet.com, 5 of the top 7 projected picks are college freshman, and another is an international player from Australia who is the same age.  So, changing the 'one and done' rule would eliminate the eligibility of all of the projected top 7 picks except for one: Marcus Smart, a sophomore from Oklahoma State.

This is a huge difference. Prospects like Andrew Wiggins, pictured above, are being considered the best players to come out of high school since LeBron James back in 2003.  His teammate at Kansas, center Joel Embiid, has only been playing basketball for a few years since moving to the United States from Cameroon and was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.

Jabari Parker, another freshman phenom being coached by Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University, is potentially the #1 pick in this year's draft.  He, like Derrick Rose, an MVP back in 2010-11, is from Chicago and went to Simeon High School - most people believe that Parker was a better talent than Rose was coming out of high school.

The bottom line is that recent drafts have been dominated by players leaving after their freshman year of college.  The entire landscape of the NBA Draft will be different if this rule is eliminated.  If a rule change occurs, due to the belief that these players are either not mature enough or need to get a better college education, then the way we look at the breakdown of both college basketball and the NBA will change completely.