Yes, you read the title correctly.
Mark Emmert, probably the most hated man outside of Bob Knight and Digger Phelps, in Kentucky actually defended the One and Done rule within the context of John Calipari.
This from the USAToday.com:
[LEFT][COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial][I]”How do you handle the Boeheims and Caliparis of the profession and the powerful programs behind them?”[/I][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial][I]Emmert responded with a defense of Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Calipari and college basketball.
He explained that the rule behind the one-and-done issue was drafted by the [URL=”http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Sports+Leagues/NBA”]NBA[/URL] and its players’ union and that he and others in college athletics don’t care a lick for it. Calipari himself says he doesn’t like it.
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“We’re hopeful those rules get changed, but they’re not ours to change,” Emmert told the questioner.[/I][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial][I]”Maybe we’ll get at least a two-and-done. I don’t know where it’s going to wind up. But I certainly hope that we can see some change there because I think it makes a travesty of the whole notion of student as athlete.”
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In a brief interview afterward, Emmert was asked whether he nonetheless had any discomfort with Calipari’s recruitment of multiple one-and-done players who spend a single year on campus, then leave for the NBA. Eight of the 40 players drafted by the NBA as freshmen the past six years came out of Calipari’s programs at Memphis and Kentucky, and the Wildcats team favored to win this year’s NCAA tournament is expected to yield several more.
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“If we need to change the rules because we think that’s creating an atmosphere that’s antithetical to collegiate athletes, then we ought to change the rules,” Emmert said. “… I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be critical of somebody who’s playing inside the rules even though I don’t like the rule.”
[URL=”http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/story/2012-03-23/mark-emmert-one-and-done-calipari/53737052/1″]Read Entire Article[/URL][/I][/FONT][/COLOR][/LEFT]
