True Centers in College Are on Verge of Extinction

[Michael Ryan]

I thought this was in interesting article about the lack of true
center's in the college game. 
Not Bearcat related directly, but worth a look. 

Mike Ryan

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March 2, 2003
True Centers in College Are on Verge of Extinction
By Joe Drape, NY Times
 
Matt Doherty was in the midst of a 26-victory first season as the coach
of his alma mater when he singled out four high school big men to lure
to Chapel Hill, to wear that North Carolina blue and help keep the Tar
Heels among the traditional powers in college basketball. His hopes did
not survive the spring.  

"Three of them went pro," Doherty said.

One of them, 6-foot-11-inch, 285-pound Eddy Curry, was drafted fourth by
the Chicago Bulls in the 2001 NBA draft; another, the 7-foot, 315-pound
center DeSagana Diop, was picked eighth by the Cleveland Cavaliers; the
third, Ousmane Cisse, was selected in the second round by the Denver
Nuggets. The overall No. 1 pick that year was another high school star,
6-11 Kwame Brown, as was the third pick, 7-1 Tyson Chandler.  "You're
seeing more teams with power forwards and no centers," Doherty said.
"It's more a wing or perimeter game."

In that same NBA draft, Eddie Griffin (6-10, 232) was selected seventh
after one year at Seton Hall and Zach Randolph (6-9, 270) was the 19th
pick upon leaving Michigan State after his freshman year. 

The philosophical debates continue - development as a player versus that
as a person, money versus education - but the fact is the way the
college game is being played has changed.

Any or all of those players might have contended for this year's
Naismith Award, which, since 1969, has been given to college
basketball's player of the year and has been won by such iconic centers
as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Patrick Ewing and Tim Duncan. This
year, however, only 6 of the Naismith's 20 finalists can be considered
frontcourt players, and none are true centers.

"Big people these days are at such a premium that they are being rushed
to the NBA," Chris Ekstrand, the editor of the NBA draft guide, said.
"If you are 6-9 or bigger and weigh 240 pounds or more and are athletic,
you are going to find a place in the league. The feeling is that - we
can do something with that. Every NBA team now has four or five coaches,
and they'll do the developing."

The NBA has had success with that approach, the prime example being the
high school-to-All-Star evolution of Kevin Garnett. While Brown, Curry,
Diop and the rest of the young players of the class of 2001 have had a
modest impact in the league as they learn, Amare Stoudemire of the
Phoenix Suns - 6-10, 245 pounds - is a front-runner to capture
rookie-of-the-year honors straight out of the preps with his 13-point,
9-rebound average.

The frontcourt players who remain in college are not necessarily
inferior professional prospects, but there are not as many of them and
most are still developing their physical attributes as well as the
polish to play in the pros.

David West of Xavier is perhaps the best of the college game's big
players, but it took him four years to put muscle on what is now a 6-9,
240-pound frame. He also needed the time to evolve from a
9-points-a-game freshman into a senior who averages 20 points and 12
rebounds and has led the Musketeers to a No. 13 ranking in the
Associated Press poll. 

"He's done a terrific job of carrying a team," said Skip Prosser, who
recruited West as the coach at Xavier before taking the same job at Wake
Forest. "He's become an excellent player and that's no doubt because of
the four years he stayed at Xavier."

Still, Ekstrand and other professional scouts project West as a power
forward in the NBA with a long, solid career ahead of him. No one
compares him to Garnett or says he will be a surefire All-Star. 

They are similarly subdued when discussing the fellow frontcourt
Naismith finalists Nick Collison (6-9, 255) of Kansas, Brian Cook (6-10,
240) of Illinois, Matt Bonner (6-10, 240) of Florida, Mario Austin (6-9,
260) of Mississippi State and Mike Sweetney (6-8, 260) of Georgetown. 

"How many centers are in the NBA, the league where the best players in
the world are?" Texas Coach Rick Barnes said. "We've got big men working
on skills earlier, and the emphasis now is being able to do things other
than having your back to the basket."

The influx of big Europeans in the NBA has only accelerated the trend;
the 7-0 Dallas Maverick forward Dirk Nowitzki is just as comfortable
launching 3-point shots as he is fighting for position for rebounds.
Shaquille O'Neal has long proclaimed himself the last of the classic
centers, and until 7-6 Yao Ming showed up he was correct.

"The NBA is a wing game, too," said Louisville Coach Rick Pitino, who
spent three and a half years as the coach of the Boston Celtics. "But it
is becoming rarer and rarer in college to come up with a legitimate big
man."

Just as professional teams have turned promising high school talent into
patient projects, college coaches are casting a wider net for big
bodies. Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton took a chance on the freshman
Frans Steyn, a 7-2, 306-pounder who played rugby and was a nationally
ranked shot-putter in his native South Africa. He had never played
basketball, however, until arriving in Stillwater, Okla., and he is
already averaging five minutes a game.

Pitino scours the country for the next Nazr Mohammed, a 6-10, 245-pound
center he recruited and coached at Kentucky who now plays for the
Atlanta Hawks. 

"You're looking for a 6-9 or 6-10 guy whose body is not there," Pitino
said. "Nazr was grossly overweight and I knew I could slim him down.
You're out there looking for projects."

Coaches, too, understand that there remain some high school seniors and
underclassmen that are not in a hurry to reach the NBA. One of them is
David Harrison, a 7-0 center at Colorado who is leading the Big 12 in
blocked shots, averaging 13 points and 8 rebounds, and has the Buffaloes
(16-10) on the doorstep of their first NCAA tournament berth since
1996-97. 

He is the fourth center that eluded North Carolina's Doherty in the
spring of 2001, opting to play at Colorado with his brother DJ, who was
a senior last year. Perhaps more painful for the Carolina faithful is
that Harrison announced last week that he would return to Boulder for
his junior year and even left open the possibility of staying to
graduate.  In Colorado, hope for the development of a classic collegiate
center survives - at least for another year.  

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And before you say Curry and Chandler are a bust, I read where Curry led
the NBA in February field-goal percentage (64.2) and had scored double
digits in seven straight games. Chandler was averaging 14 points, 10
rebounds and 2 blocks since the All-Star break.