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| NCAA Elite 8 |
Of the three teams that have punched their tickets to the Final Four, only one of them boasts a player with a household name. That team is UConn, and that player is the great Kemba Walker.
The other two teams are Butler and VCU, and my guess is that your average college basketball fan can't name a single player on either team. This is by no means meant to belittle the contributions of players like Matt Howard, Shelvin Mack, Jame Skeen, and Bradford Burgess. It's just how it is.
As we speak, the North Carolina Tar Heels and Kentucky Wildcats are battling for the last spot in the Final Four. Both teams are chock-full of blue chip players, and it is therefore no surprise that they are already giving us a pretty good game.
On the Carolina side of the ball, they have themselves a player in freshman forward Harrison Barnes that could be one of the first five players off the board when the NBA Draft rolls around later this summer. He could very well be joined in the first round by sophomore forward John Henson if he also decides to go pro.
The Wildcats also have a couple of potential first-rounders. Freshman point guard Brandon Knight has emerged as a true star so far in the NCAA Tournament, and his knack for the big shot could make him a high lottery pick. He is flanked by fellow freshman Terrence Jones, who was named the SEC's Freshman of the Year. He might not be a lottery pick quite yet, but he might be next year if he decides to stay in Lexington for another season.
Speaking of freshman point guards, Carolina also has a good one in Kendall Marshall. The Heels have lost just two games since he was inserted as a starter, and he's totaled 31 assists in three tournament games coming into today's action.
The point of all this, one supposes, is that both Tar Heels and Wildcats are right where they're supposed to be. They don't go out and get these players just so they can hand them off to the NBA as soon as they're ready. The idea at places like North Carolina and Kentucky is to continue a winning tradition, and this is a huge reason why so many of the best players choose to play their college ball at the big schools.
While this is all well and good, what this really goes to show is just how good Butler and VCU really are. Head coaches like Butler's Bad Stevens and VCU's Shaka Smart don't have the luxury of attracting blue chip prospects. They do what they can with what they can get, and the fact that both of them have taken their teams to the Final Four is pretty remarkable.
What will be even more remarkable, of course, is if either of them are cutting down the nets at the end of it all. That would certainly solve the whole household names quandary.
Sources: http://bleacherreport.com
