Sports

One-and-done players earn NCAA failing grade

Jim Nantz, speaking with NCAA president Mark Emmert at halftime of Kentucky-Baylor yesterday, gave it a good shot — and likely was stuck for time — but exactly how does this yearly one-and-done Kentucky thing work?

When it’s over, win or lose, do the university’s players just disperse, head wherever? There’s no reason to return to school. For what? They’re done. They no longer have academic eligibility to worry about, if they worried much to begin with.

In fact, it stands to reason Kentucky’s one-and-doners were finished being college students at the start of the SEC tournament, or sooner.

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Thus, it quacks like a fraud. It seems a lot like financial and academic fraud, systemic fraud, fraud by design and with a major university serving as the front. In other “legit” businesses outside of higher education, that’s a serious crime: It’s called racketeering.

Sure, there are precedents. P.J. Carlesimo’s 1989 Seton Hall players, who lost to Michigan in the NCAA final, simply went their individual ways after that game. No reason to return to school; their business at and for Seton Hall was done for the year, if not forever.

Heck, Andrew Gaze’s first day enrolled at Seton Hall was the first day of practice. Right after the Michigan game, he returned home to Australia. His one-and-done lasted from day one of practice to the last game of the season. So long, mates!

If Seton Hall was in violation of anything — internally or by NCAA code — it wasn’t charged. Kentucky is apparently clean, too.

As Emmert yesterday told Nantz, those who bolt early for pro ball don’t count against a school’s APR (Academic Progress Rate). To that end, they never existed. March Madness.

* Pants on Fire: Saturday, with seconds left in the game between Louisville and Florida, with the Cardinals up three, Kevin “Hollerin” Harlan lost track of the score. As Florida tried successive 3-pointers to tie, Harlan declared “for the lead!” It didn’t strike him as odd the Gators twice worked the ball outside to shoot 3-pointers if they were down two?

OK, such mistakes happen. But Harlan then made matters worse by pretending he knew it was a three-point lead all along, that we never heard what he had been shouting or we’re too stupid to have known better.

He owed his audience and reputation an acknowledgement — “Sorry, folks, I lost track” — instead of bad faith. All he had to do was briefly note his error and he would have disarmed reasonable viewers. Instead, his dishonesty, was insulting.

Same telecast, tight game, late second half, a whistle. Harlan: “Foul called; 3:58 left, when we come back to Phoenix.” Off to commercials.

Who was the foul on? Stay tuned to CBS to find out!

Same telecast, first half: Louisville guard Peyton Siva made a nice move from the left, quickly dribbling toward the basket, likely to shoot a layup or make a pass for an easy basket. But he stumbled. As he lost control, he swatted the ball to a teammate, who scored. Good stuff.

But CBS’ Len Elmore didn’t see it that way: “He was lucky. … That was over-penetration by Peyton Siva. Sometimes he makes those kind of mental mistakes.”

Over-penetration? Another new one! I thought over-penetration is when you drive to the basket and keep going until you’ve dribbled out of bounds.

It’s all Tiger, all the time

Tiger (formerly known as Golf): Saturday morning, NBC’s Golf Channel again showed nothing but day-before Tiger Woods highlights. Good grief! … What? Oh, this time he was actually winning?

So Woods is walking the 18th on Saturday, the slightest, briefest smile on his face — if it was a smile; he had just applied lip balm — and the NBC guys go into their absurd Woods Worship World mode.

Johnny Miller: “You can see he’s enjoying something, right now, and that’s good.”

Peter Jacobson: “It’s nice to see him with that look, that light look; golf’s fun and interesting, not holding him down, ya know?”

Hey, who did dirt to Tiger other than Tiger?

But that “look” can’t be any lighter than the look he has when he watches DVDs of this stuff and giggles himself to sleep.

* The Jimmy (Dolan) Fund: For many, it comes down to which team owner you most or least prefer to be abused by in exchange for your steady patronage?

Rangers season tickets that cost $59 per game have been increased to $102 (73 percent!) for the first round of the playoffs. Second round, $112 per; third, $150; finals, $230.

“If you look at the amount of those increases,” says subscriber Rob Picciotto of Brooklyn, “it’s obvious that they want to smack you early rather than risk not making it to the second or third round.” True.

But apparently this meets with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s approval. To think that after the 2004-05 lockout, NHL rinks had “Thank You Fans” on the ice. Now replace “Thank” with … well, never mind.

* No column is complete without a Mike Francesa note. From reader Mike DeGregorio: “Mush — Thanks for taking my email.”

Calling foul on CBS cameras

All those sideline shots, yet when Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was hit with a “T” for misconduct on Saturday, CBS had no tape to show what he did?

* CBS’ Clark Kellogg was better when he talked basketball instead of gobbledygook. … Louisville coach Rick Pitino did all he could — gave Florida two chances to tie — rather than foul when up by three. … Baylor yesterday made it tough to determine where the jerseys ended and the tattoos began, and vice versa.

* PBS has a special on Fenway Park in its 100th year, tonight from 10-11.

I wrote in yesterday’s early edition that the Kentucky Derby is for 2-year-olds. It’s for 3-year-olds, and I’ve known that since I was a 4-year-old! To quote Napoleon Dynamite, “Idiot!”

How Can a Mudder Eat Its Fodder? As long as TV’s voices (and these voices in my head) insist on telling us that one must “negotiate” a putt, what happens when the player is Rocco Mediate? How can you Mediate and negotiate? Hey, Abbott!

* Irving Fryar and Mark Bavaro genuflected in the end zone after touchdown catches, yet it was never an issue the way it is with Tim Tebow. And who ridiculed Reggie White for his religious zealotry?