HOUSTON (AP) – The “One and Dones” didn’t get anywhere near the Final Four this season. Instead, this will be remembered as the year when patience was rewarded.
The projected top two picks of the upcoming NBA draft, freshmen Brandon Ingram of Duke and Ben Simmons of LSU, were warming up the couch for Monday night’s title game between North Carolina and Villanova – two teams that, quite fittingly, got where they are with a locker room full of seniors.
“We did have good freshmen this year,” said Kansas coach Bill Self, in summing up the scene around the country. “But seniors stole the show.”
The Season of the Senior offered a break from the story lines of the last five or six years, during which hand-wringing over the “One and Done” rule has taken over the sport, almost non-stop.
Officially, “One and Done” is the NBA’s requirement that players be at least 19 and wait one season after graduating high school before entering the draft. With the league and its union expected to pick up collective-bargaining negotiations later this year, the debate will almost certainly be resumed.