Around The NCAA, Men's Basketball

By Gregory Crawford, Managing Editor of Alford/Crawford East West Hoops

Jahii Carson----With Carson playing his home game for Arizona State yesterday, a blowout win over California, it is really important to keep in mind that Carson stayed that extra year, that extra year that is so vital to becoming a successful professional basketball player.

Carson is the glue of the Arizona State team and he is for sure going to be an excellent pro, even with his small stature. One Pac-12 coach recently told me, "Carson is one of the best players I have ever seen as far as court awareness. He never misses an opportunity to take advantage of defensive mistakes and at the same time to make his teammates on the floor look better."

Everyone is going to have lots of fun watching Carson next year in the NBA, that is a given. Projection: Middle to late first round pick, that probably is a mistake, as whoever gets Carson, will be getting a wonderful player.

Officiating----There has never been a year in my 50 plus years of watching NCAA basketball where there has been as much controversy about NCAA basketball calls.. Perhaps it is just the expanded media coverage that magnifies this, but at the same time, the officiating really is not that good for my money. And it has nothing to do with Duke/Syracuse, the call by Tony Greene was absolutely correct, I have watched it over and over.

What is obvious, the fact officials are working too many games, too many nights in a row. As independent contractors, they have every right to do so and make a huge amount of money, who can blame them.

But the flip side is that it really hurts the game of basketball and all of these people owe a lot to the game, which is some cases has made them much money for the pay they get and equally famous, so they can go outside of games, host referee camps and give speeches which bring in added revenue to each individual.

NCAA basketball coaches, you are just going to have to live with officiating in some cases being sub-par, because until we have a centralized officiating system, where all games are assigned out of one office, not through conferences, the game will continue to be hurt by bizarre calls and bizarre actions by officials.

Just think about it, if you worked any job 10 straight days, your performance on the that 10th day, is not going to be as effective as the first day. We often seem many officials working several days in a row, it is a problem, but only can be solved by a centralized officiating system, which appears right now to be way down the road.

Mark Cuban----Cuban is sometimes wrong and sometimes right. He sure is right about the D-League being a better option for many players wanting to play professional basketball than the NCAA. The one and done rule needs to change.

It needs to change to this. If a player goes into college, he must complete at least two years of school, before he can head to professional basketball. If he wants to go right into the NBA out of high school, he can do as such, as well.

Obviously the competition is much greater in the D-League, but the option of two years of college should be available, as many players blossom much later than they expect too.

Gregory Crawford @wchoops