Must my humble opinion.

You have listed the uniform consensus complaints followed by the NCAA does lack most of these. The NCAA official response is we have been losing every appeal in court. It's like why bother and coaches will keep doing that because winning is job security. The huge college basketball following is driven by fanatical school devotion and the NCAA tourney is the second biggest sporting event every year. The Baylor center was drafted 33rd which is one pick out of the first round. The NBA might be able to help but they generally like less hyped players staying in college because it gives them more time to screen and evaluate them. The draft pick was part of the Timberwolves/Knicks swap of CA Townes for Julius Randle. Both UK guys. Until the money is affecting the brand it's just hand wringing probably.

No contract has been offered. Just like an NFL player has to make the final cut before he gets a rookie contract.

Yes! He's gone all over the sports media on this topic. And he's right about this.

And now we have Baylor!

What do you all think about it? What if we brought in one of these guys right now?

At what price are we willing to pay in pursuit of a trophy?

I like how Cal said he is sticking to his approach of going after high school kids.

If you want to connect the dots to all of us and our mundane jobs, you will quickly resent all these players and the first time they screw up you'll go ballistic.

Don't take out your job dissatisfaction on players. I'm saying that as much for you as them. None of us are competing with these players and their jobs.

I'm not saying we shouldn't expect players to be responsible while drawing a check. They should be. And if they fake an injury and don't play... well... maybe that's on the university for not putting in a performance clause.

What I'm talking about in my initial post has nothing to do with players being paid. The pressure at UK basketball... and Alabama football... has been there for decades. Just ask Calipari. I never liked that guy and his revolving door teams... just because I saw this is the direction D1 was headed. If I had to grade Cal as a human being, I think of him differently. I followed him at Kentucky and I seriously doubt there is another coach in college basketball who got more involved in his community and was very generous giving to charities. That's the Cal we never talk about. I typically don't.... because I never liked his basketball style.

We are all living in some type of dystopian universe. We all worked hard and made normal money. These kids come along and it just looks like fun play, and many get paid more in one year of college basketball than most of us make in a long career. Dystopia! But no amount of complaining is going to change that. Or hating on players. Or throwing a fit because a kid missed a free throw while 4 million people watch.

2026 is approaching... and I hope all of you have an arse-kicking year! Make tons of cashola! Heck... hit the friggin' lottery! I'll continue to be an old man slaving away, but I'm happy and happy for others who make 100-times more money than me! Good for them!

I'm pretty much happy for any kids today making big cake because I don't see a great job horizon ahead. College basketball may be something immuned to AI, unless we change the rules and let robots play and operate on AI.

Edit: I started delivering papers when I was 9, not sure I’ve called in for 56 days of work since I’ve started lol

I'm not saying that this is the exact situation we have with this team, but human nature is what it is.

These kids don't care about these schools anymore The Scool; , The name . The Coach , whatever all they care about is the Money anymore.

So then if these kids under preform then the investors in return don't give a rats ass if they catch heat , as they feel like they aren't getting any return so if they get harassed the verbal is warranted.

Yet in the end who is it that REALLY suffers the most - -- it's the true fan of the game- - - - - All we want is our love for our school and to be able to watch a really great talent play

forgot to add kinda varied away , sorry but back to topic - - -- these kids are now doing a job just like John Q public we work and don't fulfill our work what happens ?-Your boss isn't happy, you may get called in the office ---you may be told you need to pick it up , you let your Co workers down-- -same for these players - --you don't step up , play to your potential or find reasons not to play. I feel these guys NOW have a job to do and if they aren't doing their job then they should expect to hear it from others

I blog on other D1 teams' pages, too... One of them is Kentucky... ha... mostly because I'm a Mark Pope fan. His job is impossible because the fanbase expects a Top 5 (or even Top 1) recruit class every year, and that just isn't going to happen. I've been a fan of his since he played at UK and then later with the Bucks, and then into coaching. I hope we never turn into a fanbase similar to Kentucky basketball, or Alabama football. It's a horrible world those programs live in. The pressure is way past anything healthy or constructive.

And, come on, really... this teenager is months away from signing his first contract, leading to other contracts worth lotto-amounts. It would be dumb if he went flying for a ball on the court and came out injured and lowered his future value. I know it isn't what any of us want to hear... but we have to settle for his potential to give maybe up to 90% effort, and the extra 10% is for caution's sake.

90% of DP is better than 99.9% of the players currently in D1.

My own opinion... up until now, we haven't seen more than a 70% effort because he's not at full strength.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed we eventually get a 90% DP!