Morris Among Dwindling Crop Of Three-Year Veterans Entering 2000-01 Men's Basketball Season
6/16/2000 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
June 16, 2000
by Mike DeCourcy, The Sporting News
As if it weren't humbling enough to be a senior on a college team's roster while so many classmates parade into the NBA draft, now it's almost un-American.
The dearth of quality upperclassmen led USA Basketball to suggest a change to the world championship created for "disenfranchised" college players when the Olympics were opened to professional players in 1992. The age group for that competition previously was 22-and-under.
But the number of elite players leaving school early for the draft is escalating. "All our 22s, for the most part, were gone," says USA Basketball executive director Warren Brown. Now, the FIBA World Championship for Young Men will include only players 21 and younger. So, nobody on this summer's qualifying team can be older than 20.
That means Duke forward Shane Battier, Arizona center Loren Woods and Maryland forward Terence Morris are, for the purposes of this discussion, over the hill.
``It's disappointing from the standpoint that a guy stays for four years that's a good player, and it would be nice for him to have something to do between his junior and senior year," says Maryland coach Gary Williams.
``I've coached on international teams, and it's a great experience -- not just the basketball, but getting put together with other guys and getting to see some things they might not get to see the rest of their lives."
With one cut still to go, the U.S. team that will compete in the qualifier next month in Brazil includes Terps point guard Steve Blake, Duke center Carlos Boozer and Illinois forward Brian Cook, each of whom just completed his freshman year.
No one on the roster has played three college seasons. There are nearly as many players that have not yet played an NCAA game (Michigan State recruits Marcus Taylor and Zach Randolph) as have been in Division I for two years (Cincinnati's Steve Logan, Kentucky's Tayshaun Prince and DePaul's Bobby Simmons).
It's not going to turn out this way every year.
The World University Games, contested every other summer, give all college players an opportunity to compete. The U.S. has used collegians in Goodwill Games competition.
This year's seniors are not being entirely excluded. They are eligible to be chosen for the Select Team that will face the U.S. Olympic team in a one-game exhibition in Honolulu Sept. 2, which will be nationally televised.
Members of the young men's team who excel in the qualifier will be considered by the USA Basketball collegiate committee, which is chaired by Terry Holland. But Battier, Morris, Woods, Jamaal Tinsley of Iowa State, Troy Murphy of Notre Dame and other top upperclassmen may also be included.
Those chosen will get the opportunity to compete against NBA players for one night. But they won't have the chance to develop as players through the course of extensive training and escalating competition.
``I don't think many players stick around college because it's at the back of their mind they may have a chance to play on a USA Basketball team," Brown says. ``I wish that were the case."
Morris, a spectacularly talented small forward, endured a junior season in which he regressed from a preseason player-of-the-year candidate to the third option on his own team. Morris was uncomfortable bearing the responsibility of stardom, which forced shooting guard Juan Dixon and center Lonny Baxter to blossom.
Morris' circumstance at the close of his junior season is not entirely dissimilar to where Cincinnati's Kenyon Martin stood a year ago: exceedingly talented but perhaps too unselfish for his own good. The one difference is Martin had the chance to join the U.S. team in the World University Games, where he discovered his talent matched or exceeded the rest of the nation's top college players.
Martin gradually became accustomed to bearing responsibility and led that team to a gold medal. He returned for the 1999-2000 season convinced he could dominate and won the Robertson, Wooden and Naismith trophies.
``I think Terence has a pretty good handle right now, after going through last year . . . In his mind, he wants to make more things happen next year," Williams says.
``He's got to be more of a leader for us, take over games. He can be a dominant player."
What he can't be, at least until he's in the NBA and potentially a Dream Teamer, is a gold medalist. That's too bad.
