By PAUL GOTHAM
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Sheldon McClellan and Angel Rodriguez. Jake Layman and Rasheed Sulaimon. Wayne Selden Jr. and Perry Ellis. Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu.
Upper classmen will play a large in deciding the South Region.
“Experience is huge,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. “And I love that there’s seniors doing what they’re doing this year. Sulaimon for us, Jake Layman decided to come back, he’s had a great year, Perry Ellis, the year he’s having for Kansas in our game. So it’s great. Hopefully, it will keep kids around, help them make good decisions and make college basketball better.”
One year after Duke claimed the NCAA crown with three one-and-done players, the 2016 title could be determined by a team led by juniors and seniors.
“I think it’s great for college basketball that there are a lot of upperclassmen doing well, and it’s more about them this year than it is about the freshmen,” Turgeon added. “I think it’s great for our game.”
With 111 wins to their credit, Arcidiacono and Ochefu will go down as two of the winningest players in Villanova history. Jay Wright understands the value of having a student-athlete develop for four years.
“College basketball is being affected by players leaving early and the NBA is being affected by players early,” Wright said last week. “This one and done rule. It’s lessening the quality of both. The problem with the one and dones is not the guys that go to the NBA that are the first round picks. It’s not those guys. It’s not DeMarcus Cousins. It’s not LeBron. It’s not those guys.It’s the 50, 60 guys that should be in college for four years and would be great players in college that wind up going overseas or playing in the D-League.”
Ellis, a senior, leads Kansas with 16.9. Juniors Selden and Frank Mason III combine to score more than 26 for No. 1-seed Kansas.
“Something about experience and having guys that have really invested into the program, I think, lends itself to having guys prepare on a daily basis because they know this is what it is for them, whereas a lot of time the one-and-done kids know that, hey, this is just a short stop before they move on to the professional level,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “So, I mean, give me the best players. That would be my philosophy. But, certainly, a team like ours right now that you have one senior but you have a bunch of vets that play a ton, I think, is maybe the most enjoyable way to do it.”
McClellan and Rodriguez average more than 29 points for Jim Larranaga’s Miami Hurricanes.
“I know every team feels like they have NBA-caliber players, so there’s a lot of confidence in a player with that ability,” Larranaga said. “But the experience probably makes you hungrier, especially for a program like Ours that has never been to the Elite Eight or to the Final Four. So hopefully our guys are very hungry and determined to accomplish something that’s never happened in our school’s history.”
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