Making Money in Basketball

Love him or hate him, one of the more consistently enjoyable blogs to read on the web is Mark Cuban’s “Blogmaverick.com”. In his latest post, he provides some interesting perspectives on the direction of basketball development in the United States.

His main point is that high school, club, and college basketball are a mess right now and it’s only a matter of time before there is a seismic shift in development of players towards more of the European-style “academy” system. Players would get placed into programs early in their teens and begin getting paid like professionals in a full-time basketball developmental program. There would be an academic component of course, but that would be integrated into the process with basketball development as a primary focus.

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Where is college basketball headed? Mark Cuban’s thoughts

Quick hit of a couple of recent headlines….

Texas approves $500K pay raise for Rick Barnes

Texas, flush with football money, seems serious about keeping up the momentum the basketball program is building by keeping Barnes' salary at a competitive national level, going from $1.2 million to $1.8 million, and increasing his bonus for making the NCAA's to $125k. 

With the program Barnes has developed, the 'Horns will continue to be a national power and a title threat, especially if they can continue to land top national prospects like Kevin Durant while keeping the best Texas players in-state (a tougher task given A&M's resurgence).  

Mid-Major Recruiting Struggles

The AP reports that even in the wake of George Mason's Final Four run, mid-major coaches are still running against the tide in the battle for top recruits.   The article highlights that the best recruiting targets for mid-majors are the fringe guys who are talented enough to make a top tier team, but not likely to contribute right away.  Mid-majors can sell playing time and a starting role rather than be stuck riding the pine at a more prominent program.  

Although Mason's run was phenomenal, the next few years will be the true test for the mid-majors.  The NBA's new CBA ensures that the top prospects will be playing at least a season of college basketball and those players will almost universally be at traditional powers, which could make for a lot less room at the top.