Perspectives from John Wooden and Ben Howland

This is a follow-up to this morning's post about Brandon Jennings, who is skipping college and will play a year professionally in Europe before heading to the NBA. I dug through my notes from the last couple of months and found some observations from John Wooden and Ben Howland. The two UCLA coaches represent different eras, and it was evident in their philosophies.

Chatting with Wooden after a mural was dedicated in his honor last month, I asked what he thought about the NBA's rule that requires players to wait a year after high school before entering the draft. "If they're going to set a limit on it, I'd certainly like it to be longer," he said. "Perhaps two years. But it was best when they couldn't be drafted until four years after high school."

I wondered if there had been a key tipping point when things started to change. Wooden pointed out that, "More or less it's been a gradual change. But that gradual change has come about because of the enormous increase in pay. Money controls most everything in one way or another, in a sense. I would attribute that to be more of the reason than any other."

So what advice would he give to kids today?

"The same I gave to my freshmen who came in at UCLA and to my grandchildren," Wooden said. "Get an education! Sports may fail you. It may pave the way for you. But no matter how good you are in sports, that's not going to last forever. Education will last forever." A moment later, he added, "I try not to give advice. I give opinions. My opinion is that it's far greater to get an education than to be a great athlete."

Howland, UCLA's current coach, put a very different spin on things. During a conference call last month, he was asked about how the early departure of certain players could affect the team's APR (an academic performance measure that can affect scholarships). He said that the APR was necessary, but needed to be "tweaked:"

That's where the system is a little skewed, because programs are going to lose guys early to the NBA. APR penalizes that. I don't know if that's necessarily fair. If a kid is going to make $2 million a year (which is what the 10th pick would make in this year's draft — $2.1 million guaranteed for two years), I think it's a little unrealistic to penalize schools for kids that are going to take that opportunity ... You're going to college to prepare yourself so that you can get a career, not only get a great education, but also be able to support your family ... it just so happens that these guys are able to get careers when they're 19 years old.

The modern and traditional outlooks are strikingly different. Don't be mistaken, though. Wooden and Howland probably would agree with each other. The two coaches were just addressing different aspects of early departure. Wooden was reminiscing about simpler times and Howland was being pragmatic about modern technicalities.

Later in each conversation, both pointed out that it was important for players to not only graduate, but graduate on time.