Doing It Right: The Path to the Final Four

Today's Final Four is not just the greatest event for the NCAA; it's the greatest point for what is right in sports.
Just look at the teams we have in the Final Four. Four teams that do it the right way. Four teams featuring four great coaches that have built their programs; rather than signing the next big star in the NBA year after year.
Duke is by far the perfect example of this. If you look at the Duke roster there should be one thing that stands out. They are old and experienced. Only three freshman on the team and only one of them sees "significant" playing time. Take a look at that then look at Kentucky; two freshman that will be gone to the NBA after just one season. While Duke has had a few one and done players they for the most part graduate their players. John Calipari has at least one every season.
Then you look at a team like Butler. They actually have a player worried about losing time to study for a math exam. When's the last time you think John Wall went to a math class?
Teams like Butler and Duke are true student athletes. They attend class, get good grades, and graduate. The same can be said for Michigan State. Love him or hate him, Tom Izzo is another coach that does it the right way. Izzo's program has always featured players that grew up in the program, and knew how to play basketball Izzo's way. This year the best example is Raymar Morgan, but the best example was Mateen Cleaves. As the star of the 2000 Spartans, Cleaves led a team of veterans to the national title. Then look at last year's team Suton, Walton, and Gray. None of them huge stars but all contributors to a team that got the national title game last year.
Lastly, the West Virginia Mountaineers. Bob Huggins has done perhaps his greatest coaching job in Morgantown, and he's doing it the right way. When Huggins went to WVU he didn't just go out and sign the kids that had the biggest headlines; he went and got kids that would fit his program. Huggins then took the players that were already there and built them up. Da'Sean Butler may be the best example of this. A player with a load of talent when Huggins got to West Virginia that has become one of the best players in college basketball. Then there's Joe Mazzula, a player that can barely lift his arms, that is leading his team to the Final Four.
Sure Huggins may have had a few players that were just using college as a stepping stone to the NBA, but most of them go to class, and graduate. Izzo could fall into the same group of coaches that bring in players that are destined to play at the next level, and you could even put Coach K in there with both of them. And Butler is just a solid program that has been built by players that just love to play basketball, and are good students too. Put all of these guys together and you see what is great about college basketball; coaches that teach, and players that learn; both in the classroom and on the court. And that is what college basketball is all about.