Baby Boom Is on Campus

ACC, Other Powers Stand to Benefit From NBA's Age Limit

Thaddeus Young, only 18, has become as accomplished a basketball player as someone his age could hope. If not for the NBA's age limit, implemented for the first time this offseason, Young would be good enough to play in the league right now. Instead, he has started all eight games he has played at Georgia Tech, averaging 13.3 points.

This season, many of college basketball's traditional powers feature lineups full of players who might have otherwise jumped from high school to the NBA. Currently, 14 freshmen -- of which at least a handful would otherwise be pros by now -- start in the 12-team ACC. Three start for both Wake Forest and North Carolina; two for Duke and Georgia Tech.

How that will affect the sport's balance of power remains to be seen. Although the number of upsets during the first month of the season suggests that parity continues to increase, some suspect that, as the raw talent matures, the power conferences will strike back with a vengeance.

Regardless, two trends appear to be emerging: the would-be NBA players will gravitate toward the game's heavyweight schools, and the success of those programs will depend largely on coaches' abilities to nurture and build cohesion from young components. As Young often tells his coach, Paul Hewitt, "I didn't realize how much I didn't know about this game."

"I think it's going to make the power conferences stronger come March," Hewitt said. "Talent is still talent. It is about understanding the game, but talent still trumps everything. Last year, I felt like the mid-majors were going to have a big run in the tournament. This year, I feel like the bigger schools are going to make a comeback, because the talent level is going back up."

As freshmen experience their first December, a month of tests, few classes and few games, they spend more time practicing, watching film and learning the game. When January and February arrive, and those freshmen discover nuances such as help defense and making the extra pass, the power conferences, the ACC in particular, could reassert their dominance.

"The pack and parity has come a lot closer before that rule was established," Missouri State Coach Barry Hinson said. "I think you'll find that the BCS schools will become stronger than what they have now because those guys can't get out early."

But those players typically have made their reputations in a summer-league system that emphasizes games over practices and individual skill over team concepts. The pressure to gain attention makes some players more selfish, but it can present college coaches with other problems. Hewitt has tried to coax Young to be more assertive offensively.

"In an AAU situation, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility for somebody to say: 'Look. You got your scholarship already. It's time for me to get some shots up,' " Hewitt said. "Or, 'You're ranked so and so, it's time for me to get my ranking up.' So with a guy like Thaddeus and his personality, he's going to defer, which is not the right thing for him because of the ability he has. He's such a nice kid that he defers sometimes, and that could be a negative byproduct of him playing in a system where player rankings and notoriety from scouting services is such a big deal.

"Surprising? Are you kidding me? It's common. You hear, 'Well he's got his; it's time for my son to get mine.' "

After Georgia Tech lost to Miami on Dec. 3, Hewitt watched a tape of the game and charted the number of times the Yellow Jackets passed the ball after Miami scored compared with the number after a Miami miss. The results shocked Javaris Crittenton, Hewitt's freshman point guard who also starts and averages 13.9 points. When the Hurricanes missed, Crittenton executed the offense with poise. When they scored, he rushed the ball back down court.

"He had this mentality of, 'I got to get back down the court and score as quickly as I can,' " Hewitt said. "If we're in a deficit for a longer period of time, it's like we get penalized or something."