OPINION

By Mike DeCourcy

updated 4:06 p.m. ET July 4, 2009

Mike DeCourcy

Each week, Sporting News college basketball writer Mike DeCourcy takes on five burning questions.

1. Which player is facing the most crucial offseason in terms of improving so he can carry his team?

Although Michigan State's Kalin Lucas was Big Ten player of the year, and although he did a great job in a head-to-head battle with Kansas All-American Sherron Collins, there were games when you barely remembered he was on the court.

It's OK. It was like that with North Carolina's Ty Lawson for a lot of his career, but he eventually became a commanding point guard who controlled the basketball, his team and the game.

A lot will be expected of Michigan State with so much talent returning. Lucas does not necessarily need to improve on his 14.7-point scoring average because forward Delvon Roe should be more productive as he becomes healthier, and wings Chris Allen and Durrell Summers should score more consistently. But Lucas must gain an understanding of what it means to be in charge. With Lawson, that led to an increase from 5.2 assists per game as a sophomore to 6.6 last season. Lucas averaged 4.6 assists in his sophomore year. He needs to experience a similar improvement.

2. Did the NCAA's board of directors make the right call in approving a measure requiring players to withdraw from the draft by May 8 instead of the current June 15 deadline?

Special feature Testing NBA draft waters Notre Dame's Luke Harangody is among players who should go back to school, but who should stay in the draft? NBCSports.com

If the goal is to ensure that coaches can head to the first tee in mid-May with nothing on their minds but whether to hit driver or 3-wood, the board got this one just right.

Otherwise, there are so many things wrong with the new rule it's hard to contain them all in a brief answer. The highlights:

• It accomplishes nothing for college programs. Coaches campaigned for this change by claiming they could go out in May and recruit replacements for players lost -- except there are almost no players available. Coaches know this. They just were tired of the hassle.
• Players previously had three months to discover whether they were attractive draft prospects. Now they've got about 40 days. Which means some will be thinking about this when they should be concentrating on the NCAA Tournament, and more will rely on Internet mock drafts to determine their status. Great.
• By rule, NBA teams can't cause players to miss class to try out, limiting such activity to weekends. And the time frame now puts these workouts in conflict with final exams at most schools.
• Finally, for the board to completely contradict its recent actions on draft prospects demonstrates a clear lack of conviction. Only recently were players allowed to accept expenses from individual teams for workouts. That was the athlete-friendly NCAA we've been hearing about most of this decade. Now, the organization completely reverses its position and makes it far more difficult for players to gauge their worth.

3. How much will John Wall's recent brush with the law affect the Wall recruiting sweepstakes?

Not much. On the surface, it seems like a high school hijinks issue and not a serious offense. Everybody that really wants Wall still is hoping he'll choose their school.

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