Say what you will about Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight, but he knows what he is talking about in regard to making college basketball a true intercollegiate sport:

While most college basketball coaches would jump at the chance for a one-year player like Texas freshman sensation Kevin Durant, Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said Monday he would not do so.
In fact, the coach said Monday that he thinks the NBA’s mandate of at least a year of college for high school graduates is bad for the college game.
“I think it’s the worst thing that’s happened to college basketball since I’ve been coaching,” Knight said Monday.
A year ago, the NBA made the decision that players have to attend college for at least one year after graduation from high school. That decision has exposed players such as Ohio State freshman center Greg Oden and Durant ó two players who would have been lottery picks last year and will likely be the first two players chosen in this year’s draft if they decide to leave after one year ó to the college game for what seems to be just one year.
Knight’s primary concern seems to be that the NBA’s mandate allows student-athletes to get around being true students in college.
“Because now you can have a kid come to school for a year, play basketball and he doesn’t even have to go to class,” Knight said. “He certainly doesn’t have to go to class the second semester. I’m not exactly positive about the first semester, but he would not have to attend a single class the second semester to play through the whole second semester of basketball.
“That I think has a tremendous effect on the integrity of college sports. I think what should happen is a kid can come out of high school and go to the NBA and if they chose to put him in the developmental league, fine. But if he goes to college there has to be an agreement that he is not eligible for the draft until after two years of college. That way the kid has to obtain eligibility and then he has to retain eligibility and at least for those two years he is a college student. Now the kid is simply like a hired player.”
Knight said there would never be a scenario where he would knowingly recruit a player who intended to play college basketball for one year.

Again, the “rent-a-player” situation that Coach Knight is talking about is the result of the NBA’s needless regulation, which once again foists upon the universities the risk of subsidizing the NBA’s minor league farm system. As noted here, the colleges have a model already established in baseball that would create the free choice for players that would transform college basketball into a truer form of intercollegiate competition. With the proliferation of minor professional basketball leagues overseas, there really is no legitimate reason to restrict a young player’s access to professional basketball or to force him to fake being a college student while playing a year of minor league ball in the U.S. Let basketball players make the same choice that baseball players have coming out of high school — either play in a professional league or accept the benefits of a college education for a few years in return for competing intercollegiately. Not only will it make Coach Knight much happier, but it is the right thing to do for the players.