Kravitz: Noah Vonleh's departure means IU back to rebuilding - again

The recruitment of potential one-and-dones is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, you get the best of the best, the five-star high school guys, players who can win you a national championship. It worked for Carmelo Anthony and Syracuse. It worked for Kentucky three seasons ago, and it seems to be working for the Wildcats in the current NCAA Tournament.

The problem is, if you're Indiana and you happen to have a miserable season, you get one year out of a player like Noah Vonleh and then he's gone forever, leaving the program in a major hole as it moves forward.

So what now for Indiana?

Tom Crean is in a pickle. He's back on the road now recruiting, and somehow, somewhere, he's got to find a big man, either from the high school ranks or a transfer. (I wonder what Luke Fischer is thinking right now; he would have been IU's primary post player next season).

Crean also has to find someone to replace Austin Etherington and Jeremy Hollowell, who are transferring.

Right now, he's got a team that's a very long shot to reach the NCAA Tournament. There's some talent there with Yogi Ferrell, Stanford Robinson and Troy Williams, but there's no size, which is a big problem in the muscular Big Ten.

What, you think Hanner Mosquera-Perea is the answer after two years of being a giant question mark? Peter Jurkin? Puh-leeze. Except for Ferrell, The Movement has been an over-hyped whiff.

I don't blame Vonleh for going pro, not when he's a sure-fire first-round draft pick and a likely lottery pick. There's no reason to risk injury at this point – just ask Mitch McGary -- not when the NBA is calling with its developmental program and its big bucks. Is he ready? No, he's not ready. The last month of the season, he rarely scored or rebounded in double digits, although he ended the season by averaging 11.4 points and 9.1 rebounds.

But the NBA doesn't draft based on whether you're ready now. It drafts based on where teams project you will be in three or four years, and on that basis, Vonleh is an intriguing prospect. His athleticism, his motor and his low-post acumen make him a top-10 guy, by most estimates.

Was Cody Zeller ready when he jumped for the NBA? Not in the least. But he's getting his hard-earned education in the NBA, the highest form of basketball. And he will be a better player down the road from having learned by playing and practicing against the best.

Simply, Vonleh would have been crazy to stay. Who says no to millions of dollars? Who takes the risk of being injured in college? He blows out a knee in school, and it changes his entire professional and financial future. It changes his whole life.

Which brings us to the larger issue of one-and-dones. Everybody hates the concept. But this is the NBA's fault, not the NCAA's fault. It's the NBA's rule: Players can't become draft eligible until one year after their high school class graduates.

"I think we need a bigger, broader conversation about what should the relationship between college sport and professional sport be,'' NCAA chief Mark Emmert told USA Today. "Some people, me included, don't have any (problem) with people going to professional athletics and not coming to college.''

Exactly.

Top players should be able to go straight from high school to the NBA. It's worked out just fine for years, whether it's Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Amar'e Stoudemire, Jermaine O'Neal and many others. If the NBA thinks you're ready at age 18 and is willing to throw millions at you, why not have the freedom to pursue your dream?

At the very least, listen to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has said high school stars are better off eschewing college and going straight into the NBA's developmental league.

Academics? One and dones don't go to college to go to classes. They take them, mind you, and some of them take them quite seriously. But what's to say you can't go to the NBA developmental league and take classes at a local college? These players are better off competing and working with grown men as opposed to other college kids.

But never mind all that for now. Indiana is in crisis mode. Crean missed the NCAA and NIT and now he's got an increasingly empty cupboard.

Let the rebuilding begin.

Again.

Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Call him at (317) 444-6643 or email bob.kravitz@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BKravitz.