Let's Play Four

I've just gotta wonder how college hoops fans, students and coaches feel when their team roster is repeatedly stocked with one-and-done players.
On one hand, it's an incredibly exciting time for that school (yes, I'm eyeballing Kentucky here) when the team is that good. But do the fans ever really connect to the players and enjoy a long-term relationship?
This season has me pondering that question again.
Maybe I'm just used to the Izzo way of doing things. He has been able to promise his recruits that if they play at MSU for four years, it's highly likely they'll see the inside of the Final Four in late March. His greatest teams over the last 10+ years have been highlighted by seniors who led not only with basketball talent but a leadership style that glued the other players together. Magic Johnson. Mateen Cleaves. Draymond Green. Two of those three guys won national titles for the Spartans. The likelihood that MSU can make a run to the title game this year is clearly up for debate. But back to the topic at hand.
If you're a Kentucky fan, (Or North Carolina, Duke, etc for that matter) I wonder if there's the same level of appreciation, or dare I say love, for the members of a squad who are on campus wearing that jersey for a couple months, all the while with visions of the NBA dancing in their heads?
Do you think John Wall will make his kids sit down, years from now, and watch a Kentucky game with him? Or that Carmelo Anthony feels the same way about Syracuse that Cleaves feels about Michigan State? Doubt it.
Also up for debate is the concept of mandating kids to stay in school a certain number of years before going pro. College football has done something like that, I would love to see that in basketball as well. Lest you think that I'm just bitter because Izzo doesn't land the top-tier kids every year, I would argue that helping produce good student athletes and quality teams always outweighs flashy teams and a low graduation rate. I think back to the early 2000s when we could have had a team with Jason Richardson, Zach Randolph and Marcus Taylor. Are you kidding me? There would be three national championship trophies living at Breslin now if that had panned out. But Taylor made some ill-advised moves, then tried to undo them, and eventually went to Europe and hasn't been heard from since. Richardson has had a decent NBA career, but isn't exactly a household name. Randolph wasn't enough of a solid person to survive the NBA presssure outside of his support network in Michigan. A few more years with Izzo could have helped him tremendously, and would have done wonders for the team as well.
Which goes back to why I love this year's team so much. Draymond is a dream for Izzo. He's a coachable kid with loads of basketball skill and intuition, and he motivates the other players like crazy. He's Mateen Cleaves with a better shooting touch and an extra 100 lbs. Austin Thornton, who's name may have not been familiar to most before this year, is blossoming as as three-point shooter and rebounder in his senior year. Both of those guys have been to the Final Four with MSU. Senior transfer Brandon Wood has proved invaluable this year and had a huge game against Wisconsin, just one example of different players stepping up to get it done for the Spartans. That kind of experience isn't found in Lexington or Raleigh-Durham. And this time of year, that's a bit of an x factor.
I think that it's more fun to see kids develop and achieve more from year to year. In the end I suppose neither system is right or wrong, I just happen to think it's more special when it's done the Izzo way.