Fab freshmen trying to put No. 1 in one-and-done

I remember being at the Final Four in New Orleans in 2003, riding an elevator with a group of Syracuse fans, all of them drunk, dazed and delighted as John Daly in a Hooters tent. There were five or six of them, maybe seven. And they were talking about Carmelo Anthony and dressed in shirts that read REAL MEN STAY FOR TWO.

Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo both want to bring a championship to L.A. before they go pro. (US Presswire)

Which isn't true, of course.

Real men don't stay for two seasons; only men who aren't elite NBA prospects.

And so it is that we enter the final stretch for some of the nation's great college players, many of whom are freshmen who will soon hire the agent that's been lurking for years. Just after the season is completed, they'll call a press conference, call an accountant and call themselves millionaires, and they'll have the diamonds in their watches to prove it.

They'll be one-and-done student-athletes, exactly like they planned. But the question is whether any of them can go out like Anthony went out and lead their teams and giddy fans to the Final Four in San Antonio?

One-year wonders

This freshman class is tremendous.

You know that by now.

From the Big 12 (Michael Beasley, Bill Walker and Blake Griffin) to the Pac-10 (Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo and Jerryd Bayless) to the ACC (Kyle Singler) to the SEC (A.J. Ogilvy) to the Big Ten (Eric Gordon and Robbie Hummel) to the Big East (DeJuan Blair) to Conference USA (Derrick Rose) and even the West Coast Conference (Patrick Mills), practically every relevant league has produced at least one stellar freshman who will be appearing in this week's NCAA tournament.

Two of them -- Beasley and Mayo -- will meet Thursday when Kansas State plays Southern California in Omaha. So only one of those projected NBA lottery picks will survive the first round. That's the way most are looking at it. But another way to look at it -- the glass-is-half-full way -- is that one of them is guaranteed to advance to the second round, and who knows what might come next?

Could Mayo take a football school to basketball greatness?

Could Beasley take a rookie coach to the national championship?

The opinion here is that the former is more likely than the latter, but that both will fall short of San Antonio. In other words, Beasley should be gone early and Mayo isn't pulling a 'Melo. But there are at least two teams that could win a national title based on the play of freshmen, and they happen to be two of the four No. 1 seeds, specifically Memphis and UCLA.

Why Memphis and UCLA?

Because while the Tigers and Bruins are sparked by freshmen stars -- Memphis in the backcourt by Rose; UCLA in the frontcourt by Love -- they don't exclusively rely on their freshmen stars, and neither did Syracuse in 2003, if you remember.

Sure, Anthony was fabulous, by far the best player in college basketball. But he also had Hakim Warrick (future first-round pick) and Gerry McNamara (future all Big East performer) right beside him to ease the pressure. So Anthony didn't really win a national title by himself, contrary to the way the story is most regularly told five years later.

Which brings me back to Rose and Love. They have more than enough to help them do the deed.

Rose is surrounded by veterans who have achieved three consecutive 30-win seasons, guys like Chris Douglas-Roberts, Robert Dozier, Antonio Anderson and Joey Dorsey. That's three juniors and a senior in the starting lineup with a freshman. And if the Tigers recorded back-to-back Elite Eights without Rose is it farfetched to think they could break through and make the Final Four with him?

Meantime, Love is also surrounded by veterans, guys like Darren Collison, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Josh Shipp and Russell Westbrook. That's three juniors and a sophomore in the starting lineup with a freshman. And if the Bruins recorded back-to-back Final Fours without Love is it farfetched to think they could break through and win a national title with him?

Answer to the first question: No. Answer to the second question: No.

So there's no reason to believe the same freshmen who dominated headlines throughout the season won't similarly dominate them for three more weeks.

Beasley vs. Mayo is the talk of the opening day of the NCAA tournament; Rose vs. Love could be the talk of the closing weekend. And if that's the way this plays out, don't be surprised if you end up in an elevator with a group of Memphis and UCLA fans, all of them drunk, dazed and delighted as John Daly in a Hooters tent, because though real men don't usually stay for two they can certainly get a lot accomplished in one.