Ben Simmons is Done at LSU, and it Was an Unmitigated Disaster

The brief, but well-documented college basketball career of Ben Simmons is over. It ended with an embarrassing defeat, 71-38, at the hands of Texas A&M in the SEC tournament. The Tigers shot a pathetic 20 percent; Simmons scored 10 points and collected 12 rebounds in 31 minutes.

With the loss, Simmons likely earned the dubious distinction of becoming a trivia question: Who was the last #1 pick in the NBA draft to attend college and miss the NCAA Tournament?

It should be noted that several of the last 1st overall picks in the NBA draft didn’t do much damage in March Madness: Anthony Bennett in 2013 couldn’t win a 1st round game with UNLV; Andrew Wiggins famously scored six points in a 2014 2nd round loss to Stanford; 2011’s #1 pick Kyrie Irving scored 28 points in a Sweet 16 upset loss to Arizona; in 2010, John Wall and a loaded Kentucky team were shocked by West Virginia in the Elite 8.

[Aside: A narrative will build in the coming months about whether or not Duke’s Brandon Ingram should be the No. 1 pick in the June NBA draft. You could almost write the story now with anonymous quotes from NBA general managers, toss in some shot charts, and sprinkle in a mention of the Warriors somewhere.]

One could write a doctorate dissertation on the 5-month stint Simmons had at LSU. It was a nice gesture, picking LSU over Duke and Kentucky because his godfather, David Patrick, was an associate head coach at LSU. Their relationship, via NOLA.com:

"LSU associate head coach David Patrick is Simmons’ godfather, and it’s not a simply relationship of convenience. Patrick is an Australian native who played basketball in the U.S. and has coached here since he graduating, establishing a pipeline to his home land. Patrick and Simmons’ father, Dave, have been friends since Patrick was a teenager growing up in Melbourne. A New York City native, Dave Simmons played college ball at Oklahoma City College, kicked around pro ball in Central and South American for a few years and moved to Australia in the late 1980s to play professionally."

Even when Simmons blew up in the summer of 2014, and the opportunity presented itself to play internationally for a year and then get drafted, Simmons stuck with his commitment to the Tigers, which maybe says something about his character. (Probably more than not taking his college classes seriously, but that’s better left for the 1-and-done discussion.)

Simmons will make so much money on sneaker deals and playing in the NBA that he’ll never have to care about how poorly this LSU stint was. But as I wrote in December, I think the end game will be terrible for college basketball.

Let’s say Simmons had carried LSU on a glorious run, and done something Shaq or Chris Jackson couldn’t do: Took the Tigers to the Final 4. It would have been a heartwarming story, perhaps the kind to spur other players to eschew Duke and Kentucky and North Carolina and carve out their own path.

The opposite happened. LSU was atrocious. Its plight, coupled with that of two other highly-touted recruits – 8th-rated Malik Newman and Mississippi State won’t be dancing, nor will 11th-rated Henry Ellenson and Marquette – almost certainly will be pointed out on the recruiting trail. Want to blaze your own trail? Hey, enjoy the NIT.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas agrees. And perhaps the Class of 2016 has noticed – of the Top 10 players according to Rivals, three are going to Duke, and three are going to Kentucky.

So far.