Emmert: Coaches being held more accountable

"I have not been shy about my displeasure with the one-and-done rule," he said. "And while people have tried to make it sound like (NBA Commissioner) David Stern and I are in great disagreement, we're not."

Stern has said he'd like to increase the age limit with the hope of having players stay in college for at least two years.

"I don't like the notion an athlete, a young man, would come to us and see us not as a being a student at a university that is playing a sport, but as a necessary step that they've got to touch that bag before they move on.

"I think that makes it extremely hard with a straight face to say these are student athletes."

Emmert would like the NBA to go back to allowing players to be drafted out of high school.

"People have said to me 'That might mean that the best athletes don't come to college.' OK," he said. "People are still going to come to the Final Four. LeBron went to the NBA, we still had good attendance that year.

"College athletics isn't about putting the absolute best player on the court It's about college students who are basketball players on the court and to the extent we can maximize then the better off we are for it."

____

Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP