Atlanta ? Nearly every college coach and wanna-be college coach arrived here for Final Four weekend. Almost all of them left before Monday’s championship game. That’s too bad, because they could have learned an important lesson.

Maryland won the national championship with seniors. This, we are told, is a lesson on why to stay in school. But really, it’s a lesson on why coaches should recruit players who aren’t good enough to leave.

Maryland’s best post player all season was Lonny Baxter. Baxter is a hard-working center with a two-keg-wide chest who chewed up opponents all season. But if Baxter is an NBA center, I’m Shaquille O’Neal.

Baxter won’t play center in the NBA unless the league grants him a special stilts exemption. He’s not even 6-foot-7. Baxter’s college success is a credit to his heart, which is not the muscle the NBA covets most.

Maryland’s best NBA prospect is the guy who shares the paint with Baxter: Chris Wilcox. Wilcox is 6-foot-10 and is known around the Maryland campus for jumping over buildings on his way to class.

But as freakish as Wilcox is, he was probably the Terrapins’ fourth-best player this season. He’s about as polished as a piece of coal. The guess (and it’s only a guess) is that Wilcox will leave for the NBA now, having never been a dominant college player.

That might be good for him and good for the NBA, and things obviously worked out for Maryland. But you can’t build a program around Chris Wilcox. That’s not good or bad; it’s just reality.

College coaches are starting to realize it. They didn’t waste their time on Tyson Chandler last year, when it was obvious that the California high schooler would bolt for the NBA. They sure aren’t bothering with LeBron James, the Akron high school junior who is already the leading cause of NBA drool.

But these coaches should take it a step further, by taking a step back.

This summer, the wisest college coaches will locate the nation’s top 12 NBA prospects and cross them off their list. With rare exceptions – like Duke’s Jason Williams and Michael Dunleavy – they’ll leave college before they win there.

The biggest difference between college basketball and the NBA is the approach to finding players.

In recent years, NBA teams have looked more at potential and raw talent than the current skill level. That’s why so many players leave early for the pros staying in college and improving your skills won’t do a lot for your draft standing.

College coaches have to take the opposite approach. Current skill level and work habits matter more than potential. I don’t think this diminishes the appeal of the college game, but it sure changes the game. Maryland is proof.

Gary Williams once recruited a high school phenom named Joe Smith. Terrapin fans were thrilled. Smith left school after two seasons. A few years later, Williams recruited a skinny kid from Baltimore named Juan Dixon. Terrapin fans were appalled.

Dixon now leaves school as a national champion, Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four and Maryland’s all-time leading scorer. And the NBA still isn’t sure about him.

Williams said this week that he recruited Dixon because he liked his determination, his quickness and work ethic. Williams also admitted he got a little lucky.

Every college coach would love to find the next Juan Dixon. They have a better chance of seeing him if they take their eyes off the next Chris Wilcox.