There was a time not long ago when the morning after the NBA Draft was like a graduation day for Rick Majerus. At the University of Utah, he had an impressive run of kids like Andre Miller to Keith Van Horn and Michael Doleac who turned into solid NBA first-round picks, and a few more who were selected in the second round.

None of those guys showed up at Utah as sure-fire pros, but they left school as NBA-ready products. A few hours before the start of Thursday night’s NBA Draft, the St. Louis U. basketball coach couldn’t resist picking up the phone to call the only other guy in this baseball-crazy town who he knew for certain was entirely jacked up about the draft. Me.

We talked a little about players, but eventually the conversation rolled around to a hot-button topic that has serious hoop junkies who love both college and the pros a bit confounded: the NBA’s “one-and-done” rule, the grand social and hoop experiment that essentially forces high school basketball prodigies to spend at least one year in college, even if they have visions of becoming the next Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, NBA superstars who leaped directly from high school into the pros.

“My personal feeling is you should be able to go to the NBA if you want to,” said Majerus late Thursday afternoon only an hour or so before the draft commenced. “It’s a person’s right to choose their own path. But that’s a separate issue from the bigger issue.”

And what’s the bigger issue?

“Is it best for the kid? No. Is it best for the NBA? No,” Majerus said.

While Majerus sees merit in the NBA’s mandate, it has been panned by many, including a ton of prominent college coaches who think it is bad for the college game.

Yes, there will be kids who come along and abuse the rule. But the reality is kids and coaches have been making a mockery out of the concept of college “student athletics” since they started handing out scholarships and championships nearly a century ago. It didn’t start with the “one-and-done” rule and it won’t end abruptly if they ever abolished the rule either.

“We all know that the best developmental league for the NBA is and always has been college basketball,” Majerus said. “Two of my best friends are (San Antonio Spurs head coach) Greg Popovich and (Denver Nuggets head coach) George Karl, and they both tell me about how now they have to take care of the problems (college coaches) used to have to deal with in terms of developmental issues with these young guys.”

Hopefully this draft proved, at least in the short term, why going to college — even for a quick trip — is still the best avenue to the NBA. Some of those gifted young prep stars find their way to college and either blossom into better prepared lottery picks immediately or realize that they weren’t quite as good as they thought they were and end up staying in school longer than they expected to become more finished products.

So maybe the rule isn’t ideal, but the only thing worse than the “one-and-done” is no rule at all. There is great value in the concept of keeping up the roadblock that shuts high school kids out of the NBA, and I only wish the NBA could get together with the players association and extend the rule to a two-year prohibition.