Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich and Roy Williams are strong examples for all athletes, coaches.

Intercollegiate sports needs more athletes such as Kansas University’s Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich. And the athletic scene needs more coaches like Roy Williams.

This threesome should serve as an example for other schools, players and coaches to try to match. They reflect credit on college sports at a time when far too much news from that front deals with crime, drugs, shady academic practices and big money.

The public is becoming increasingly cynical about college sports, and the idea of “amateur” athletics and “student athletes” is becoming a joke.

Well-known coaches award scholarships to high schoolers with questionable grades; coaches of some high-profile high school players want some kind of a deal to deliver a highly sought player to a particular college or university; certain schools have few or no standards when it comes to what junior college courses will be accepted for credit at a major university if it means landing some top football or basketball player.

Roy Williams refuses to play this game and players such as Collison and Hinrich are two great examples of what college sports should be. Granted, they may be exceptions and unfortunately, there are not enough such players to go around.

On the other hand, maybe there are far more young men who share many of the same qualities of these two Iowa natives but coaches are more interested in landing a youngster who may present some academic and discipline problems but who can be of immediate help to the coach in fielding a winning team.

Collison and Hinrich were good high school players, they had good high school academic records, they came from families who expected them to behave in a proper manner and they and their families were not looking for handouts from schools recruiting the two young men. They — the players, the families and Williams — all played the recruiting game by the rules. The players conducted themselves in an exemplary manner while at KU. They will receive their degrees in four years of schooling.

Williams is an intense competitor, whether as a coach, recruiter or on the golf course. But he plays by the rules. Some may try to picture him as a goodie-goodie, and he often loses highly sought players because he does play by the rules. In some cases he loses players because of the academic reputations of the schools and highly successful basketball programs he is competing against. But in other cases, he loses because other schools are not playing by the rules.

Collison, Hinrich and Williams all reflect credit on KU, the state of Kansas and intercollegiate sports. Those interested in the university and those interested in restoring honesty to intercollegiate sports should applaud the efforts of coaches such as Williams, players such as Collison and Hinrich and their families, who realized the importance of casting their future with a program such as Williams oversees.

It is hoped the example they set will be looked to by other high school players, as well as their families and coaches, as an illustration that playing by the rules and selecting a college or university committed to playing by the rules does pay off in the long run for all parties.

We need more examples that adhere to high standards rather than seeing increasing numbers of athletic programs, businesses, personal behavioral standards, governmental bodies and other entities all accepting lower and lower levels of performance and behavior.

Congratulations to two fine young men from Iowa, their families and Coach Williams. They are all winners in the most important game: being individuals of high character who strive to do their best and do so by playing by the rules.