For much of the 2008 season, it's been assumed that Kevin Love was probably one-and-done. That's a shame, really: Love has a chance to be one of the best college basketball players of all-time. He's that fundamentally perfect, that intuitive, and that polished. And he's only a freshman. Of course, you wouldn't expect Love to shoot for college basketball accolades at the expense of his pro career. Scholarships are nice, but UCLA can't pay what a lottery team can, at least not legally. But it would be nice to see what Love could do with four years of college hoops under his belt. Four All-American teams are not out of the question.

Anyway, the pros are calling, and Kevin Love and teammate Darren Collison are, according to the L.A. Times, answering. Or are they? Love's mother and Collison refuted the L.A. Times yesterday, saying no decisions had been reached or communicated to Ben Howland. So, there's that.

Assuming Love does jump, it's hard to imagine him as much of a pro. Rebounding and picture-perfect transition work is his game, and he has a solid outside shot to complement a few wide-body offensive tricks, but his lack of athleticism and medium height for a power forward don't, I imagine, have draft scouts salivating. (Imagining scouts salivating ... now. In front of them, I see a giant plate of braised turkey. Loaves of bread cover the length of a giant wood table. Chad Ford sits in the middle, pounding the planks for attention. It's like a scene from a bad King Arthur movie. Gross.) Love's disappearing act against Memphis also needs to be taken into account. If one accepts the premise that Memphis was the pro-iest team in college basketball this year, and Love performed that way against a fringe NBA player like Joey Dorsey, what will he do when facing legitimate NBA big men?

That said, Love's game could fit in well with a few teams. The Suns, for example, could phase Shaq out of their offense with the addition of Love, who has the perfect tools to fit in there. It's possible, if Love falls to the middle of the first round -- and for all the reasons above, he could -- the big man from Oregon might find a totally productive pro career in Phoenix. Barring that, though, it's tough to imagine too many lottery teams gaining much out of Love ... or Love gaining much out of any of the other lottery teams.

And as for Darren Collison -- dude. Stay. I don't want to cramp your steez, but this class has too many guards already. Derrick Rose showed you what the NBA thinks of you just a few days ago. Take a victory lap for a year, the way most college kids do it. Next year, when you're in the lottery, you'll thank me.

Related: Pac-10 Basketball