By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
In recent years, college basketball has become nothing short of confusing.
Student-athletes are becoming multi-millionaires throughout the South, 28-year-old men are playing basketball in Utah and now players from the G-League — a professional developmental league affiliated with the NBA — are joining college rosters.
“I learned yesterday you can sign G-League guys,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said at Big 12 media day. “Who knows what I’ll learn tomorrow.”
Thierry Darlan, a 21-year-old veteran of the NBA Academy Africa, led the way for the concerning jump from professional play to college basketball. After three years in the G-League, Darlan left the Delaware Blue Coats to sign with Santa Clara in late September.
Darlan’s move from the Philadelphia 76ers’ amateur team to the West Coast Conference was concerning, but not on a large enough scale to raise any concern. A mid-major team that hasn’t even sniffed the final four since 1952 signing a former G-League player with only two years of college eligibility was odd, but not enough to cause national outrage in the college basketball world.
Then, in mid-October, preseason No. 11 Louisville announced the addition of 21-year-old London Johnson, who spent one season with the Maine Celtics and another with the Cleveland Charge.
This is when the outrage began.
College coaches across the country began to speak out against the newest oddity allowed by NCAA rule changes.
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo led the charge, vocalizing his feelings toward Johnson’s signing with Louisville.
“I am not real excited about the NCAA or whoever is making these decisions without talking to us,” Izzo said. “To me, it’s ridiculous. It’s embarrassing for our sport.”
Many of the greatest coaches across college basketball rushed to support Izzo in calling out the NCAA.
St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino mocked the decision on X, saying that if professionals were now allowed to come play in college, he would have first dibs on two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Drew echoed his agreement with Izzo’s rant on X, reposting the Michigan State coach’s comments with the caption “100%.”
This development did not sneak up on the NCAA out of nowhere. It’s been building up since the beginning of the NIL era on July 1, 2021.
Since the beginning of the NCAA, if any player had touched any level of payment for their play — before or while competing on a college court — they would be stripped of all collegiate eligibility.
Following the allowance of paying players in 2021, those lines have been blurred. The emergence of professional players finding their way to the college court began. Originally, the allowance was for international players; it had never dawned on anyone that the G-League could be accepted into this sphere of former professionals allowed to play the college game.
The purpose of allowing former international pros to come to college was to allow players such as Luka Dončić or LaMelo Ball, who went straight from professional competition to the NBA draft once they turned 19, to spend a year getting the chance to compete in sports’ most exciting dance.
As rules change and liberties get stretched, that ruling has now seemingly found its way to include American professionals.
Following the backlash received after Louisville signed Johnson, the NCAA released an official statement.
“More schools are recruiting and enrolling individuals who have competed professionally,” the NCAA said. “Each player’s situation is unique … in making its eligibility decisions, the NCAA endeavors to treat prospective student athletes, whether domestic or international, as consistently as possible given the broad range of backgrounds that can be presented.”
The NCAA’s observance of treating each situation as unique has become evident as 22-year-old center Abdullah Ahmed, who spent the last two seasons with the Westchester Knicks, is looking to join a Division I program despite the season beginning this week. The 6-foot-10 lob threat has narrowed his final two schools down to Houston and BYU, and is looking to make a final decision in the coming week.
Wherever Ahmed signs, Baylor will still get the opportunity to face the matter first-hand, as the Bears will take on Johnson and the Louisville Cardinals on Valentine’s Day. Despite the holiday, given Drew’s apparent feelings toward signing G-Leaguers, there may be anything but love in the air.
The NCAA has made clear its allowance of the G-League to college jump, and the Bears made it clear in their season opener Monday against UTRGV that they could use a point forward to add to their roster this season. It may be worth looking into whether former Baylor forward Jalen Bridges, who could theoretically hold a remaining season of college eligibility alongside his two-way contract with the Boston Celtics, could return to Waco to add to the Bears’ title pursuits this season.
