How’s this for a midseason plot twist: We’re about to flip the calendar to January and immediately unranked Baylor has turn into the Black Hat of school basketball.
Earlier than I clarify why BU coach Scott Drew is catching warmth, here is the need-to-know background on how school basketball has reached a brand new stage of the weird in an more and more unstable roster-building atmosphere.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, the NCAA despatched phrase to Baylor’s compliance workers that 7-foot Nigerian-born middle James Nnaji had been cleared for competitors. The controversial resolution was groundbreaking in males’s school hoops. Nnaji is the primary particular person to reverse course and play school basketball after being chosen within the NBA Draft. And it is not like this man was simply off the board final June. Nnaji was the No. 31 general choose in 2023. He performed for the Charlotte Hornets in NBA Summer season League that yr.
Crucially, Nnaji has by no means performed in an NBA recreation, which is purportedly nonetheless a key distinction for a participant’s school eligibility. (Although we must always brace for that rule to be examined in 2026, I am positive.) Nonetheless, the man guarded Victor Wembanyama in Summer season League and was even a part of the large commerce that shipped Karl-Anthony Cities to the New York Knicks in alternate for Julius Randle to the Minnesota Timberwolves in October 2024.
Whereas the Knicks nonetheless personal Nnaji’s draft rights per the phrases of the Cities/Randle commerce, Nnaji isn’t signed to an NBA contract. Extra essential context: Nnaji was by no means paid exterior of his Summer season League and journey per diems throughout his transient time within the NBA pipeline. For almost all of the previous 5 years, he is been enjoying EuroLeague basketball.
That being the case, he had a path to pursue school eligibility, since he by no means performed school ball previous to 2023. (Nnaji was within the FC Barcelona program within the years earlier than he was drafted.) As a result of Nnaji by no means enrolled in school right here within the States, and since he is inside a five-year window of what equates to his highschool commencement, his five-year NCAA eligibility clock begins now.
Sure, it is loopy, however value emphasizing that though Baylor is on the receiving finish of numerous outcry over the state of school basketball, Drew’s program is way from the one one doing this. The foundations maintain altering as a result of the specter of authorized motion is prompting one fold after one other.
BYU (Abdullah Ahmed), Dayton (Sean Pouedet), Washington (Nikola Dzepina) and others have additionally introduced aboard in-season roster additions from different skilled ranks. The one distinction between all of them and Nnaji is that he was promising sufficient greater than two years in the past to have an NBA crew choose him within the draft. Even inside the Huge 12, Kansas State’s ladies’s crew rosters Nastja Claessens, who’s second on the Wildcats in scoring at 10.6 factors per recreation.
Do you know Claessens, who hails from Belgium, was the thirtieth choose within the 2024 WNBA Draft?
In hockey, Colorado Faculty simply added the son of a notable NHL participant and somebody who’s already skated with professionals for years.
Drew did what many — however definitely not all — coaches in his place would do in a interval of want. At Oklahoma, Porter Moser simply welcomed a 6-11 Russian middle named Kirill Elatontsev. It was overshadowed due to the Baylor information, however the latest Sooner arrived on Christmas. Moser advised me he is most likely going to play him instantly. The previous two seasons, the Sooners misplaced their beginning facilities to damage down the stretch. Now Elatontsev is an insurance coverage coverage. His causes had been the identical as Drew’s.
“I’ve by no means taken a mid-year switch that may play straight away, it is by no means been a part of the sport, but when the NCAA clears it and say it is OK, it’s a must to have a look at it and see if it is good in your scenario,” Moser advised CBS Sports activities. “In my scenario, I’ve two 5s on the roster and one is presently damage. We did it for depth. And if he helps us win one recreation, it was value it. Again-to-back years now we have misplaced our beginning 5s down the stretch and one was pulling out a violin to speak about our lack of depth.”
However as a result of Baylor made a roster addition with a man who was an NBA choose, not like all of the others, it is not sitting effectively with loads of school sports activities followers who go searching and see the basic nature of the game altering to a stage that’s unrecognizable from what school basketball was for many years.
Drew tells CBS Sports activities why he pursued former NBA choose
Fifty-five years outdated and in his twenty third season with the Bears, Scott Drew is not attempting to be a villain or the poster coach for renegade roster constructing. He is merely doing what many, many different coaches have been doing — and all inside the guidelines. You possibly can like it, hate it or be detached to it, however Baylor hasn’t completed something improper right here. Nnaji went by the vetting course of on the NCAA stage. He’s allowed to play beneath the present (fluctuating) construction of school basketball.
Drew is conscious that he and his program will nonetheless be seen in a adverse mild by some. He advised me his guideline was to do what was greatest for Baylor.
“We (coaches) do not create the foundations, and if we agree by them or not, I equate it to the pace restrict,” Drew advised CBS Sports activities. “You undergo a building zone, it adjustments. You get on the freeway, it adjustments. Proper now, the NCAA has pace limits, and it adjustments. I do not blame the NCAA as a result of numerous it is about what they really feel they’ll win within the courtroom. To me, till we get to collective bargaining, there’s not going to be an answer. Till that point, my job is the coach of our program and we would have liked so as to add a participant at semester break as a result of we have had two season-ending accidents to 2 of our greatest gamers and had a 3rd participant out. In case you’re teaching a crew, aren’t you going so as to add the very best participant you possibly can add that matches your program? That is what we did.”
Excessive Level switch Juslin Bodo Bodo was anticipated to be the Bears’ beginning middle, however he is been injured for the reason that summer season and will not play this season. The identical goes for an additional frontcourt participant, Maikcol Perez. Take into account, the Huge 12 might be the very best league within the nation in 2025-26 — and undoubtedly the strongest on the prime. Drew has endured a few seasons with main roster points because of accidents, and with a possible stopgap, he and BU normal supervisor Jason Smith pursued Nnaji’s eligibility case relationship again to early October. The connection took place as a result of Smith has a working relationship with Nnaji’s agent, who additionally represents former Baylor lottery choose Jeremy Sochan.
“For the great of the sport, I believe most coaches are about 99.9% aligned on issues we might have completed to vary issues,” Drew stated. “The NCAA, athletic administrators would really feel the identical method, however till now we have collective bargaining, it is not going to occur. If it is solution-based, how lengthy have we been speaking about congressional assist? That is not wanting like it will occur.”
Michigan State’s Tom Izzo had some pointed phrases in regards to the scenario a couple of days in the past, although he hadn’t spoken to Drew when he was requested about Baylor/Nnaji in a media scrum after a Michigan State observe. Izzo and Drew spoke over the weekend, Drew stated.
Tom Izzo rips Baylor’s NBA Draft choose loophole signing of James Nnaji: ‘Disgrace on NCAA, disgrace on the coaches’
Brad Crawford
“Me and Izzo are buddies, I respect him and it was an awesome dialog,” Drew stated. “On the finish of the day, each of us agree on issues we would prefer to see completed with guidelines for the long run. When he first got here out and talked about G League guys attending to play, I used to be in opposition to it too, however it’s quite a bit like NIL and the portal. You possibly can agree or not agree, however you’ve gotten a job to do. We are able to wait on congressional motion or we are able to get to the inevitable of collective bargaining.”
Drew would not anticipate something from Congress within the months/years to return. He is open to having a hard-line stance on who’s and is not allowed to enroll to play school basketball, however till there’s readability, are you able to blame him?
“In case you say you possibly can have a shot in basketball value 5 factors, who’s not going to take it?” he stated.
Execs pivoting to school hoops a possible rising development
Drew will not be the final coach to do that, that is for positive. He is simply the most recent, and the difficulty may exacerbate within the weeks forward. Contemplate the case of former Louisville commit/top-40 highschool prospect Trentyn Flowers. Like Nnaji, he by no means performed in school. However not like Nnaji, Flowers logged actual NBA minutes earlier this month for the Chicago Bulls. And in latest days, his agent has been exploring avenues to possibly try to leap right down to the faculty ranks. Flowers is presently within the NBA’s G League, however has a two-way contract. And though an preliminary report in regards to the variety of faculties “” in Flowers went viral on Sunday was inaccurate, there are a couple of kicking the tires.
“Doing our due diligence within the new world, haven’t got a selection,” one power-conference assistant advised CBS Sports activities about the potential for recruiting Flowers. “At this level it is a little bit little bit of each: agent reaching out however faculties discovering out and reaching out. Extra two-way road than some assume.”
Now we watch for the following stage of this story: The second Nnaji will step on the ground for Baylor. Drew advised me he has to cross a bodily earlier than any additional steps are taken, however clearance is predicted Tuesday. Baylor’s Huge 12 opener is Saturday at TCU. Will Nnaji see the ground then?
“Undoubtedly may,” Drew stated. “However till he is aware of our offense, is aware of our protection, it would not matter how good anybody is, you possibly can’t put him on the market [for too long]. I believe it will be a gradual course of. If he was prepared for the NBA, he can be enjoying within the NBA.”
Do not anticipate Nnaji to be logging north of 25 minutes for the Bears within the weeks to return. However later within the season? We’ll see. In any case, he was adequate to be drafted No. 31. It is not such a attain to assume he is likely to be the important thing to getting Baylor to a sixth consecutive NCAA Event. In-season free company is now formally a factor in school basketball, and it is likely to be right here to remain.
