“`html
Calipari Rants About College Basketball’s Future, Impact of Pro Players
Without new rules to stop teams from adding players with professional experience to their rosters, the value of American high school players will rapidly decrease, John Calipari said in a postgame rant about the state of the sport Monday night.
In a six-minute response about college basketball, days after Baylor announced the addition of former NBA draft pick James Nnaji to its roster, Calipari said the sport’s youngest talents will suffer if players who’ve played professionally — domestically or internationally — are allowed to compete.
“Does anybody care what this is doing for 17- and 18-year-old American kids? Do you know what this opportunity has done for them and their families? There aren’t going to be any high school kids,” calipari said after Arkansas’ 103-74 win over James Madison.”Who other than dumb people like me are going to recruit high school kids? I get so much satisfaction out of coaching young kids and seeing them grow and make it — and their family and life changes — that I’m going to keep doing it. But why would anybody else, if you can get NBA players, G League players, guys that are 28 years old, guys from Europe? Do we really know their transcript? Do we have somebody over there? Do we really know their birth certificate or don’t we?
“We’ve got no rules.”
Both Louisville (posted a statement on social media Tuesday addressing the eligibility issue, saying in part, “The NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an NBA contract (including a two-way contract). As schools are increasingly recruiting individuals with international league experience, the NCAA is exercising discretion in applying the actual and necessary expenses bylaw to ensure that prospective student-athletes with experience in American basketball leagues are not at a disadvantage compared to their international counterparts.”
Baker added that he’d be working with “DI leaders in the weeks ahead to protect college basketball” after “recent outlier decisions” over eligibility.
It’s unclear what else the NCAA will allow in the near future with
