CBS Sports<\/a> on Monday. \u201cI thought it was actually a joke when I saw it. I just assumed that when you stay in the draft or you get drafted that you would forgo your college eligibility. I was not aware of the loopholes in it.\u201d<\/p>\nHurley, who has coached Connecticut to two national titles and has the Huskies ranked No. 4 this season, said the time has come for further institutional leadership atop the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a commissioner. We need rules, we need guidelines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a frustrating game to play when you don\u2019t know the rules and rules are being made up as you go and there\u2019s no communication and there\u2019s no leadership. So I think college basketball needs a commissioner. A Roger Goodell. A David Stern. Somebody that\u2019s gonna make decisions and start making moves that are in the best interest of college basketball, not just having coaches and players do what\u2019s in the best interest of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
After growing up in Nigeria and then playing professional basketball in Europe, the now-21-year-old Nnaji was selected No. 31 in the 2023 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons but never appeared on an NBA floor. Last week, he committed to Baylor and was awarded four years of eligibility by the NCAA. The Bears hope Nnaji will be ready to play in early January.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers have to do what they can to make sure that they\u2019re doing what\u2019s in their best interest,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cThey\u2019re taking advantage of those opportunities now with NIL and the portal. The coaches are obviously always going to do what\u2019s in their best interest if they can grab a player from somewhere. It\u2019s gone on forever. Coaches have cheated in recruiting for years. They\u2019ve paid players. I mean, the coaches are gonna find ways to make their team the best they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hurley\u2019s comments come days after legendary Michigan State coach Tom Izzo criticized the NCAA for granting Nnaji eligibility, with Izzo joking about bringing back famous Spartans like Magic Johnson and Gary Harris. On Monday night, after Arkansas\u2019s 103-74 win over James Madison, coach John Calipari gave a near seven-minute diatribe on the subject as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t be 30,\u201d said Calipari. \u201cYou\u2019ve got five years. Clock is ticking. If you go pro, I don\u2019t care what country you\u2019re from. You leave your name in, you cannot play college basketball. If you transfer midseason, you can\u2019t play. You gotta sit out. How about we just do that stuff? We can do it without having Congress and the Senate getting 60 votes. We can do that. Let them sue us on that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes 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\u2019t going to be any high school kids. 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 life changes that I\u2019m going to keep doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coaches across the country have spoken up against what they feel is an attack on their sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest thing is: who\u2019s looking out for the shield, the college basketball shield?\u201d Hurley asked. \u201cWho\u2019s protecting college basketball, one of the most special things we have in sports? College basketball, March Madness, the second biggest annual sporting event every year?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baylor\u2019s addition of 2023 NBA draft pick James Nnaji has stirred a storm in college basketball, and unsurprisingly,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":480546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3909,1385,62,222,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-480545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-connecticut-huskies","9":"tag-mens-college-basketball","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-sports-business","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115809811462367065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}