Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - COLLEGE CHAOS: Baylor Adds NBA Draft Pick James Nnaji | What Does it Mean for Kansas & the NCAA?

Starting point is 00:00:00 In the good old day, it's college basketball was a pathway to the pros, but as of late, it feels like the exact inverse is happening. You are locked on college crossover, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. It is a crossover of the brain trust of the Big 12 trying to come together to fix college basketball in the best way possible that I can think of. Today's show is brought to by Rootschette Ready. I'm host Locked on Couges Park Rangers with joined by Leithelina and Locked on Wildcats.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Derek Johnson have locked on Jayhawks and Cam Stewart, the big winner of the group of Locked on Baylor. And Cam, we're going to be talking about pros coming back to college. And I'm calling you the big winner because y'all have done this. Everyone else I think is trying to and y'all have just done this. What's James Najee? If you didn't know what James Nagy looks like. Like, here's a picture of him covering Victor Wimbunyama. That's a real thing that happened.

Starting point is 00:01:06 How's the Baylor bear? Everyone is once again chasing Baylor. You know, it was a good couple of years away. And now we're all back to Chase at Baylor in this conference. We deal in absolutes here. No way fans or maybe we deal with absolutes. Baylor's the one who's actually got the pro, James Najee. And this is how they got him?

Starting point is 00:01:26 Don't know. It's kind of a weird situation. right this guy's been playing pro he's played in the summer league they basically said before this summer league season like uh if he doesn't if he's not making an NBA roster we're trying to go to college we're not doing the Barcelona thing for we're not doing the European professional thing for a eighth season now um and so he's basically just been waiting around for some college program to get desperate before the spring semester and that is exactly what's happened and now james Now she is eligible to play as soon as the Big 12 opener on January 3rd.

Starting point is 00:02:03 It's a conflicting. It's a conflicting thing for me, fellas, because on one hand, Baylor really needs this kind of player. And I think any coach not named Tom Izzo is like, hey, if we've got a guy here who has pro experience and a position of need for our team in a gauntlet like the Big 12, we're going to go out and get that player. And, you know, as a fan, it's kind of no different. But on the other hand, it feels like we need to have needed to have drawn a line. And it hasn't been drawn. And more and more players are going to keep hopping over that imaginary line that has not been drawn.

Starting point is 00:02:45 And we're already starting to see it with guys who are playing in the NBA this month, getting interest to play college basketball next month. It's a little crazy. And I feel like old man yelling at. cloud a little bit, but I feel like this has gone too far. Like, this to me is not college basketball. Now, as the oldest man, I think on the screen right now, that definitely did some yard work in my Nike Monarchs this morning. I feel like that was probably a shot. A little bit. A little bit. Derek, I want to throw it to you and then to leave because I feel like this is interesting because

Starting point is 00:03:23 Naji played in the G League, I think almost exclusively. Our picture. here of him covering Victor Wimbunyama a summer league picture. And I think the legal argument these guys have laid out here is there's not a whole lot of difference between being a G-League player and a player in Spain

Starting point is 00:03:42 or a player in Australia. Which is where he was playing, by the way, Parker. Playing Barcelona in Spain. That's where he was. Summer leagues in the U.S. And well, and then the deal there is like, okay, how different is it really? We've let kids come play after having played in Australia or whatever before.

Starting point is 00:03:58 You know, I think several of our teams have international guys. I know this couple of international guys on Houston. They didn't play professionally in Europe or anything, but they are from places like the Ivory Coast. Derek, you're sitting here. You thought you had a pretty good roster, but you don't have any NBA players on it or not former NBA players anyway.

Starting point is 00:04:15 Well, yeah, I guess wait and see on that, right? Joel Embed, you're tired of having to load managed through a full 82 game season. Come play 35, man. Come back. No, I think the issue with me is the drafted part. And I get it. Like, can the MLB players get drafted, come back, and he didn't play in an NBA game. But like, if we're saying that college players have to enter the draft process and then decide by a certain deadline, whether they're coming back or not, why doesn't that apply for international guys?

Starting point is 00:04:46 You know, shouldn't that be the same thing? That's where it gets a little sticky to me. And then you get to a standpoint of like, what does this open up? We've already seen the Joe Tipton news about the, I don't even remember the kid's name, like Trenton, Weatherford, Waterford. There we go. Trent and flowers. Trent and flowers. Love it, love it. About the interest from some of these different schools, Kansas was one of those. Now, I know Matt Norlander has since like kind of reported out that like at least five of the schools on that list are not actually interested. So who knows what's happening there with agents. But like point being is when is this going to end? Like where is the line here? And then beyond this is because the NCAA is allowing this to happen. Can somebody now who enters the process doesn't like where.

Starting point is 00:05:27 they get drafted, either the position or the team, say, I'm going to come back to school and then the NCAA will be like, no, listen, we have this withdrawal deadline. You didn't maintain it. And they'll just say, okay, I'll lawyer up. I'll sue you. And I'll point to the fact that this kid did get drafted. And you allowed him to play. And I'll win the case in court because the NCAA loses like every case in court. And then all of a sudden, it's even more of the Wild Wild West. Lee, I think that the NCAA losing every case in court will probably come up a few times in the course of figuring out where exactly this breaks down. Arizona is not immune to having a bunch of pro players, but also in your background locked on, you've done draft prospect stuff and NBA. You've seen some of these guys from different vantage points too.

Starting point is 00:06:10 Where are you, as more of these cases seem to be happening, where are you falling on this? I'm extremely disappointed in the NCAA. way and I know we're going to discuss the Baylor one in specific and Najee was picked 31st like one pick out of the first round and I actually remember doing draft analysis on him watching him and thinking okay that guy is like built like a mountain and you know he might be able to play in the NBA if he develops some skill some touch didn't end up happening but that doesn't mean that I think he should be eligible eligible but from the Arizona perspective they're number one in the nation right now and they have very good talent as do all these top teams however they're The difference I would point to, and I'm not even protecting Arizona because they've recruited tons of European pros. The difference is those pros when they were recruited were 18 years old. And so I gave an example when we were discussing before this is there's a guy of Virginia named Tista Reeder, and he's an all-ACC type of guy. He came in at 22 years old after playing since he's been 16 in pro leagues, and he's played four years after being 18 in the pro leagues, and then was granted three years of eligibility. And I thought this summer was like, wow, that's pretty crazy.

Starting point is 00:07:17 I mean, maybe he's not an NBA player right away, but you're basically getting like a true grown man professional going to an ACC school and he's going to be the best player on the team. I wonder how long the NCAA is okay with it. I had that narrative. Last year, if you really want to get geeky with this, there's a guy named Fedor Zugich, who was deemed eligible just before the season for Creighton.

Starting point is 00:07:37 And I remember hearing pundits who are super in the weeds in this talking about like, this is bad for college basketball because then there's going to have flood. I didn't know this would happen, though. Like what makes it okay for 10 games into the season? Baylor loses their center or BYU is a little bit thin on depth. And they go get guys in the G League 10 games in who weren't on campus even a month ago. So I'm firmly on the side of, I think it's a it's reprehensible of the NCAA, honestly kind of pathetic of the NCAA to allow this to happen.

Starting point is 00:08:05 And I'm on the side of Tom I think it's it's bad that coaches who have built these programs are kind of using this cop out of like, and I love Scott Drew like a cop. out of you know what i'm going to go get an NBA player to fill in a roster that i i didn't you know build the depth of and and it's not just him someone else is going to do it too i like that lee said that he's on uh tom iso side and camps do it parked out wait a second tom is outside so i i think part of the issue that i have with it with it being scott drew me personally is i have heard through the grapevine that scott drew is a big time negative recruiter of other programs like the one that i cover and using certain things that would make this where like I'm just like really at the same point in time I feel like this is very similar to

Starting point is 00:08:49 when like your team gets screwed by the refs you and your fan base are pissed about it you complain about it but every other fan base in the country is like well too bad we got screwed by the refs too so we're not going to feel bad for you and that's how this is everybody is in a situation where they're just about themselves it's hey like cam said earlier they could actually use this player you know and so every school is going to sit there and go this is horrible you shouldn't do that, but then all of a sudden, what if, what if one of these players falls in their lap? They're going to probably be like, yeah, this actually makes our team better. No, this is different for us, right? And that's part of the problem. The only way to fix it is the NCAA.

Starting point is 00:09:25 And so if Baylor and Scott Drew doing this and any other school doing it in the future forces the NCAA to actually do something, because right now they're just, they're not doing anything right now. Then maybe it's like point proven by those coaches to be like, finally, you freaking did something well i think what comes next is actually like like who to blame where that leads us is actually a nice segment to what i want to talk about second about hating the player hating the game or somewhere in between or i guess maybe if it's scott drew and balear it's both i don't know but i want to hope that in one second after you talk to you about our buddies over at ruggia because these NBA players are ready for college basketball and if you want to feel college ready

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Starting point is 00:11:00 Parkings of Lockedong, Cooke's here. Trying to make sense of this discussion. And look, I want to speak. Houston does not currently have a guy with G-League or otherwise. American pro experience on their roster. Houston was absolutely recruiting Ahmed Abdullah, who ended up choosing BYU. So I don't want to sound whole other than now

Starting point is 00:11:18 and that we didn't get one. We were trying to recruit one. And for what it's worth, I know Derek and I were both at Big 12 Media Days, Kelvin said several times he didn't know what's possible to be recruiting a G-League player. And Kellan had to tell him, Dad, we're recruiting one. We're actively currently recruiting one. He's like, oh, okay.

Starting point is 00:11:36 And then about three days later, the Abdullah stuff comes out. He chooses BYU in the end. But Houston has not done this. And so I don't know how I would feel if they had it on their roster. I do feel somewhat icky about guys that have, I don't know, covered Victor Wimbunyama stateside playing in college basketball after having done that. And I kind of don't know where to throw my eye or part of me wants to throw it at Scott Drew like Tom Izzo did. Part of me wants to throw it at, hey, Big 12 commissioner, you can step in on this too.

Starting point is 00:12:07 NCAA will you ever do anything and cam i feel like you're going to receive the brunt end of this because baler has got one of these guys and one that i think james dodgy's pretty good he was in the carl anthony towns trade this year yes yes traded for an all NBA player this year man like chaos so where do you i mean i'm assuming you're not going to hate the coach for bringing it in because he's trying to win i don't i don't know where to place that yeah so and Izzo was basically in his whole rant was like, shame on the NCAA, shame on the NCAA, and then shame on the coaches. And like, I do like understand it. But to me, this is just like the way I was thinking about it was like the whole bail bond system of getting out of jail, you know, like if you do a hit and run. Not that we had experience of that, but tell us.

Starting point is 00:12:59 No, no, no, no, no. Of course not. Like if you do a hit and run and like, your innocence will prove it guilty, but everyone pretty much knows it's you. right you've left you fled the scene whatever um you pay your bail to get out like should we be mad at the person who's paying the bail or should we be mad at the fact that they can post bail and get out you know what i mean um like that's that's kind of the way i'm thinking about it of like especially in the big 12 which is the number one basketball conference in america like you're looking for an edge you know and every coach is looking for an edge and like i'm not

Starting point is 00:13:33 going to sit here and be like god scott drew just chess master of the game, you know, because I don't love that they're able to do this. But the NCAA, once again, wet blanket or wet fart, I mean, they just, they leave this door open and they can't do anything about it. Like to Derek's point, if this goes to court, bam, it's just going to keep happening because the NCAA is going to lose that too. We are, it's mostly in football, but we're getting closer and closer to the NCAA just being someone who organizes a postseason tournament and then nothing more.

Starting point is 00:14:06 like there's no governing body power um this is the first shoot a drop you know people will be mad at scott drew and baylor but that will not be the last one by a long shot might not be the last one this week i do think it might not be the last one the week i do think it's interesting compared to the b y u abdula case though because abdula was not drafted and he ended up getting a g league deal for a couple years or whatever right and guys that did the g league ignite before that fell through i think kind of strike me as different too because they thought they were doing and away around college basketball, that got taken away from them. Leif, as I want to mention in covering the draft and stuff,

Starting point is 00:14:43 you'd covered James Najee before. Do you feel like this is a thing that the NBA could say, hey, hey, we want to protect our G League guys? Is this going to come down to will the NCAA do something or not? Or is there any other entity, your marker, or whomever, that could step in? Well, I'd hope that the NBA would, you know, do something in the sense of, We'll retain our guys. They're under contract and that you can't just be swooped by a hungry NCAA team.

Starting point is 00:15:11 But to me, it boils down to the NCAA being spineless right now. I mean, here's my biggest gripe is Abdullah. The reason he's eligible per BYU is because they have a trimester system and a semester system. So essentially, he's eligible as soon as the academic calendar starts. And because it parts during the Christmas break, he's eligible to come back. So that's everyone's rationale. And I live in Utah. I do not care for either Utah or BYU, yet I was claimed to be a hater of both because

Starting point is 00:15:43 I said that I don't think Utah getting the Spanish kid they got was right, but I was certainly against BYU adding a guy who wasn't on the roster a month ago to a top 10 team in the nation. And my point was essentially why is a player who wasn't there just a month ago, much less training camp in the offseason, recruited forever. Why is the NCAA okay, one with a 22-year-old getting three years of eligibility? That bothers me. But why is he immediately eligible due to necessity?

Starting point is 00:16:10 Like as soon as BYU had some injury woes, this happened. And Baylor loses their two centers and then this happens. And so why is it just immediately put through the motion of these teams that are prominent being able to recruit guys that are very good? And I understand the academic calendar thing. But I think the NCAA, one, shouldn't allow a player from the G League to come back and play college basketball. And two, I think it's crazy to have as many years of eligibility. But three, the one that's really bothering me is the immediacy of the eligibility. Well, and what about the NBA, though?

Starting point is 00:16:43 Like, do they actually like this? Because think about it from this standpoint. If you're the New York Knicks or, you know, whoever, and you have James Noges the rights, and he hasn't done anything to this point to, like, earn his way onto your roster, don't you want him to go develop and play somewhere? Don't you want him to, like, what if, I don't know if you've thought about this at all can, but like, what if James? Naji averages like 15 and 12 for like a three-week stretch.

Starting point is 00:17:05 And they're like, hey, you know what? We're going to call him up. And Baylor loses him like right before the NCAA tournament. So like I think they love this. Like in the same way for so many years, you'd hear people be like, oh, the NBA should get rid of the one and done rule, just allow them to come straight from high school. No, they don't want them to because they get an extra year of scouting them against better competition at the college level.

Starting point is 00:17:24 Yeah, it's that same end too, Derek, of like the point you brought up earlier, you know, if someone gets drafted by the Wizards, you know, at 19th overall, they're like, I'm not going to get that whatever signing bonus is going to come normally to a lottery pick. And I really don't want to play for the Wizards, man. Like, what happens then? Like, does the NBA have to protect their investments here to that too? Or if James Najee averages a double double, can the Knicks trade it? Does he have trade value for a guy that's playing in college right now? It's just totally uncharted territory.

Starting point is 00:18:00 And the other thing I was thinking of, and I've totally lost my train of thought, so it's going to take a little filibustering for me to get it back is... They say put your hands on your head. It helps. No, I got it. I got it. It was to Lee's point about the immediacy of this because I think this also screws the college player right now because last year they were added Cameron Carr in the middle of the season,

Starting point is 00:18:25 and he wasn't eligible to play for. the rest of the year. And so why is it that you can go out and get a pro that can play right now, play next week, but you can't get a kid who's playing college basketball? Why are we kind of screwing the college basketball player through that? Like that doesn't seem fair to the kids who are already playing. Pam, to that point, though, it feels like at some point some college player is going to sue the NCAA in Cameron Carr's shoes. And as we've all alluded to, the NCAA will fold and that kid will be eligible. And then that gets crazy. Then you Then you have a portal window at winter break.

Starting point is 00:19:00 At winter break. And it's truly nuts because, like, you have these guys that are performing, look, G-League is a good level of basketball. I don't mean that it's in a diminutive way. We're not all watching it in the same way. We're watching Houston and Arkansas from New Jersey on a Saturday night. It just doesn't, people aren't as enthusiastic. And if you're trying to sell tickets or jerseys or hype or whatever around the Washington Wizards saying like, hey, that's our guy right there. playing like that's a whole different ball game all of the sudden and and it just really does it just

Starting point is 00:19:33 doesn't feel like anything's ever felt before around coddoll that's even baseball where guys got drafted and had rights but then opted to go to college they were redrafted again three years later like that it's not and they're not and they're not going to spring training right with the red socks and then going to play you know going to play at u t you know like that's that's that part's not happening either and it could be i know we're up again But it could be that you start to go the route of baseball and maybe more specifically hockey where you can draft a guy in the first round and he just goes and plays at college for a year.

Starting point is 00:20:09 I'm going to lean on the Bostonian for more hockey talk in one second because that is an interesting metaphor. Before we get to there, though, today's show is brought to you by our buddies over at Fandul Fridays. If you like NBA basketball folks and you like NBA guys that could be on your college team very soon, Fridays might feel different during basketball season and things. is making them even better because every Friday night. Before NBA games tip off,

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Starting point is 00:20:53 for tip-off. Check out the Fandall app, so it's dropping on the NBA Happy Hour. Friday from 6 to 7.30 Eastern, little basketball, a little action, a whole lot of Friday energy. That's NBA Happy Hour, only at Fandilift, a sports book partner of the NBA. All right, Cam, the hockey metaphor. Now, I don't mean to speak. Houston has no pro hockey. Although I think we just got a WNBA team again, so that's cool.

Starting point is 00:21:19 We're adding sports teams here, and we still don't have a hockey team. You mentioned the hockey metaphor. Derek knew what you're talking about. Does that mean Kansas as a team? I don't. What is this, college players can be affiliated with the pro team in hockey. What's that, has that function? Is that a way for basketball to function? It could be in the future. So basically the way they run their draft is once you're 18, you can go in the draft. It doesn't mean you have to go to that team right away. So what normally happens is, or not normally, but sometimes this happens.

Starting point is 00:21:50 You know, a kid is playing major junior hockey where you can play as a 16 to an 18 year old, actually to a 20 year old. and then you get drafted in your age 18 year and then you can you can sign your entry level contract and then you're done you know you go to the minors or the NHL you can continue playing in juniors mostly in Canada or if you're playing in Europe or you can play in college so again real quick example my team the Boston Bruins drafted a kid who started his college hockey career as 17 year old James Higgins and they they drafted him in the top 10 this past year and he's playing another year at Boston College. He's doing it right now.

Starting point is 00:22:28 And that's just another year of development. They meet with the player and the team and they say, hey, this is probably the best route for you to go to continue playing here. And I could see basketball doing that. There's no reason other than they've never done it that they can't do that. But I think that's probably what we're headed towards, where you're just drafting 18-year-olds and then finding out how their development goes. But obviously the big risk with hockey that you don't get with basketball, which is what we talked about earlier, is they don't want the guys coming out of high school because they don't have all the scouting that they can get on them, you know, versus playing a couple of years of college basketball.

Starting point is 00:23:10 So it's possible. And I would have to say that's probably the best way to combat this if we're not going to batten down the hatches on this rule. And they used to do something like this in the NBA. I mean, Larry Bird was a Boston Celtics draft pick before his final season at Indiana State. Like, you might be wondering. I think it was 21. Yeah, like you might be thinking,

Starting point is 00:23:32 oh, why was Larry Bird? Like, the Celtics were always good. How did they get Larry Bird? That's why they drafted him kind of ahead of time, and then he developed into that. He's drafted 6th. No one else wanted to draft him because he had a whole other year of college basketball to play.

Starting point is 00:23:45 It's crazy thinking of now, but you could be headed towards that. Speaking of the Bostonian over here. leave again we talk about an NBA draft at this point that is a in your past I don't want to say like it's completely at your wheelhouse but it's something you've done with locked on before would you if this happens the NBA draft circles around to okay you can start drafting kids at 18 then come out of college and then come in college you might get their rights at 18 or are we going to go back to like the early aughts where like I feel like everyone in the first round with a high school kid like it feels like that would not be too slippery a slope right I'm It would be super interesting to see what the philosophy of teams would be. Like, are we trying to draft and say, you know what? Like, we'll get this guy and we'll send him basically to the G League, except the G League in this case is being an All-American College player.

Starting point is 00:24:34 Like, there's various ways that they could do that. And I'd be very curious to see it. But I don't think the NBA would be okay with it the way that their monetary system is based of like, okay, we're going to pay this guy as there's a draft pick, so X amount of money because he's a guaranteed four-year contract deal. and then he's not playing for that team he can get hurt so i don't think that'll ever happen i hope not but one thing that popped in my head at the end of last segment and it kind of correlates with this is tom iso said it in part of his rant that i think everyone here will agree with is he said

Starting point is 00:25:04 he asked coen car one of his better players right now he's the high flyer for those of you listening who aren't big 10 fans we're at big 12 schools but he's the best dunker in college basketball he's a double-digit score from michigan state said if i went and got miles bridges how would you feel? Because Miles Bridges is better than Cohen Carr. And he was a Michigan state guy with two years of eligibility left. And Cohen Carr kind of just like didn't answer because there's not really an answer to give. But it's not a very fun thing to see.

Starting point is 00:25:31 And that's what you guys mentioned at the end of the previous segment of like there's going to be someone who sues that they weren't allowed to play. And there's going to be someone that sues like, hey, I was a starter on a really good basketball team. And all of a sudden they went back and took a one and dud star that, you know, wasn't panning out in the NBA. like what if Jaliel Okafore came back to do like just to throw an out there like for him right now honestly but yeah and it's like that that's a great move right for him because he's in the G league right now and I know he played in the NBA but but my point being is I think that there's so many things that this immediacy of eligibility causes and I also think what what was wrong with the transfer rule where like you had to sit a year if you were to transfer and the only way you were exempt from that is if your coach had left so you're immediately eligible and that and this is bigger in football than it is basketball than it is basketball. But as a basketball diehard fan, I liked that. Like Sam Houser, who's on the Celtics now as we go back to Boston, he went, he went from Marquette, sat a year, and he went to Virginia, and then he developed in that year. And he credited Tony Bennett for his development.

Starting point is 00:26:31 So like the redshirt, Villanova, fun fact for you guys, Villanova had six of their eight players that went to the NBA, six of their nine, sorry, redshirted before becoming what they are now. That used to be a Scott True special, too, by the way, Leif. Like, you look at that national championship team. two of their starters, Macy O. Teague and Davion Mitchell, did the transfer. They sat out a year. Like, there wasn't anything wrong with it. And I'm not a proponent of saying, okay, these guys have to sit. I just don't think there's anything wrong with that. So this immediacy thing is

Starting point is 00:27:01 causing more issues to me than even fixing what wasn't an issue of the transfer rule that has now become an epidemic. Like, we had Chris Beards rant recently. He's like, I'm going to play players that play hard instead of getting paid a ton. And AJ Store has been at eight schools in eight years four high schools and four colleges or maybe it's five colleges now and so you just look at all this different stuff and i think the game that we all love and covering our teams that are basketball schools you look at it and it's starting to become a game that i don't recognize of of like this is not how basketball is built and like Arizona fans i don't personally take this opinion they're like the year that we have a chance to win the championship and now teams are

Starting point is 00:27:41 getting pros to thwart it i don't see it that way but i do think there's a world in which this could be exploited really drastically if there's not a ironclad fist saying like, okay, we're not allowing this player to be eligible immediately. AJ's door has been a lot of places, but he's never covered Victor Wimbunyama to my knowledge. No, I think, though, it's just there's so many layers and levels to this, because on the one hand, I also want to sympathize to the kid who is 20, got bad advice, jumped in the draft, got taken 55th overall by somebody and as like what am I doing why like can I get a redo like at some level there's all like because the kid that did it in Barcelona got a redo right like I think

Starting point is 00:28:25 that there is something to me it's like why is the kid born stateside being treated but whether whether it's age and we didn't even get into the fact that like there's also just older kids with reclassifications in high school and like there's also I do think this hurts high school players too Parker oh you know if you're not a top 40 probably If this is going to be, if this is going to open some floodgates here, like your options are going to be super limited, like to the point where we might see high school kids going abroad instead of going straight to college. Well, I, you know, he's some born teacher and coach.

Starting point is 00:28:57 I do teaching and coaching that whole whole thing. I will say admittedly, we've had kids with Division I talent that have gotten told by some small institutions, hey, you don't have to play here a year. Like they're getting told that because they're getting treated. like you know these smaller schools as if they're junior colleges and look everyone gets to figure out their path but this would add another layer to that because then those smaller schools would be kind of getting the trick of that effect would be like suddenly they're full too and and it's a lot harder to get to the league we hadn't talked at all about junior college guys

Starting point is 00:29:31 not having a junior college years count um i mentioned in prepod you know b yu is not on this jake is busy and can't can't make it but b yu has always had old or rosters in all of their sports. I don't know where age falls into it, where your graduation year falls into it because there was a rule at one point in the NFL, I think is still there like your high school graduation year had something to do with how far away you could,

Starting point is 00:29:55 that was the whole Maurice Claret thing, right, by getting drafted too early or whatever. It's got so many, like, layers to the biscuit in this. And I just feel like at some point, it's going to take someone taking the gavel down and being the bad guy. And I don't know that anyone in this is willing to do that.

Starting point is 00:30:15 I have two questions for you guys. This is one I'm biased about because I love college basketball for what it was. But you said, Cam, like top 40 guys, and I agree, top 100 are four stars, like the way it's built. So you're going to have zero three stars. I talked to the guy who's a four star recruit multiple time Mr. Basketball this weekend that I know. And he said, oh, it's good for college basketball because these guys that are coming

Starting point is 00:30:42 at 22 are great that they make the game better and I said yeah that's true but what happens to guys like you and he kind of just like I don't know like yeah I get what he's saying like the product theoretically is better but here's my issue with that the product is never going to be as good as the NBA the reason people watch college basketball is for the atmosphere the school name stuff like that so that's where the issue becomes to me and I agree that so my question was essentially going to be like is the product being better because you're allowed to bring in 22-year-old with multiple years of eligibility and I've already played six years of pro basketball from age 16 to 22, is it worthwhile because it's better for the NCAA?

Starting point is 00:31:23 Or do you lose too many players that would have played college basketball? And then instead, you know, I'm a hundredth ranked player in the country. I'm number one in my state. And now I decide, you know what, college basketball is not the right path for me. Like it's either Juko or go play foreign basketball because I'm not going to go to a prominent program and which programs differentiate themselves by still recruiting younger as opposed to just hitting the transfer portal and handing a lot of cash. So I'm concerned for the product. It's a very big concern of the product. And I would point out too, like, look, Houston just

Starting point is 00:31:55 played Calipari's. I feel like I've talked about Kentucky and Arkansas a lot in last month. My listener might be tired of me talking about him. But Calipari's had some really great teams because he gets all the one and done kids. He's also as a team that were not so great because he had a bunch of 18 year olds out there and I don't know that every coach would swallow that bullet when losing seasons could get them fired right like at some point the coaches are trying to win and keep their jobs and if it takes getting 22 year old kids that have played in the G league then that that's what it takes to win I would hope my coach is competitive enough to take to win especially these ones who are immediately eligible like Leif was talking about

Starting point is 00:32:30 like that that to me is a big part of this of like the fact that you can bring in someone and they can play next week like that i just that's just not good that's that's not good for for everyone involved can because you brought it up and when this is a very hypothetical question because it if naji were not eligible to play this season do you think it'd be a bailer bear no i think someone might have gotten them but no i think you were a stowaway kind of guy you wouldn't you don't think because they they need the depth right now right and and they went out and this was this was a situation where Baylor didn't have a basketball program team, you know, in May. They had one player who had been practicing with them. That was it. So they had to go out and get a whole

Starting point is 00:33:14 new roster. So they got these guys. Justlin Bodo Bodo is basically the guy who's opened the door for this. They got him so con defensive player the year, two years in a row. And he gets hurt in, you know, the training camp, so to speak. And he's out till after the new year and probably out for the season. And so they say, well, we need to go and get someone right now. James Naji he might have been on their radar, but no, I don't, I don't think he'd be there. He might be somewhere, but he wouldn't be here if Baylor did not have an exact need for that at this time of year. In fact, Scott Drew said it in a presser like two weeks ago, you know, they asked him

Starting point is 00:33:50 about adding someone midseason, and he was like, yep, we're looking at it, looking at centers, yep, like he was fully open and honest about it. Like, they need someone now. So, yeah, to answer your long way of answering a question, but no, he would not. be a bail or bear if they didn't have an injury right now and he wasn't eligible to play right now well and maybe leifes alluded to the eligibility or and maybe that's part of the way to fix this too that i'm not thinking of as some way to word legally hey you can go ahead and side naji in december of 25 he can't play for you until september of 26 or or something

Starting point is 00:34:26 because whether it's you know high school kids that graduate early or whatever like houston played their bowl game we're recording on sunday or played a saturday night good win for the coogs they had the number one player in the country in class 2026 on rivals and he graduated high school early but he wasn't going to go play in the bowl game that that would have been ludicry that's a good point I don't know I don't know what the deal he'll be he'll be a student in a couple of weeks he's enrolled he practiced the whole time but he wasn't able to play I know all four of us will be hitting aspects of this whether it's more about to play by way you or Baylor or I guess it can it'll be every time he goes off for double double up until it's traded to the Wizards and called up. Is that word deciding going to happen? Right before the March Madness Run. Yeah, conference tournament, it'll be gone, you see? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:35:13 But that's locked on Baylor and Cam Stewart. That's locked on Jayhawks and Derek Johnson, locked on wildcastleafed Delane, and I'm Park Lane to the locked on Coogs. We didn't solve any problems. We sure as heck tried, right guys, right? The questions that matter. That's what we brought to the table.

Starting point is 00:35:29 That and good looks, good looks mostly. Yeah? Yeah? Mostly.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - COLLEGE CHAOS: Baylor Adds NBA Draft Pick James Nnaji | What Does it Mean for Kansas & the NCAA?

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