HARTFORD — When the rules change, you can count on Dan Hurley to play by them. When new avenues to find basketball players are open, the UConn coach is compelled to explore them.
That doesn’t mean he has to feel good about it. In fact, the recent development, in which London Johnson is moving from the NBA’s developmental G League to play college ball at Louisville, makes Hurley a little uneasy.
“We all want to win, we have a sense of responsibility to our university and our fan base to put the absolute best team on the court relative to what the rules say you can do,” Hurley said after practice at PeoplesBank Arena this week. “The problem with our sport, we’re not very aware of what the rules are in certain instances.”
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Hurley’s not alone here. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, the fourth-ranked Huskies’ opponent in the preseason game at PeoplesBank Arena on Tuesday night, and Purdue’s Matt Painter spoke out on this topic earlier this week.
“This was sprung on us, where a guy can be in the G League for two or three years, then all of a sudden, he’s eligible,” Izzo told reporters last week. “Most of our people knew nothing about it. … This just goes to show you how ridiculous people that are in power make decisions. To me, it’s ridiculous; to me it’s embarrassing. I love my job, I don’t respect my profession.”
Painter: “You’re just kind of at a loss for words. Like, you don’t know what’s next, right? I don’t know, nothing surprises you anymore, I know that. Isn’t the backbone of what we have, high school student-athletes? And we just keep going away from it. So, I’m kind of the opposite. I’m stubborn. I just want to do more of it, keep doing more of it, even if I lose a guy.”
At the crux of this sudden shift is the various lawsuits that have been brought against the NCAA in recent years, which is why there is legislation before congress, such as the SCORE Act, to address the antitrust ramifications in defining eligibility. Hockey players who were paid a stipend in Canadian junior leagues were deemed eligible to play in college, and that led to the next step, players from U.S. pro minor leagues, even the AHL, one step below the NHL, are now going to play in college.
In basketball, the door was pried open when European players who’d received compensation were allowed to be recruited by U.S. colleges, including Creighton’s Fedor Zugic, who played 200 pro games in Europe. The NCAA, an organization long known for paralysis by analysis, has had changes forced upon it and unintended consequences are sprouting up all over the place.
“Sooner or later, you’ve got to fight the fight,” said Izzo, who joked about calling Magic Johnson and other Michigan State alums back to play out their eligibility. “What’s the age limit now, is it 30?”
College basketball is becoming something it’s not, or was never intended to be. Hurley weighed in on the side of Izzo and Painter.
“I love what Coach Izzo said, I love what Coach Painter said, they know a lot more about this subject matter than I do,” Hurley said. “It was not a criticism of Louisville. … A lot of us had no idea that was even a possibility. You never say never, because we do have a responsibility to the university and a lot of people, and with the current climate of college sports, where they’re (firing) coaches in season, and it’s becoming more like professional sports.”
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After finishing high school in Georgia, Johnson signed on with the now-defunct G League Ignite, an alternative development path, and eventually was drafted into the G League, playing for the Maine Celtics and Cleveland Charge last season. After he was waived, he was ruled eligible to play in college.
“I don’t think you can make the connection between international players and a high school player that chose to forgo college as an option and then go to the G League,” Hurley said, “and then circling back to it when you passed on that option in high school. It’s different than an international college player. There is no college basketball in Europe or South America, there is not a version of this they can aspire to play at, so for them, they are in a system where as young players you join these pro teams.
“If there is a foreign player who goes to the G League and then tries to play college basketball, that would be an apples-to-apples comparison, but to compare foreign players to G League players, I think, is not the same thing.”
Part of the reason veteran coaches object is because this pool of talent eats still further into the dwindling opportunities for high school players to go to college and develop in the traditional way. The transfer portal allows programs to recruit almost completely from other college rosters, and compensation, plus extra eligibility, keeps players in school longer. Hurley has long been opposed to what he has called a “mercenary” approach to college basketball.
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“It’s a great sport, college basketball is awesome,” Hurley said. “My biggest concern, the product in college, it’s the front of the jersey, it’s March Madness. And it’s the fans, in college basketball. That’s the product, that’s what really matters. March Madness is what drives college basketball, it’s the front of the jersey. Fans love the teams. There are a lot of NBA fans that love individual players, and become enamored. Fans love the front of the jersey in college, they almost forget who was on the team two or three years ago, the characters change but they love their team.
“I just don’t want to do anything where we’re going to start losing our fans. Our fans are going to start feeling like the front of the jersey doesn’t matter.”
