KU Jayhawks coach blasts ‘ridiculous rule’ bringing former NBA draftee to Baylor
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Bill Self criticizes NCAA rule allowing former NBA draftees to regain college eligibility.
- Self says coaches should not be blamed for using rules; fault the rule makers.
- KU does not plan midseason signings for 2025-26; roster moves will vary.
Bill Self says he holds no ill will toward fellow college men’s basketball coaches who choose to add former NBA Draft picks to their rosters ahead of conference play.
For instance, Baylor’s Scott Drew has been criticized by some hoops pundits for bringing in former second-round draft pick and NBA summer-league player James Nnaji for the Big 12 portion of the Bears’ 2025-26 season.
“My deal is, whatever the rules are, that’s the rules,” Self, Kansas’ 23rd-year coach, told The Star in an interview at Monday’s holiday youth basketball clinic at Allen Fieldhouse.
“I think it’s very hard to be critical of somebody operating within the rules. I’d be more critical of the rules makers. Coaches can get mad,” Self added, “but I don’t think the frustration should be with other coaches. I think the frustration should be with what the rules actually are.
“You can’t blame somebody from operating within the rules just because, whether we think it’s right or wrong, whether I think it right or wrong … I’m not going to be mad anybody that operates within the rules — the way the NCAA has them.”
Nnaji, who is expected to play immediately for the Bears, will become the first former NBA Draft selection to later play college basketball. He’s been cleared by the NCAA for competition after being the No. 31 pick in the June 2023 draft.
According to CBSsports.com, the New York Knicks own Nnaji’s draft rights.
“The 7-footer is not signed to an NBA contract. He was never paid outside of his summer league (participation in 2023) and travel per diems during his brief time in the NBA pipeline. For the majority of the past five years, he’s been playing EuroLeague basketball,” explained Matt Norlander.
“That being the case, he had a path to pursue college eligibility, since he never played college ball prior to 2023. (Nnaji was in the FC Barcelona program in the years before he was drafted.) Because Nnaji never enrolled in college here in the States, and because he’s within a five-year window of what equates to his high school graduation, his five-year NCAA eligibility clock starts now.”
To be clear, Self never mentioned Drew or Nnaji by name in speaking to The Star on the topic of immediate eligibility for former NBA draftees.
“First of all, I think it’s a ridiculous rule that you can do it,” Self said. “There have been so many things that the NCAA has come up with in past years … they didn’t play out to be actually true. It wasn’t that long ago that no two-time transfers would be able to play immediately.
“So we don’t recruit two-time transfers and (after) one lawsuit there’s a blanket waiver that they’re all eligible. So instead of recruiting them, we played against them. The bottom line is it’s a bad rule.”
He explained further: “Guys can leave college or do whatever, go play professionally and then come back to college if they fall within their (five-year) window. I think that is a ridiculous rule, but we allow them to do do it from Europe, so why wouldn’t you allow them to do it from the U.S.?
“It’s just, there are a lot of things about it to me that we make rules and then the unintended consequences of those rules I think in so many cases are much more difficult to deal with than the rules themselves.”
Self said he does not expect to add any former NBA players to KU’s 2025-26 roster for second semester. There had been talk in recruiting circles that KU might be one of the schools interested in adding former Louisville signee Trentyn Flowers.
Flowers has played in actual games for the Chicago Bulls. He’s currently in the G-League on a two-way contract but reportedly would like to return to college basketball.
“I don’t believe that we’re going to bring in anybody now to play this year. I’m not going to say we’re not going to sign somebody that could possibly be like a Bryson Tiller, but we’re not planning on bringing anybody in right now to play this year,” Self told The Star.
Tiller enrolled at KU in the second semester last school year but took a redshirt as he rehabbed from injury.
“I’m not upset about anything,” Self said, asked if he was bothered by one recruiting service report that KU was on the list of teams interested in possibly signing Flowers. “What difference does it make if we are or not (mentioned), because the bottom line is people are going to report whatever they’re going to report. And there will be many, many, many, many, many schools (interested in adding players) when it becomes public who is available. There’ll be many, many, many schools getting in touch and contacting (those players).”
Asked if he would ever recruit an NBA player deemed eligible to play at KU by the NCAA, Self said: “I think everything is case by case — amount of money available, what they’re looking for, needs for a specific team. Have you signed anybody else early and positionally? Maybe you’d have given that money away, whatever. Everything is based on a need.”
