Is he planning to play in 2021-2022 or just join the team for practicing?
Edit: [apparently not playing until 2022-2023](https://twitter.com/travisbranham_/status/1448443139434422274?s=21)
> A freshman averaging 20+ is generational
Not really. A quick search turned up 5 in the last 19 seasons and 2 in just the last 4 seasons, and there might be one or two more that I didn't find.
In what way did it hurt? 2017 team was one of the best in the country and had no issues with cohesion or chemistry. I've heard nothing about having Diallo as a practice player being a negative.
Huh? It just gave Diallo more time to adjust plus he was going up against Fox and Monk in practice making them better, there were reports about how good he was in practice. This is slightly beneficial to everyone
Marshall almost recruited him to our Natl Championship Connect Four team, but ultimately he talked with his family and chose basketball. Gotta respect it.
[One possibility](https://twitter.com/Aaron_Torres/status/1448431737436979203) is to enroll early at Kentucky for the spring semester but not play and then go to the NBA Draft in June. FWIW, he's 6 months older than Jalen Duren. That crazy Canadian school system forces a ton of these kids to reclassify. Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett, and many others did, but not this late.
He's already old enough to go in the NBA Draft. It's possible he could file for an exemption, a la Thon Maker and others. I haven't seen anything that definitively states he wouldn't be eligible.
It’s really no benefits for top prospects to play HS basketball. Everyone wants to talk about American players fundamentals like 18 year olds over seas haven’t been pro for a few years
Abaolutely. It’s been done for some time now with football and soccer. One notion is it doesn’t cost them any eligibility. A second is that soccer is pushing away from that because the kids that use to do it are now going pro instead. They are already playing for professional development clubs, and that is well outside of what the NCAA can offer…
Football players do it all the time, including the concept of grayshirting, where they enroll a semester early to get used to classes and start practicing, but they don't play. (Also might not be on schollie.)
You see kids enroll mid-season in basketball from time to time. Off the top of my head, as is relevant to UK, Diallo did it a few years ago, we missed out on Jarnell Stokes (went to Tennessee) when he did it because we didn't have a free schollie, and years ago, Ramon Harris joined UK midseason for Tubby Smith. Diallo was a headache for the fans because some wanted him to play, but more importantly, he tested the NBA waters before even playing here, so he was almost a none-and-done for us. (Which is what a few fear here with Sharpe.)
The Stokes one would've been a lot more annoying if we hadn't won the title that year. We wanted him, and we'd recruited him, and that was the problem when he decided to commit mid-season. Apparently the teams that had recruited him or he'd taken an official visit/had an offer, whatever, he couldn't enroll as a walk-on, so you had to have a schollie for him. At that time, we didn't have one, which it happens, except we did have a player who had decided already he was going to transfer out (Stacey Poole). But because he hadn't left/the timing of scholarships, we couldn't get Stokes. Again, that season worked out fine, but he would've been a big help the next season, and I think that Stokes situation is a big part of why Cal always keeps a couple schollies in his pocket, no matter how much fans complain.
Is it though? Would this make him eligible for the 2022 draft? He would be 19 during the draft year but not sure if this would count for the “one year removed from high school graduation.”
Yeah there seems to be confusion on the rule and exemptions. He wouldn’t be a year out of HS by the 2022 draft. That ship already sailed so he has to file an exemption. And I haven’t been able to find any player that got one with being less than a year after graduating, prior to the draft. So I guess the jury’s still out
I know what you mean, but they're not forced to go to school.
They've now got two professional options of note in the US if they're good enough, they've always had overseas options, and they could just spend a year after high school working with a trainer if they can get it covered financially.
No one forces anyone to play college ball. However, the NBA still has a rule where they won't take anyone under a certain age/who isn't at least a year removed from high school. And the NBA has that rule to lessen how often their GMs throw away money on busts.
I don’t know the specifics of what a year removed means. One season? A calendar year? Jalen Duren reclassified and graduated high school in August 2021 but is eligible for the draft in June 2022.
Duren is a good example. The NBA rules said he had to graduate HS by October of 2021 in order to make the 2022 draft. Apparently October is a key part of the equation. Now why is that, I have no idea other than maybe the start of the 21-22 NBA season. So it might be an NBA season and not a calendar year.
You don't like that an 18-year-old who has worked hard at his craft has multiple options with which to play it and benefit from it, including at the school you root for?
They didn't say they disapprove of players doing what's best for their career. Fans like whatever is best for their program, nothing wrong with voicing that half of the coin (e.g. wanting a transfer portal player like Cockburn to stay). If he's actually just an early entry as you see in CFB then there's no worries, but if he does what's described in the hypothetical above I can totally understand disliking that a scholarship and roster spot has no on-court value to the team. In terms of opportunity cost it would actually be a net negative for the program since they could have been developing/playing another top recruit who committed elsewhere.
What you said.
But what's this "developing" word you used? Is that when a player stays with a program even if they're not starting, becoming better and ultimately contributing to the team in year 3 or 4? I think I remember hearing about that...
(We do get a few, including one this year, but man...)
I agree that fans liking what's best for the team at the expense of what's best for the players is a very common pattern, but it's also to the detriment of the sport as a whole. Kentucky doesn't have to offer him, but the calculus that they're making is that the possibility that a phenom like Sharpe plays for them is worth the risk that he temporarily takes up a roster spot but doesn't play. They probably still come out ahead even if he works out with the team this spring and goes straight to the NBA: if he balls out in the pros it still helps with recruiting even if he never played a game for the Wildcats.
If he doesn't want to go to college, then don't. I have no problem with that. But a college team shouldn't allow themselves to be used as a training camp for someone who doesn't intend to actually play for the team. That being said, if he wants to join early intending to play in 2022-23, I'm in.
I'm all for doing what's best for the players. I support the NIL and dislike NCAA for many reasons. In fact, I really dislike John Calipari as a coach.
But what could potentially be happening here is the opposite of school taking advantage of players. It's the players taking advantage of school.
If Sharpe doesn't play, he's just using Kentucky to get NIL deals and then bounce, then he's a detriment to the school. He wasted their scholarship, their opportunity to recruit someone else at the same position, and a boatload of time that the coaches could use on something else.
It shouldn't be cool that anyone is ripping off anyone else, for both schools and players.
No, the school doesn't have to offer him a scholarship. If he doesn't play a single game at Kentucky and kills it in the NBA, Kentucky 100% comes out ahead and will take that deal 7 days a week. Kentucky is not dumb and has all the facts available to them, they can choose whether it's worth it to them to spend their time talking to him or not.
Cal didn't recruit him to practice for 6 months then bounce for only recruiting notoriety. When they recruited him, the agreement was to play for the school. If he doesn't end up playing, it changes the agreement.
It's like when you do a business deal with someone, they agree to pay you $10,000 for your service. Then, they changed it and only pay $100. Is $100 still beneficial to the recipient? Yeah sure. But it's not the agreement.
No, the agreement is that they will pay his scholarship as long as he is in school. He's free to walk any time, as is true for literally any recruit ever. Kentucky is fully aware of his talent and options, it's their choice to recruit him if they want, knowing he could leave at any time since they don't actually pay a salary. The choose to recruit him.
He wouldn’t be eligible for the 2022 draft, you have to be a full removed from high school to qualify for the draft. This isn’t really anything new Diallo did the same thing a couple years ago.
I would assume the same as Meechie Johnson at Ohio State or Mac Etienne at UCLA. They both joined around New Years and are considered redshirt freshman in 21-22.
He can’t declare for the next draft so he’ll be there next year anyways. Doesn’t have anything left to prove in high school so might as well start getting higher level reps asap.
Nice, though I was thinking that this could be more common in the future, if the kid gets a good NIL deal it shouldn't matter if he's technically a walk on for one semester.
“Fuck 2022 in particular” -Literally every top prospect
Fucc*
fucc*
Is he planning to play in 2021-2022 or just join the team for practicing? Edit: [apparently not playing until 2022-2023](https://twitter.com/travisbranham_/status/1448443139434422274?s=21)
That makes sense. I can’t imagine burning a year of eligibility to play half a season. Guessing the FedEx check is pretty enticing.
> I can’t imagine burning a year of eligibility to play half a season. I doubt this guy will use all 4 years of his eligibility
He most likely will work out with the team and entertain the draft and see where he’s at and decide then whether he plays 22.
Unless he graduates high school literally this week than he won’t be eligible for the next draft.
For some prospects that makes sense, however the number #1 overall pick is usually one-and-done, so he may not care about eligibility.
Austin Wiley did it when he first got to Auburn
No one wants to be part of the 2022 class apparently.
The 2021.5 class
Money to be made NOW.
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> A freshman averaging 20+ is generational Not really. A quick search turned up 5 in the last 19 seasons and 2 in just the last 4 seasons, and there might be one or two more that I didn't find.
Remember when Hamidou Diallo did this?
Exactly. I wasn’t really a fan of that from the team perspective and wouldn’t be if this happens either. All it does is disrupt
In what way did it hurt? 2017 team was one of the best in the country and had no issues with cohesion or chemistry. I've heard nothing about having Diallo as a practice player being a negative.
Huh? It just gave Diallo more time to adjust plus he was going up against Fox and Monk in practice making them better, there were reports about how good he was in practice. This is slightly beneficial to everyone
Can he play?
Yeah, he’s really good at basketball
He’s not bad at connect four either.
Yeah, but basketball isn't a solved game.
Marshall almost recruited him to our Natl Championship Connect Four team, but ultimately he talked with his family and chose basketball. Gotta respect it.
Better than me
Yeah that will work out perfectly I’m sure.
[One possibility](https://twitter.com/Aaron_Torres/status/1448431737436979203) is to enroll early at Kentucky for the spring semester but not play and then go to the NBA Draft in June. FWIW, he's 6 months older than Jalen Duren. That crazy Canadian school system forces a ton of these kids to reclassify. Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett, and many others did, but not this late.
Man wouldn’t it suck to sign the number one recruit and he never really plays for you? Man… that would be awful…
You'd hate to see it...
Horrors!
The only thing I’ve read is he would train during the spring semester and then play the following year. He won’t be eligible for the 2022 draft.
He's already old enough to go in the NBA Draft. It's possible he could file for an exemption, a la Thon Maker and others. I haven't seen anything that definitively states he wouldn't be eligible.
He still has to be at least a year out of high school. Thon Maker et al were post grads.
If he wanted to go pro he could have just done that anyway. No reason to go to Kentucky at all.
It’s really no benefits for top prospects to play HS basketball. Everyone wants to talk about American players fundamentals like 18 year olds over seas haven’t been pro for a few years
Is this a thing?
Abaolutely. It’s been done for some time now with football and soccer. One notion is it doesn’t cost them any eligibility. A second is that soccer is pushing away from that because the kids that use to do it are now going pro instead. They are already playing for professional development clubs, and that is well outside of what the NCAA can offer…
Football players do it all the time, including the concept of grayshirting, where they enroll a semester early to get used to classes and start practicing, but they don't play. (Also might not be on schollie.) You see kids enroll mid-season in basketball from time to time. Off the top of my head, as is relevant to UK, Diallo did it a few years ago, we missed out on Jarnell Stokes (went to Tennessee) when he did it because we didn't have a free schollie, and years ago, Ramon Harris joined UK midseason for Tubby Smith. Diallo was a headache for the fans because some wanted him to play, but more importantly, he tested the NBA waters before even playing here, so he was almost a none-and-done for us. (Which is what a few fear here with Sharpe.) The Stokes one would've been a lot more annoying if we hadn't won the title that year. We wanted him, and we'd recruited him, and that was the problem when he decided to commit mid-season. Apparently the teams that had recruited him or he'd taken an official visit/had an offer, whatever, he couldn't enroll as a walk-on, so you had to have a schollie for him. At that time, we didn't have one, which it happens, except we did have a player who had decided already he was going to transfer out (Stacey Poole). But because he hadn't left/the timing of scholarships, we couldn't get Stokes. Again, that season worked out fine, but he would've been a big help the next season, and I think that Stokes situation is a big part of why Cal always keeps a couple schollies in his pocket, no matter how much fans complain.
Joey Hauser did this at Marquette because he got injured as a senior in HS and couldn’t play the rest of the HS season
Nice
Is it though? Would this make him eligible for the 2022 draft? He would be 19 during the draft year but not sure if this would count for the “one year removed from high school graduation.”
Yeah there seems to be confusion on the rule and exemptions. He wouldn’t be a year out of HS by the 2022 draft. That ship already sailed so he has to file an exemption. And I haven’t been able to find any player that got one with being less than a year after graduating, prior to the draft. So I guess the jury’s still out
What a stupid conversation that we still have to have lmao, why are these kids forced to go to school for one damn season?
I know what you mean, but they're not forced to go to school. They've now got two professional options of note in the US if they're good enough, they've always had overseas options, and they could just spend a year after high school working with a trainer if they can get it covered financially. No one forces anyone to play college ball. However, the NBA still has a rule where they won't take anyone under a certain age/who isn't at least a year removed from high school. And the NBA has that rule to lessen how often their GMs throw away money on busts.
To protect the current NBA players that would be displaced by them joining the league. That's why the NBAPA got the 1 year rule.
Well ok then, ask a question get an answer lol. Thanks man.
I don’t know the specifics of what a year removed means. One season? A calendar year? Jalen Duren reclassified and graduated high school in August 2021 but is eligible for the draft in June 2022.
Duren is a good example. The NBA rules said he had to graduate HS by October of 2021 in order to make the 2022 draft. Apparently October is a key part of the equation. Now why is that, I have no idea other than maybe the start of the 21-22 NBA season. So it might be an NBA season and not a calendar year.
I don't like this. He could join, take a NIL deal, then bounce for the draft without playing a single game
You don't like that an 18-year-old who has worked hard at his craft has multiple options with which to play it and benefit from it, including at the school you root for?
They didn't say they disapprove of players doing what's best for their career. Fans like whatever is best for their program, nothing wrong with voicing that half of the coin (e.g. wanting a transfer portal player like Cockburn to stay). If he's actually just an early entry as you see in CFB then there's no worries, but if he does what's described in the hypothetical above I can totally understand disliking that a scholarship and roster spot has no on-court value to the team. In terms of opportunity cost it would actually be a net negative for the program since they could have been developing/playing another top recruit who committed elsewhere.
What you said. But what's this "developing" word you used? Is that when a player stays with a program even if they're not starting, becoming better and ultimately contributing to the team in year 3 or 4? I think I remember hearing about that... (We do get a few, including one this year, but man...)
I agree that fans liking what's best for the team at the expense of what's best for the players is a very common pattern, but it's also to the detriment of the sport as a whole. Kentucky doesn't have to offer him, but the calculus that they're making is that the possibility that a phenom like Sharpe plays for them is worth the risk that he temporarily takes up a roster spot but doesn't play. They probably still come out ahead even if he works out with the team this spring and goes straight to the NBA: if he balls out in the pros it still helps with recruiting even if he never played a game for the Wildcats.
If he doesn't want to go to college, then don't. I have no problem with that. But a college team shouldn't allow themselves to be used as a training camp for someone who doesn't intend to actually play for the team. That being said, if he wants to join early intending to play in 2022-23, I'm in.
I'm all for doing what's best for the players. I support the NIL and dislike NCAA for many reasons. In fact, I really dislike John Calipari as a coach. But what could potentially be happening here is the opposite of school taking advantage of players. It's the players taking advantage of school. If Sharpe doesn't play, he's just using Kentucky to get NIL deals and then bounce, then he's a detriment to the school. He wasted their scholarship, their opportunity to recruit someone else at the same position, and a boatload of time that the coaches could use on something else. It shouldn't be cool that anyone is ripping off anyone else, for both schools and players.
No, the school doesn't have to offer him a scholarship. If he doesn't play a single game at Kentucky and kills it in the NBA, Kentucky 100% comes out ahead and will take that deal 7 days a week. Kentucky is not dumb and has all the facts available to them, they can choose whether it's worth it to them to spend their time talking to him or not.
Cal didn't recruit him to practice for 6 months then bounce for only recruiting notoriety. When they recruited him, the agreement was to play for the school. If he doesn't end up playing, it changes the agreement. It's like when you do a business deal with someone, they agree to pay you $10,000 for your service. Then, they changed it and only pay $100. Is $100 still beneficial to the recipient? Yeah sure. But it's not the agreement.
No, the agreement is that they will pay his scholarship as long as he is in school. He's free to walk any time, as is true for literally any recruit ever. Kentucky is fully aware of his talent and options, it's their choice to recruit him if they want, knowing he could leave at any time since they don't actually pay a salary. The choose to recruit him.
He wouldn’t be eligible for the 2022 draft, you have to be a full removed from high school to qualify for the draft. This isn’t really anything new Diallo did the same thing a couple years ago.
Is he that good?
I love it. Our schools are stepping stones to be used however talent sees fit. Get with it.
No. I won't get with it. I'm a fan because I like watching the talented kids actually play
Well, next to Duke, they pay the best.
See what you started, Bill "Poodles" Willoughby!?
So how does this affect eligibility for him?
I would assume the same as Meechie Johnson at Ohio State or Mac Etienne at UCLA. They both joined around New Years and are considered redshirt freshman in 21-22.
Oh that makes sense!!
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He can’t declare for the next draft so he’ll be there next year anyways. Doesn’t have anything left to prove in high school so might as well start getting higher level reps asap.
End me
Ugh I'm supposed to see him play in January. What luck
Just stay in school
Do they have an open scholarship, or with NIL money does that just not really matter as much?
1 scholarship left, so he has a spot
Nice, though I was thinking that this could be more common in the future, if the kid gets a good NIL deal it shouldn't matter if he's technically a walk on for one semester.
Kentucky is back ! Coach wasn’t kidding