Baylor was desperate for another big man after two key frontcourt players went down with season-ending injuries. So Bears coach Scott Drew came up with an unconventional answer and added Nigerian-born forward James Nnaji to his roster for the start of Big 12 play next week.
The move has created widespread shock among the college basketball community given that Nnaji was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. But there is precedent. Nastja Claessens, the second-leading scorer for the Kansas State women’s team, was a third-round pick (30th overall) by the Washington Mystics in the 2024 WNBA Draft. Like Nnaji, Claessens never played college basketball before she was drafted. She was a Paris Olympian for her native Belgium last summer and played professionally for IDK Euskotren in Spain.
The Claessens case gave Baylor a road map that Drew was eager to follow. The Bears (9-2 with wins over Washington at home, neutral site wins over San Diego State and Creighton and losses to Memphis and St. John’s) are without 6-foot-11 Juslin Bodo Bodo and 6-foot-8 freshman forward Maikcol Perez for the season. They are down to one reliable post player in 6-foot-9 senior center Caden Powell.
“We’ve been working on this for several months (with the NCAA),’’ Drew told Hoops HQ. “Our general manager, Jason Smith, did a great job on this. We found out (Nnaji) was interested in coming stateside.’’
Nnaji, a 21-year old, 6-11, 250-pound forward, was granted four years of college basketball eligibility. “But like everyone we coach, they want to get to the NBA after one year,’’ Drew quipped.
International players who played professionally and were drafted can play college basketball as long as they are within their five-year window of what would be a high school graduation. Nnaji’s rights were traded to Charlotte and then the New York Knicks. He played professionally for four seasons in the Euro league and Liga ACB, mostly for Spanish pro teams. The Knicks still own his draft rights.
Nnaji played in six summer league games for Charlotte in 2023 and then in another five last summer for the Knicks. His two-year total averages were 15.4 minutes, 3.5 points and 5.1 rebounds.
The NCAA provided this statement to HoopsHQ on the Nnaji case:
“Each eligibility case is evaluated and decided individually based on the facts presented. Schools continue to recruit and enroll individuals with professional playing experience, which NCAA rules allow with parameters. As NCAA eligibility rules continue to face repeated lawsuits with differing outcomes, these cases are likely to continue, which underscores the importance of our collaboration with Congress to enable the Association to enforce reasonable eligibility standards and preserve opportunities to compete for future high school student-athletes.”
Schools which opted into the House injunction also have to have an available roster spot open in order to sign a player midseason. Men’s basketball can now have as many as 15 on scholarship.
The NCAA legislation that Nnaji falls under is for “Incoming Freshman with No Previous Full-Time College Attendance.”
The legislation states: “A student-athlete who initially enrolls as an entering freshman with no previous full-time college attendance and satisfies the academic requirements as outlined in Bylaw 14.3.1.1, is eligible for financial aid, practice and competition during the first academic year in residence, regardless of the time of year that initial enrollment occurs. Thus, a student-athlete may enroll midyear and provided they are certified as a qualifier by the NCAA Eligibility Center, they can be considered academically eligible for competition during the spring term.”
Nnaji arrived in Waco Sunday. Drew said it won’t be a plug-and-play situation like the NBA. Nnaji needs to get to know the offense and defense and he expects there will be an adjustment. But his size and his ability to speak English will smooth the transition.
The Bears are led by guards Cameron Carr (21.7 ppg) and Tounde Yessoufou (18.5 ppg). The rest of the rotation is also made up mostly of guards in Dan Skillings, Obi Agbim, Isaac Williams and Michael Rataj.
The gauntlet in the Big 12 begins with the first six games: at TCU, Iowa State, Houston, at Oklahoma State, at Kansas and Texas Tech. That is not an easy schedule to manage if you are lacking both depth and height. “We definitely thought we were relying on seven guys never getting hurt, sick or in foul trouble,’’ said Drew. “That’s a tall task to ask. So we had to bring in someone at semester. And we wanted to get the best we could get. Most coaches when they bring in someone at semester you usually redshirt the person. But we’ve all had to adjust.’’
Drew is hopeful there will be a collective bargaining situation in college basketball to put some guardrails up. “We would all rather work with guys for three or four years and see them graduate,’’ said Drew. “But the portal and NIL is what it is. You either have to adapt or get left behind. I’d be doing our program a disservice if I didn’t do the best we could. We’re all in this mess and the sooner we get clarify the better,’’
Asked how his father, former longtime Valparaiso coach Homer Drew, would have handled this current climate, Drew replied, “He’s glad he’s retired.’’
The Nnaji addition drew much attention because he is a former NBA draft pick, but he was one of many midseason additions across the country. The majority of those were international players. Washington added Nikola Dzepina from Serbia, Dayton added Sean Pouedet from a pro team in Belgium, Ole Miss added T.J. Clark, who played in the G League and played professionally in Mexico, and BYU added Abdullah Ahmed from Egypt, who played 54 games for the Westchester Knicks in the NBA G League. USC went the domestic route, adding Robert Morris transfer Kam Woods for the second semester.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was one of the many people who have raised concerns about where all this is headed, especially with respect to former NBA draftees. “I’m a little surprised,” he told reporters. “I’ve got a call in to Scott (Drew). I’m anxious to see what he tells me. If we’re dipping into guys who were drafted to the NBA… Shame on the NCAA. And shame on the coaches, too.”
As of now, a European pro is being treated the same as a G League pro A drafted pro who didn’t play during the season for an NBA or WNBA team, isn’t treated as an ineligible college player if the person has eligibility remaining.
Will that change? Will a player who is currently playing for an NBA or WNBA team that didn’t exhaust his or her eligibility challenge the system and return to college? We don’t know that answer yet.
In 2018 the Rice Commission, which was set up to restructure college sports, recommended that players who declared for the NBA draft but went undrafted be allowed to return to school. That was a rule for players who had already been playing college basketball to get a second chance if they received poor advice. But the Nnamji case is new territory because it involves a player who was drafted but didn’t play in a real NBA game, although he did play in summer league.
Given how susceptible the NCAA remains to legal challenges, there is a lot of uncertainty as to where this is all headed. But there is mass agreement about where we are now. Illinois coach Brad Underwood spoke for many when he said, “This is the craziest stuff I’ve come across.’’
The question now is, how much crazier will things get?
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