During the summer of 2022, Joe Touomou, then the associate technical director of NBA Academy Africa, took two of his players on an official visit to Santa Clara University: 6-foot-10 Nigerian center Rueben Chinyelu, who’s now at Florida, and 6-foot-8 Central African Republic guard Thierry Darlan.
Both prospects were rising quickly and beginning to garner interest from several Division-I schools. In Touomou’s opinion, Santa Clara was a perfect fit for Darlan. The program had just helped develop guard Jalen Williams into a lottery pick, and its style of play would surely showcase Darlan’s immense talent. “When we went on the visit, Thierry liked the school,” Touomou tells Hoops HQ. “He liked the coaching staff. He liked what they had to offer. They had a very good presentation. But again, he was just an 18-year-old kid.”
Ultimately Darlan chose a different path, signing with NBA G League Ignite, a now-defunct developmental program, in 2023. He would start his professional career straight out of high school and aim to make the NBA without experiencing college. At least that’s what Touomou, and everyone else in the basketball world, assumed.
Until last week, when it was announced that the NCAA had ruled Darlan, 21, eligible to play at Santa Clara, making him the first player to obtain NCAA eligibility after competing in the G League. He will join the Broncos as a junior with two years of eligibility remaining.
The road to that groundbreaking ruling was long and complex. After a solid second season in the G League in which he averaged 10.9 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from three for the Delaware Blue Coats (the affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers), Darlan still wasn’t getting a ton of interest from NBA teams. As he and his agent, Todd Ramasar from Life Sports Agency, contemplated his next step, they began to discuss the prospect of Darlan playing college basketball.
Since NIL policies shifted in 2021, the NCAA has loosened eligibility restrictions, allowing international recruits to sign with colleges after playing professionally overseas. Egor Demin, the No. 8 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, transitioned from Real Madrid to BYU last summer, while Kasparas Jakucionis, also a first-round pick this year, jumped from FC Barcelona to Illinois. There is a huge influx of foreign players for the upcoming season as well, including standouts such as Greek guard Neoklia Avdalas (Virginia Tech), Italian-Senegalese guard Dame Sarr (Duke) and Israeli guard Omer Mayer (Purdue).
Darlan falls into a similar category, except that he turned pro in the U.S. instead of Europe. He has never signed an NBA contract and preserved his eligibility by withdrawing from the NBA Draft. He is still only two years removed from high school and meets all of the academic requirements to qualify for college.
The college route, as opposed to the overseas route, appealed to Darlan’s camp for several reasons. One, it made the most sense from a business perspective, not just because Darlan can earn NIL and revenue sharing dollars. As Ramasar emphasizes, Darlan’s best chance at landing a future NBA contract is by developing at the college level and attaining the exposure that the NCAA provides. “I believe Thierry is a high-level NBA player and has an opportunity to be drafted in the first round,” Ramasar tells Hoops HQ. “The only way for that to happen, based on his age and his circumstances, is through college.”
As a young man from Africa, Darlan would also get to experience college life and basketball, which former NBA Academy Africa teammates such as Chinyelu and Khaman Maluach — the No. 10 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft out of Duke — have cherished. “The college experience is something that almost every basketball player wants to go through, whether he’s from Africa or Europe or Asia,” says Touomou, who became the first Cameroonian to play Division I when he signed with Georgetown in 1995. “You want to be on campus. You want to go to class and people congratulate you after a big game. You want to be able to take that trophy on campus after winning a conference championship. It’s just different to be a college player.”
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Of course, the education and life skills that Darlan would gain from college would be invaluable for his future, on and off the court. “Going to Georgetown was the best thing that ever happened to me,” adds Touomou. “I never played in the pros, but I was able to take advantage of the fact that I was a college student at a top 25 school in America. That’s where a lot of these foreign kids can benefit.”
From the outset, Darlan and Ramasar focused on Santa Clara. The Broncos finished fourth in the WCC last year and have won at least 20 games in five of the past six seasons. Under head coach Herb Sendek, the program has built a reputation for producing elite guards, including Williams, now an All-Star with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Golden State Warriors starter Brandin Podziemski. The staff was familiar with Darlan, having recruited him a few years prior, and was eager to add him to the 2025-26 roster, even if it would take time and effort to make that happen.
Ramasar and associate head coach Jason Ludwig, who is entering his tenth season with the Broncos, already had a strong relationship. When Ramasar called in March to present the idea, Ludwig was all-in. He had privately contemplated the very possibility before, given the shifting landscape of college basketball. “I said, ‘Let’s go through the process. Why would a kid from Europe be allowed to come play college basketball and not Thierry? There’s no difference,’” Ludwig tells Hoops HQ. “So that’s how it started.”
Still, at the beginning, Ramasar estimates that the likelihood of Darlan being granted eligibility was at best 50-50. It was an unprecedented move, even if it bore a resemblance to the cases of international prospects. The hesitation was in part due to a focus on Darlan’s earnings during his stint with G League Ignite, rather than his years removed from high school. That flipped by early June, when Darlan’s team was informed that his odds were closer to 90-10 in favor of eligibility.
Santa Clara received official word that Darlan would be eligible in August. The formal announcement came a month later.
Since the news was released, a few players have reached out to the Next Gen Basketball Players Union (NGBPU), the union representing players in the NBA G League, to ask about the ruling, according to NGBPU executive director Jeff Aubry. However, it’s important to note that Darlan represents a special case. A majority of players in the G League have come through the NBA Draft, which strips them of their eligibility. Others are too far removed from high school. G League Ignite, a distinct program that offered more lucrative contracts, is no longer in operation. Most NIL and revenue-sharing deals are significantly higher than the standard G League salary of $40,500 annually, so top international recruits are unlikely to choose the latter.
The G League did hold an International Draft in July in which 17 players from 15 different countries were selected. Thierry’s case opens the door for some of those prospects to potentially play in the G League and then explore college options. “It could be interesting to see how the traffic for talent goes now, if they’re going to the G League to then set themselves up for the potential of college eligibility,” says Aubry. “There are a lot of possibilities there. It’ll be interesting to see the test cases as they come out. Obviously the NCAA reviews these cases on a case-by-case basis.”
Ramasar has been contacted by several college programs to inquire about Darlan’s case.
Darlan is expected to be a major contributor for the Broncos right away. With his size, athleticism and dynamic skill set, he fits the archetype of past players who have thrived within the team’s system. “Obviously going back to Jalen Williams, Brandin Podziemski, but even guys like Adama Bal last season, Tyeree Bryan, Carlos Marshall, all those guys are playing professionally at a high level now,” says Ludwig. “So we’ve had a lot of success with guys like that.”
With the Blue Coats, Darlan scored at least 15 points in 10 of 29 games, including a career-high 28 against the Maine Celtics in late March. He was a reliable outside shooter and one of the team’s best rebounders. Touomou notes that Darlan has improved immensely over his two years in the G League, adding that there is “no question” in his mind that the newest Bronco is an NBA prospect.
As he settles into campus, Darlan is focused on making the most of his unique opportunity, one previously believed to be impossible.
“The NCAA allowing this has literally changed the life of a young person,” says Ramasar. “That will have implications greater than his own self going forward.”
