Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. Fall is almost here, school is now session and the season is approaching. Even so, much of what we go into deals with off-court matters, as there has been some big news to talk about.
As we talked about in our last podcast, the NCAA appears to nearing a day of reckoning. Multiple entities are making pushes that theoretically mean the NCAA will have to change in terms of players being compensated or see a drastic change in who plays college sports. The big one right now is the Fair Pay to Play Act in California, which just sailed through both the State Assembly and State Senate without a single nay vote and is now off to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, where it could be signed in less than a month. It would go into effect in 2023.
This could be what ultimately forces the NCAA’s hand through all that has been happening. The NBA G League is trying to lure players, the overseas lure is increasingly there, and the Historical Basketball League could essentially be a direct competitor. To this point, warnings that college basketball is in grave danger every time a player decides to skip college by going overseas or attempting to play in the G League (as Darius Bazley did) have been a bit much; college basketball has been fine. But now there are multiple forces, and one wonders if the implications of the Fair Pay to Play Act could lead to other things happening since the eligibility of the California schools would be in question.
Any way you slice it, a change is almost certainly on the way. When that comes and just what that looks like is anyone’s guess, but whereas it once appeared to be way off in the distance, it now appears inevitable. And facile sound bytes like the ones that unfortunately tend to dominate the discourse around this (and many other) subject will not advance the discussion.
After that, we move over to neighboring Arizona, which is in the news in a bad way once again. Yahoo Sports reported that former assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson told undercover FBI agents that he paid a coach $40,000 to get guard Rawle Alkins eligible to play in Tucson. When added to allegations that are already out there, one has to wonder more than ever if head coach Sean Miller isn’t on borrowed time there, although we likely won’t know for some time given how the NCAA tends to proceed with their investigations.
Finally, we look at USA Basketball during what is certainly not its finest hour. Team USA will finish no better than seventh in the World Cup, the country’s worst finish ever. It hearkens back to over a decade ago, when Team USA finished sixth in 2002 and secured a bronze medal in 2004 and 2006. As was the case then, it’s a sign that the rest of the world is catching up to us, although in this case it’s indicative of the country not being able to just send third-tier stars and win. That’s not to say that concerns I expressed over a decade ago don’t remain, but when the U.S. sends its best players, they bring home the gold more often than not.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to tune in again soon for our next episode as the 2019-20 season draws closer.
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