Scott Drew tells CBS Sports why James Nnaji will play for Baylor after being selected in NBA Draft
How’s that for a midseason twist: We’re about to flip the calendar to January and suddenly unranked Baylor has become the black hat of college basketball.
Before we explain why BU coach Scott Drew is warming up, here’s what you need to know about how college basketball has reached a new level of weirdness in an increasingly volatile roster-building environment.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, the NCAA notified Baylor’s compliance staff that 7-foot Nigerian-born center James Nnaji had been cleared to participate in the competition. The controversial decision was revolutionary in men’s college basketball. Nnaji is the first person to reverse course and play college basketball After being selected in the NBA draft. And it’s not like this guy was kicked off the board last June. Nnaji was the No. 31 overall pick in 2023. He played for the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA Summer League that year.
Importantly, Nnaji has never played in an NBA game, which apparently remains a key distinction for a player’s college eligibility. (Although we should prepare for this rule to be tested in 2026, I’m sure.) Yet the guy kept Victor Wembanyama in Summer League and was even part of the big trade that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle to the Minnesota Timberwolves in October 2024.
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Although the Knicks still own Nnaji’s draft rights under the terms of the Towns/Randle trade, Nnaji has not signed an NBA contract. More crucial context: Nnaji was never paid outside of his Summer League and travel per diems during his brief time in the NBA pipeline. For most of the last five years, he has played EuroLeague basketball.
That being said, he had a path to continuing his college eligibility, since he had never played college ball before 2023. (Nnaji was in FC Barcelona’s program in the years leading up to his draft.) Because Nnaji never enrolled in college here in the United States, and because he is within a five-year window of what amounts to his high school diploma, his five-year NCAA eligibility clock starts now.
Yes, it’s crazy, but it’s worth pointing out that while Baylor is the target of a lot of outcry regarding the state of college basketball, Drew’s program is far from alone in doing this. The rules keep changing because the threat of legal action keeps coming.
BYU (Abdullah Ahmed), Dayton (Sean Pouedet), Washington (Nikola Dzepina) and others also signed players from other professional ranks during the season. The only difference between them and Nnaji is that he showed enough promise over two years ago for an NBA team to select him in the draft. Even within the Big 12, the Kansas State women’s team has Nastja Claessens, who is second on the Wildcats in scoring at 10.6 points per game.
Did you know that Claessens, a native of Belgium, was the 30th pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft?
In hockey, Colorado College just added the son of a notable NHL player and someone who has already been skating professionally for years.
Drew did what many – but certainly not all – coaches in his position would do in a time of need. At Oklahoma, Porter Moser just welcomed a 6-11 Russian center named Kirill Elatontsev. He was overshadowed because of the Baylor news, but the newest Sooner arrived on Christmas. Moser told me he would probably play it immediately. Over the past two seasons, the Sooners have lost their starting centers to injury. Now Elatontsev is an insurance policy. His reasons were the same as Drew’s.
“I’ve never taken a mid-year transfer that can play right away, that’s never been part of the game, but if the NCAA allows it and says it’s OK, you have to look at it and see if it’s right for your situation,” Moser told CBS Sports. “In my situation, I have two 5s on the roster and one is currently injured. We did it for depth. And if he helps us win a game, it was worth it. Two years in a row we’ve lost our starting 5 down the stretch and no one has pulled out a fiddle to talk about our lack of depth.”
But because Baylor added a guy who was an NBA pick unlike everyone else, that doesn’t sit well with many college sports fans who look around and see the fundamental nature of the sport evolving to a level unrecognizable from what college basketball was for decades.
Drew tells CBS Sports why he pursued his former NBA pick
Fifty-five years old and in his 23rd season with the Bears, Scott Drew isn’t trying to be a bad guy or the star coach building a renegade team. He is simply doing what many, many other coaches have done – and all within the rules. You can love it, hate it, or be indifferent to it, but Baylor did nothing wrong here. Nnaji went through the selection process at the NCAA level. He is allowed to play under the current (fluctuating) structure of college basketball.
Drew is aware that he and his program will nevertheless be seen in a negative light by some. He told me his guiding principle was to do what was best for Baylor.
“We (coaches) don’t make the rules, and whether we accept them or not, I equate that to the speed limit,” Drew told CBS Sports. “You go through a construction zone, it changes. You get on the highway, it changes. Right now the NCAA has speed limits, and it changes. I don’t blame the NCAA because a lot of it depends on what they think they can win in the courtroom. To me, until we collectively bargain, there won’t be a solution.”
High Point transfer Juslin Bodo Bodo was expected to be the Bears’ starting center, but he has been injured since the summer and will not play this season. The same goes for another frontcourt player, Maikcol Perez. Keep in mind that the Big 12 is likely the best league in the country in 2025-26 – and certainly the strongest at the top. Drew endured a few seasons with major roster issues due to injuries, and with a potential stopgap, he and BU general manager Jason Smith pursued Nnaji’s eligibility case dating back to early October. The connection arose because Smith has a working relationship with Nnaji’s agent, who also represents former Baylor lottery pick Jeremy Sochan.
“For the good of the game, I think most coaches agree about 99.9 percent on the things we would have done to change things,” Drew said. “The NCAA and the athletic directors would feel the same way, but until we have collective bargaining, it’s not going to happen. If it’s solution-based, how long have we been talking about help from Congress? It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.”
Michigan State’s Tom Izzo had some pointed words about the situation a few days ago, although he didn’t speak to Drew when asked about Baylor/Nnaji during a media scrum after a Michigan State practice. Izzo and Drew spoke over the weekend, Drew said.
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“Izzo and I are friends, I respect him and it was a great conversation,” Drew said. “Ultimately, we both agree on the things we’d like to see done with the rules going forward. When he first came out and talked about allowing G League guys to play, I was also against it, but it’s a lot like NIL and the portal. You can agree or not, but you have a job to do. We can wait for Congressional action or we can get to the inevitable collective bargaining.”
Drew doesn’t expect anything from Congress in the coming months/years. He’s willing to take a tough stance on who is and isn’t allowed to sign up to play college basketball, but until everything is clear, can you blame him?
“If you say you can have a chance in basketball worth 5 points, who won’t shoot it?” he said.
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Drew won’t be the last coach to do this, that’s for sure. This is just the latest, and the problem could get worse in the coming weeks. Take the case of former Louisville commit and top-40 high school prospect Trentyn Flowers. Like Nnaji, he never played in college. But unlike Nnaji, Flowers logged real NBA minutes earlier this month for the Chicago Bulls. And in recent days, his agent has explored avenues to perhaps try to move down the college ranks. Flowers is currently in the NBA’s G League, but has a two-way contract. And while an initial report about the number of schools “interested” in Flowers went viral Sunday was inaccurate, a few kicked the tires.
“In doing our due diligence in the new world, we have no choice,” a power conference aide told CBS Sports about the possibility of drafting Flowers. “At this point, it’s a bit of both: an agent reaching out, but schools finding out and reaching out. A more two-way street than some people think.”
Now we wait for the next part of this story: when Nnaji takes the field for Baylor. Drew told me he needs to have a medical exam before any further action is taken, but clearance is expected Tuesday. Baylor’s Big 12 opener is Saturday at TCU. Will Nnaji then see the floor?
“It’s certainly possible,” Drew said. “But until he knows our offense, our defense, no matter how good someone is, you can’t put him away. [for too long]. I think it’s going to be a gradual process. If he was ready for the NBA, he would play in the NBA. »
Don’t expect Nnaji to head north of 25 minutes for the Bears in the coming weeks. But later in the season? We’ll see. After all, he was good enough to be drafted 31st overall. It’s not a stretch to think he could be the key to getting Baylor to a sixth straight NCAA Tournament. In-season free agency is now officially a thing in college basketball, and it might be here to stay.
