LEXINGTON, Ky. — In a sense, both the NBA and college basketball are professional pursuits, with players getting paid. The difference: In the NBA, at least there’s some roster certainty.
So it’s kind of discomfiting, for both questioner and respondent, but it must be asked of college players when any season ends: Are you coming back next season?
Most of those answers figure to be noncommital. In light of UCLA’s 67-58 loss to Tennessee and elimination from the NCAA Tournament Saturday night here, at least one was positive. That’s a start.
Eric Dailey Jr., the transfer forward from Oklahoma State who averaged 23.6 minutes, 11.4 points and shot better than 50 percent from the field in 2024-25, had just answered a question about running it back in ’25-26 this way:
“Everybody feels the same way in this locker room, and that should be fuel for next year. And next year we’re gonna try to win the championship again, like we do every year. So it’s gonna be exciting to see what we do.”
So, that means he’s coming back?
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “That’s definitely my goal. I want to come here and make a run and make a name with these guys, so that’s my goal.”
With whom will he be playing? Who knows at this point.
The transfer portal opens Monday, and if there were a turnstile it would likely be spinning madly. Players who didn’t play much, or are looking for a different situation or a different coach or – let’s face it – more NIL money, will be on the move. Seniors who have an extra year of eligibility and want to play as graduate students will be looking for opportunities. So will mid-major players who are good enough to possibly be plucked by a bigger program.
And if the House v. NCAA settlement goes through – the next hearing before Judge Claudia Wilken is scheduled for April 7 – and revenue sharing with players becomes legal, that will change the equation further. There’s been speculation that schools without football might even benefit more, because they can devote more resources to their basketball payrolls.
One limit is that there will be no more sixth-year players this fall, because the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA because of COVID-19 runs out this season.
Otherwise, the wild, wild West just gets wilder. And the idea of having a group that stays together and grows together, as was the case with Jaime Jaquez Jr., Tyger Campbell and the rest of Mick Cronin’s last UCLA tournament team in 2022-23, has pretty much vanished.
Thus, when Cronin said after Saturday’s loss that “if you’re giving me a choice, I’ll always take talent,” it’s just reality.
“You want to give the other guy three- or four-year guys, but I got better players?” he asked. “I will always take talent. So continuity is irrelevant if you don’t have talent.
“You got both, you got (Tennessee senior) Zakai Ziegler, right? You’re running around with basically another coach on the court. He’s a hell of a player, too. I will always take talent, but both are important. There’s a lot of stuff that’s important.”
Now it may be less about continuity than experience. Of the six players on Tennessee’s roster who are graduates or fifth-year players, only two started at Tennessee, Ziegler and former Etiwanda High star Jahmai Mashack.
Chaz Lanier, who broke the Tennessee record for 3-pointers in a season Saturday night, transferred in this season from North Florida. Igot Milicic Jr. played at Virginia as a freshman and at Charlotte for the next two seasons before transferring to Tennessee. Darlinstone Dubar played a year at Iowa State and three at Hofstra before transferring in as a fifth-year player. Jordan Gainey played two seasons at South Carolina Upstate before coming to Tennessee, one year after his dad Justin joined Rick Barnes’ coaching staff.
Or look at UCLA’s roster. Kobe Johnson transferred across town last summer from USC and Dailey, as noted, from Oklahoma State. Lazar Stefanovic came over from Utah in the summer of 2023. Junior William Kyle III came in last summer from South Dakota State. Junior Skyy Clark, an L.A. guy, played his freshman year at Illinois and his sophomore year at Louisville before coming home. Junior Tyler Bilodeau played two seasons at Oregon State.
It is a different environment, at once transient and transactional. And unless the college game transitions to signed multi-year contracts – and that may have a lot to do with whether players can get employee status (which the NCAA is fighting) and can organize as a players’ association – it will continue to be a free-for-all of player movement from one season to the next.
In other words, as the old Jerry Seinfeld joke goes, college basketball (and football) fans are rooting for laundry.
So as Dailey talked about how his team adapted to the Big Ten and how proud he was of their progress in a short amount of time, he also added this:
“We know the pieces we need. We know what we need, how we need to play in the Big Ten now. And I’m just – I’m very excited for what’s to come.
“… I can’t tell you who or what or when, but I can tell you that whoever it is, they’re going to come in and represent this jersey as well.”
If you’re a fan, that’s about all you can ask. Sentiment? That’s for the alumni.
jalexander@scng.com