If Charles Bediako plays for Alabama against Tennessee on Saturday night, it will not be because college sports are broken or Congress refuses to act or the NCAA is feckless.
The G League player, who signed a two-way contract with San Antonio in 2023 but never played in the NBA itself, will play because Alabama head coach Nate Oats will look down his bench and insert him into the game.
That’s it. That is how a 23-year-old former Crimson Tide player who declared for the NBA draft and has since played in developmental leagues for the Spurs, Orlando Magic, Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons gets to return to college basketball. The temporary restraining order issued by an Alabama judge, which read in part that the NCAA is “restrained from threatening, imposing, attempting to impose, suggesting or implying any penalties or sanctions,’’ backs the NCAA into a corner.
It doesn’t force Oats to play him any more than Scott Drew had to play G League player James Nnaji at Baylor.
College sports did not break themselves. People broke them, chipping away at their essence one selfish decision at a time. Now everyone is fretting over the latest death to the system, desperately searching for a way to close Pandora’s box. The NCAA is asking for Congress to intercede, and administrators are suggesting that the NCAA should ding offenders by denying them NCAA Tournament eligibility.
Yet the clear path to a solution is a lot less complicated.
Coaches can say no.
Say no to $6 million deals for quarterbacks. Say no to agents’ demands on behalf of high school players. And now say no to ex-college players looking for a bailout and instead say yes to the guys sitting on your bench. Better yet, do your job and develop them.
With apologies to Nancy Reagan, just say no to all of it.
Coaches love nothing more than to wring their hands about the state of things and bemoan their supposed lack of power. That is entirely untrue. They hold all of the cards. They are in charge of the only two things that matter most in sports: Opportunity and playing time.
And yet they refuse to use the arsenal at their disposal, opting instead for some version of the same defense: Well, if I don’t pay/play him, someone else will do it. Which sounds eerily similar to the argument every teenager eventually stumbles upon with their parents. Everyone else is doing it. So, why can’t I? To which every parent who has ever parented knows the proper response: Because I said so. I said no.
But unlike parents who are trying to raise good citizens, coaches are trying to win games. The dirty little secret that no one wants to admit is that most don’t want to say no, at least not if saying yes makes it easier to win.
“Early on, when it first came out with G League players, I wasn’t in favor of that either,’’ Drew said. “But again, we don’t make the rules and as we find out about things, we’re always going to adapt to put our program in the best position to be successful, because that’s what we get paid to do.’’
Alabama started this season ranked 15th in the country. The Crimson Tide is 13-5 and more critically, a pedestrian 3-2 in SEC play. Aside from Aiden Sherrell, their big men have been average at best. Bucknell transfer Noah Williamson averages just 18 minutes per game and their defensive rebounding is relatively anemic.
Bediako is a 7-foot rim protector who averaged 5.2 boards per game in college, and anchored what is – up until now – the best team in Alabama history. With Bediako at center, the Tide rolled to a 31-6 record and the SEC regular-season and tournament titles.
Two weeks ago, Oats was asked about Drew’s decision to play Nnaji. A former high school math teacher, he said he didn’t love the idea, thought it would take away opportunities from young kids but then he pivoted.
“But on a competitive level, if it’s allowable, and they’re going to be eligible to play, and they’re the better players that you can get, then you probably have to go after them,” Oats said.
The irony in all of this is, not so surprisingly, the easy way rarely works.
Maybe someday a team full of million-dollar mercenaries will win a national title. It hasn’t happened yet.
Curt Cignetti brought in a bunch of scrappers from James Madison and a quarterback from Cal. Walter Clayton, Jr. was named most outstanding player at last year’s Final Four after leading Florida to the title. He started his career at Iona.
Meanwhile, quarterback Nico Iamaleava skipped out on Tennessee after a 10-3 season for a bigger payout at UCLA. The team went 3-9 and fired its coach.
Chad Baker-Mazara left Auburn after the Final Four to enroll at USC, his fourth college stop. The Trojans are 10th in the Big Ten.
Baylor added Nnaji six games ago. Before he started playing, the Bears went on a little four-game win streak. Since he joined the team, they’ve lost five of their last six.
Maybe Scott Drew should have said no.
