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Illinois had a lot of international professionals last season. I count 7.

2025-26 Men's Basketball Roster - University of Illinois Athletics
2025-26 Men's Basketball Roster - University of Illinois Athletics

Hmmm. I didn't even know they played basketball!

They would lead NCAA Basketball in tackles per game but probably only play a few MPG before fouling out.  

You know this is gonna go to football, yes?

It was a joke. 

Would you include them if they had CHOSEN to play four little-sisters-of-the-poor instead of Michigan, Arizona, Purdue, and Houston and thus finished 20-13?  Auburn at 20-13 with four wins over crap OOC opponents instead of four losses to #1 and #2 seeds (M, Zona, PU, Houston) absolutely would have made the tournament and the message that sends is bad for the sport.

But is leaving Auburn out really that much of a resounding, chilling message to the sport? With so many at-large bids, the committee can afford a few debatable inclusions/exclusions because once the Tournament gets going, it cleans itself up, with realistically only the highest seeds having much of chance to keeping advancing.

The message sent was not: don't over-schedule tough opponents. The message sent was that if you schedule tough opponents you still have win at a competitive rate. For better or worse, yes, a 20-13 Auburn team boosted by replacing a few of their tougher opponents with crap probably helps by appearing on the surface to be winning at that more competitive rate, but it doesn't address the 7-11 conference record that still justified a case to keep Auburn out. The committee should not be giving a program credit for SIXTEEN losses; blowing ALL sixteen of those chances is more than enough reason to not be bothered if they missed the tournament.

Sorry for slightly derailing the topic, but this doesn't warrant its own thread and I don't know where else to put it. 

LSU/Will Wade is recruiting a bunch of international players, guys who have played in the EuroLeague and other national equivalents of their own NBA, or something like that.  Professional outfits, I mean. 

My question is, when did any of this become legal?  I thought players who were professional and/or players who ever had professional representation were precluded by the NCAA from playing collegiate sports?  As far as I knew, you couldn't even declare for a draft and be eligible to continue playing college ball.  Apparently now you can be pro, at least overseas, and then come to the States and play within the confines of the NCAA?

When?  Why?  How? 

This seems......wrong.  I knew cfb was being ruined.  This feels like a big step in the wrong direction for cbb.  Maybe it's not new and I'm just now finding out about it.  But.....yuck. 

Historically, I believe players who were some level of semi-professional were allowed in. Euro teams have all these club levels, so I presume if you’re on a lower level, the comp was not high enough to make you a pro.

But it seems like that floor has dropped in recent years. Not sure why.

perhaps because almost everyone is getting paid

I mean, there’s still some edge, for now. 

I honestly wonder if the Euro stuff is so disorganized, they just threw up their hands