The NBA Draft kicks off tonight, and many former college basketball players will hear their name called and receive a multi-year contract with a significant signing bonus. But in the age of NIL, the determination of whether it’s worth leaving college to enter the draft is a bit more complicated. 

The NCAA to NBA pipeline has changed rapidly over the last few decades. The traditional, typical journey included playing multiple years in college before entering the NBA Draft (aside from high school phenoms like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant). But as high school basketball improved, college basketball was introduced to the “1-and-done” freshmen.

As the discussion over whether colleges were exploiting athletes intensified, “developmental leagues” such as Overtime Elite and G League Ignite were born. Both leagues were able to recruit top talent in recent years, including Jalen Green, Dyson Daniels, Ron Holland, Scoot Henderson, Alex Sarr, and Rob Dillingham (pre-Kentucky). 

And then the landscape changed even more drastically: the NIL era began. College players could now profit off of their name, image, and likeness, which effectively ended the G League Ignite and diminished Overtime Elite. 

The “1-and-done” culture is still prevalent for the freshmen who are guaranteed lottery picks, but we’ve started to see more and more stud freshmen opt to stay in college for another year. Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford opted to return despite getting 1st round NBA Draft looks, while Boogie Fland opted to transfer to Florida instead of taking his chances with the draft. 

Fland’s compensation was reportedly worth over $2 million, which makes it quite comparable to expected NBA draft compensation for the back of the 1st round. After Pick 24, all annual salaries are below $3 million. 

All this being said, let’s take a look at a few NBA prospects who could have benefitted from another year in college. Based on the latest nbadraft.net Mock Draft, here are a few players who had remaining college eligibility:

• Drake Powell: Freshman, North Carolina (projected #27)
• Danny Wolf: Junior, Michigan (projected #31)
• RJ Luis: Junior, St. John’s (projected #47)

All three of these guys left top college programs, all of which have reloaded for this upcoming season. Per 247 Sports, St John’s and Michigan have the top 2 ranked transfer class hauls in the nation, while UNC has the 7th best overall class (HS recruits + transfers).

If Powell, Wolf, or Luis returned to their respective programs, they would arguably become the favorites to cut down the nets next March. And more importantly, all three universities would’ve had the NIL funds to compensate them handsomely.

Two LSU baseball players ran into issues at the College World Series after requesting to play walkup songs by artist Kanye West. According to Jacques Doucet of WAFB-TV, outfielder Derek Curiel was told he had to play the instrumental version of “God Is” from West’s album “Jesus is King” rather than the one with lyrics.

Similarly, pitcher Kade Anderson was denied the chance to play “All of the Lights” from West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” album as his walk-out song. Curiel expressed his dismay that he was not allowed to play the song he wanted.

“I’m a little upset that the NCAA didn’t allow that song to be played,” he said. “They only played the instrumental version. They didn’t let the words play. But it’s OK. ‘God is everything that has breath. Praise the Lord.’ That’s a verse in the bible and I just wanted everyone to know. You worship Chris and that’s what I’m here to do and I want people to know me as the guy who plays baseball who loves Jesus.”

Initially, Curiel was not sure whether his song choice was denied because of the artist or because of its religious content. But Doucet later confirmed through his sources that it was due to West being the artist.

Of course, Kanye West has found himself at the center of controversy numerous times in recent years. The rapper has promoted antisemitic views both on social media and in his music and businesses. Although he grew a large fan base in the early 2000s through his music, his recent behavior has resulted in several of his former fans choosing to no longer support him.

That perhaps can explain the reasoning behind the decision from those in charge at the College World Series not to allow LSU players to play Kanye West’s music. Either way, it didn’t seem to affect them all that much on the field as they reeled off back-to-back victories against Coastal Carolina to claim the national championship.

That included a 5-3 victory on Sunday to finish things off in which Curiel tied for the team lead with two RBI. As he said, he isn’t all that worried about not getting the song he wanted for his walkup, and he’ll surely take a trophy over that any day. But it still certainly makes for an interesting story given all the attention on West of late.

Name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation and the transfer portal in major college sports continue to perturb Florida’s Governor.

During comments at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, Gov. Ron DeSantis reminisced about the way it used to be during the golden era of college football in Florida.

“It’s tough. I mean, with NIL and transferring and all this stuff,” DeSantis lamented. “It used to just be … all the Florida schools just kind of lock and load, (during) the ’80s and ’90s, even beyond that when you had the Urban Meyer years in Florida. And then it’s like, you know, particularly in the last five or 10 years, so much is going on. There’s a lot of moving parts.”

The Governor has called attention to the increased professionalization of amateur sports in recent years, including saying in 2024 that he wanted to work with other Governors to develop a regulatory “framework” because Congress wouldn’t do it.

DeSantis has griped about student athletes having too much leverage and about Florida programs in recent months on numerous occasions.

“I think this whole NIL may need some guardrails, and the transferring has gotten out of hand. You know, transferring once? Fine, you shouldn’t have to sit out. But to just treat it like a free agency where you don’t know who’s going to come back each year, I think that’s diluted college sports,” he said during other remarks in 2024.

“You get paid for name, image and likeness and stuff, which we supported in Florida. If people are going to make money off you, like, whatever,” DeSantis said in Waukee, Iowa, during his failed presidential campaign.

“But now it’s like, they sit out the bowl games and they do all this other stuff. … We’ve got to do something about that. I don’t know if that’s the right thing.”

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NASSAU, The Bahamas – An amazing destination resort greets a standout collection of women’s basketball teams when Baha Mar plays host to the 2025 Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship, Monday, Nov. 24 and Wednesday, Nov. 26 at the Baha Mar Convention, Arts & Entertainment Center. Veteran sports promoter bdG Sports announced seven teams scheduled to participate in the eight-team field Wednesday. 
 
Confirmed teams set to compete include Alabama, Belmont, Harvard, Minnesota, Ohio State, South Florida and West Virginia. All seven of the squads announced Wednesday advanced to postseason play a year ago, including five that appeared in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Once the final team is added, the event will feature two separate, four-team divisions resulting in two champions being crowned. Matchups and game times will be announced later. All games will be streamed.
 
“We are excited and proud to showcase a top-tier brand of hoops in the Bahamas once again as we continue to grow and expand women’s basketball and our events,” college basketball analyst and event contributor Debbie Antonelli said. “I’m known for saying, ‘The Product is the Narrative’ because we create opportunities to compete and the players and coaches deliver. Teams are returning because they trust bdG Sports to deliver another first-class event in an incredible destination location, and rest assured, it will be entertaining given the quality of competition!”
 
Alabama (24-9 in 2024-25) made its third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament under head coach Kristy Curry a year ago. The Crimson Tide’s historic season included multiple program milestones, among them, a listing in the Associated Press poll in all but two weeks of the season (with its highest ranking of No. 18).
 
Belmont head coach Bart Brooks helped guide the Bruins (26-13) to a runner-up finish in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) en route to program’s 10th consecutive 20-plus win season in 2024-25. Enjoying its deepest national postseason run in school history last season, Belmont has won seven national postseason games over the last five years.
 
Under head coach Carrie Moore, Harvard (24-5) notched arguably its best season in program history in 2024-25, earning its most wins in school history, claiming its first Ivy League Tournament title and appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 18 years.
 
Head coach Dawn Plitzuweit’s Minnesota (25-11) squad capped the 2024-25 campaign, winning the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.
 
Ohio State (26-7) made its fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2024-25, hosting games as a top-16 seed for the third consecutive season. Kevin McGuff’s Buckeyes finished the season ranked No. 19 nationally and have won at least 25 games in each season since the pandemic.
 
USF (23-11) capped the 2024-25 season with its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Jose Fernandez, in his 25th season. The Bulls went 13-4 in conference play and secured their fourth league title by winning the 2025 American Athletic Conference Tournament, defeating Tulane, North Texas, and Rice on three consecutive days. The campaign marked Coach Fernandez’s 14th straight 19-win season and 12th 20-win season.
 
West Virginia (25-8) made its third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament last season. WVU advanced to the tournament’s second round for the second straight season a year ago and has posted back-to-back 25-win seasons under head coach Mark Kellogg. The Mountaineers ended the season ranked No. 21 in the nation.
 
Alabama (2022), Ohio State (2023) and USF (2021) are making return trips to Baha Mar after previously competing in the Pink Flamingo Championship when it featured a non-bracketed format.
 
Eventual national champion UConn and regional finalist LSU each won its separate four-team divisions of the Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship last season.
 
TICKETS AND VIP PACKAGES ON SALE JULY 15
Tickets and VIP packets can be purchased at www.bahamarhoops.com beginning Tuesday, July 15.
Amenities of the VIP packages include a four-night stay at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, two courtside tickets to all games of the event, two tickets to the tournament’s VIP reception (Nov. 25) with dinner and open bar included, round-trip ground transportation from the airport and resort, two daily breakfast vouchers, welcome gifts and personal concierge service. (Airfare not included in the packages.)
  
MORE THAN BASKETBALL AWAITS AT THE BEAUTIFUL BAHA MAR RESORT
The remarkable Baha Mar resort serves as the backdrop to this basketball showcase. Anchored by Grand Hyatt and featuring SLS Baha Mar and Rosewood Baha Mar, the resort is situated on 1,000 acres overlooking Nassau’s famous turquoise ocean waters. The destination resort boasts more than 2,300 rooms, the largest casino in the Caribbean, a $200 million luxury water park, an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, the Caribbean’s first and only flagship ESPA Spa and a collection of more than 45 restaurants and lounges.
 
ABOUT BAHA MAR HOOPS
Baha Mar annually plays host to one of the largest regular-season events in the sport of college basketball. Each November around the Thanksgiving holiday, 20 NCAA Division I men’s and women’s teams visit the stunning resort to compete in various basketball tournaments. In total, 20 games will be played over an 11-day span.
 
Each August, the resort also holds the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League, offering NCAA teams exhibition games against international competition as part of a foreign tour. The resort has welcomed men’s basketball teams from Kentucky, Louisville, Penn State, Rhode Island and Xavier for summer exhibition tours in recent years. 
 
BAHA MAR HOOPS SOCIAL TAGS
Keep up to date with the latest information regarding Bah Mar Hoops via social media at @BahaMarHoops on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
 
ABOUT bdG SPORTS
bdG Sports is a sports and entertainment leader with a dynamic event management portfolio anchored with a focus in basketball and professional golf. The firm boasts an event schedule that has delivered significant economic impact to multiple communities throughout North America and the Caribbean while featuring broadcasts to viewers across the globe.
 
In basketball, bdG has a lengthy history of producing college basketball content. From summer exhibition tours to multiple high-profile in-season tournaments, bdG will contract nearly 150 regular-season men’s and women’s Division I basketball games annually. It boasts the record for the largest hoops crowd in Nevada state history (Duke-Gonzaga 2021 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas) and the second-most watched game since 2008 (Arkansas-Illinois on Thanksgiving Day 2024 with 5.1 million viewers). bdG is proud to be the only third-party operator which manages a conference tournament, assisting The Big West Conference Tournament each March in Henderson, Nevada. In professional basketball, bdG managed home games for the NBA G-League’s Ignite for its two years at the Dollar Loan Center. 
 
In professional golf, bdG owns and operates two season-opening Korn Ferry Tour tournaments, The Bahamas Golf Classic at Paradise Island and The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic, both featuring $1 million purses. And among its newest events, the ESPN Ultimate Fantasy Football Weekend at Baha Mar each August.
 

CINCINNATI – University of Cincinnati baseball infielder Kerrington Cross was named an All-American by the College Baseball Foundation on Wednesday.
 
It’s the third All-America honor for Cross, who also received the accolade from Perfect Game and ABCA/Rawlings.
 
The College Baseball Foundation All-America team is just one team with 31 names. Cross was one of just two Big 12 position players to earn a spot, joining TCU’s Sawyer Strosnider.
 
Cross is the first Bearcat to make at least three All-America teams since Ian Happ in 2015.
 
// ABOUT KERRINGTON CROSS
Cross, who was named the Big 12 Player of the Year last month, turned in an incredible 2025 season. He hit .396 with 12 home runs, 50 RBI, 65 runs scored, 50 walks, a .647 slugging percentage, and a .526 on-base percentage. Cross ended the college baseball season ranking eighth in the nation in on-base percentage and 20^th in batting average.
 
In single-season school annals, his .526 OBP is the second-highest ever by a UC player, and his batting average is the eighth-highest.
 
Cross ended his career ranking third all-time in school history in runs scored (221), fourth in hits (260), fourth in home runs (41), fourth in triples (11), fifth in RBI (170), third in total bases (444), third in walks (153), and fifth in stolen bases (62) His 219 career games played rank eighth all-time.
 
He was a First Team All-Big 12 honoree this season, his third all-conference nod as a Bearcat. He became the seventh player in school history to earn at least three all-conference honors.
 
One of the best third basemen in the country, Cross was a Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist and was D1Baseball’s No. 1-ranked third baseman in the publications latest position rankings on May 7.
 
Cross graduated with his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from UC.
 
// CINCINNATI BASEBALL ALL-AMERICANS

• Kerrington Cross (2025)
• Ian Happ (2015)
• Lance Durham (2009)
• Josh Harrison (2008)
• Kevin Youkilis (2000-01)
• Steve Barhorst (1996)
• Tim Burman (1974)
• Pat Maginn (1967)
• Billy Wolf (1965)
• Bill Faul (1961-62)

// FOLLOW THE BEARCATS
For up-to-the-minute updates, follow @GoBearcatsBASE on X/Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
 

In the age of constant college basketball roster turnover due to the combination of NIL and the transfer portal (revenue sharing forthcoming), Thornton has had ample opportunity to leave Ohio State. He would have been forgiven for seeking a bona fide contender after missing the NCAA Tournament with the Buckeyes for the third straight year, two of which he was their leading scorer.

But he stayed. 

“I just stand by my morals,” Thornton said. “I just believe in staying true to people who did well by you. I’ve always been like that, since I was young. Staying with the same teams, staying with the same group of people, my friends from back home. I just stay the course. And I always reaped the benefits of staying loyal, and just put it in God’s hands.”

Thornton’s career accolades are great, but he came back for his final year with his one and only college team with one object in mind: winning games. Or as Thornton’s shirt read and the Buckeyes’ new mantra goes, “Winning over everything.”

“I’m just trying to win games,” Thornton said. “I don’t care what else I do.”

“I just believe in staying true to people who did well by you. I’ve always been like that.”– Bruce Thornton on returning to Ohio State

Yes, Thorton is going to be compensated on the NIL and revenue share side, but loyalty is a commodity in the modern-day NCAA hoops landscape. Thornton could have easily sought compensation elsewhere. But he instead showed his loyalty in abundance.

He’s also a two-time second-team All-Big Ten selection and will almost certainly become the first four-time team captain in Ohio State history as a senior. He’s 10th all-time with the Buckeyes in career assists at 408, and will climb to No. 3 all-time if he matches his output of 148 (4.6 per game) last year. His 1,487 points are 21st in school history.

Last year was the best yet for Thornton. He evolved into a potent 3-point shooter, knocking down 42.4% of his looks from outside to help register a career-high 17.7 points per game. His overall field goal percentage was a career-high 50.1% as well. His perimeter defense was stout, too, helping the Buckeyes finish 22nd nationally in opposing 3-point percentage (30.5%).

Those numbers came with a workload of 36.2 minutes per game, the third-most of any player in the Big Ten. With John Mobley Jr. back as Thornton’s backcourt co-star and depth in Gabe Cupps, Taison Chatman and Mathieu Grujicic, Diebler hopes he can provide his bigger star with fresher legs down the stretch of 2025-26.

“As the season went on last year, we tried to move Bruce around in the half court because he was so efficient as a scorer,” Diebler said. “But it was a heavy load that we asked him to carry last year and being able to have guys create for him sometimes makes it easier for him and also made us harder to guard. So we feel like we have way more playmaking in general, which will be really helpful for us. There’s going to be a lot more space on the court, which is something we tried to do going into last season, but as the season wore on, we just weren’t able to do that at the level we wanted to.”

Last year was the closest Thornton and the Buckeyes have come to a return to the tourney in the past three seasons.

Ohio State entered the final month of its schedule well within the projected 68-team field, then lost five of its last seven games, including an immediate exit from the Big Ten Tournament against Iowa. Even if the Buckeyes had beaten Indiana in their final regular-season game, they would have collected a first-round bye in the conference tourney and likely made the Big Dance.

That’s why Thornton said the littlest details, from free-throw shooting to defensive communication to team chemistry, matter.

“It’s a margin of one possession; we would have been in the tournament,” Thornton said. “So I make sure I hold these guys to a high standard, make sure we do all the small details because it matters. You might not see it then, but it can come back to haunt you at the end of the season or at the end of the game.”

With Cupps transferring in from Indiana, Chatman returning from a season lost due to injury and Grujicic coming from overseas, Thornton’s backcourt support will look entirely different than it did in 2024-25. There will be two new starters in the frontcourt too, with power forward Brandon Noel from Wright State and center Christoph Tilly from Santa Clara.

“We’re gonna fit together because there’s no egos,” Thornton said. “When you have no egos, it makes the job way easier. So we don’t care who scores, how we score, we just want the job to get done at the end of the day. Because if we’re all winning, everybody eats.”

Thornton is entering his fourth year as Ohio State’s maestro, captain and star. He feels better at it than ever before. There’d be no player more deserving of an end to the Buckeyes’ NCAA Tournament drought – his and the team’s journey gets underway in November.

“I just use everything I’ve been through,” Thornton said. “In college basketball, I’ve been at the dead bottom, been high up. So I’m just telling these guys, ‘It’s a roller coaster, yo. You’ve just gotta stay the course the whole time. Everything will take care of itself.’”