Worried a bizarre night at the NBA Draft Lottery that saw the Dallas Mavericks win the right to the No. 1 pick — and, in turn, Cooper Flagg — would impact Otega Oweh‘s decision to keep his name in the field or return to Kentucky? Don’t be — not yet, anyway.

The star guard, who earned All-SEC honors in his debut season in Lexington, was once again not included in ESPN’s latest mock draft released following Monday night’s lottery.

With clarity finally here with the draft order, Koby Brea was the only Wildcat listed in the final update before the NBA Combine ramps up this week in Chicago. The 6-7 sharpshooter sits at No. 54 overall, projected to be selected by the Indiana Pacers.

In ESPN’s list of best available prospects, Amari Williams is the next Kentucky player under consideration at No. 59 overall, followed by Oweh at No. 72 overall — well outside the draft range. Jaxson Robinson is next at No. 76 while Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr and Ansley Almonor were not included to round out the top 100.

Take a look at the latest lottery projections after the top-14 draft order was revealed on Monday:

1. Cooper Flagg – Dallas Mavericks
2. Dylan Harper – San Antonio Spurs
3. Ace Bailey – Philadelphia 76ers
4. VJ Edgecombe – Charlotte Hornets
5. Jeremiah Fears – Utah Jazz
6. Tre Johnson – Washington Wizards
7. Khaman Maluach – New Orleans Pelicans
8. Kon Knueppel – Brooklyn Nets
9. Collin Murray-Boyles – Toronto Raptors
10. Kasparas Jakucionis – Houston Rockets
11. Derik Queen – Portland Trail Blazers
12. Egor Demin – Chicago Bulls
13. Jase Richardson – Atlanta Hawks
14. Carter Bryant – San Antonio Spurs

The new mock draft comes following the NBA G League Elite Camp, one that saw Williams, Butler and Carr all participate — plus Kentucky signee Jaland Lowe, who was also not included in the 59-pick mock, nor was he listed in the top 100 of best available draft prospects. Meanwhile, the NBA Draft Combine began on Sunday in Chicago, which will run for seven days. Oweh and Brea will both participate in the five-on-five scrimmages set to begin Wednesday, beyond all measurements, testing and drills.

Oweh has until May 28 to make his stay-or-go decision, looking for a first-round guarantee to keep his name in the draft. If not, a return to Lexington for one final season of eligibility is the expectation as the NIL money will be too good to pass up compared to fighting for a two-way deal as a late-second-rounder or going undrafted.

Another step in the right direction, but the real updates will come throughout the week in Chicago. From there, the 2025 NBA Draft is set for June 25-26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.

May 12, 2025

By Dan Morrison, On3 Sports: Former Charleston forward Ante Brzovic has been denied his request for a preliminary injunction against the NCAA to allow him to play a fifth season after spending one year at the JUCO level.

That decision is coming from the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina (4th Circuit).

Now, NIL lawyer Darren Heitner has weighed in on the decision, cautioning that this issue will likely find its way to the Supreme Court. That’s because other districts have had significantly different decisions in similar cases, relating to the NCAA’s eligibility rules and the Five-Year Rule.

Read the full story…

NIL lawyer: NCAA eligibility rules could reach Supreme Court

On3

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Heidrick opens the show by catching listeners up on the NIL lawsuit that’s currently hanging in the balance in the NCAA. “Essentially,” Heidrick explains, “[the settlement] laid out a plan for the NCAA institutions that opt in to be able to compensate student athletes directly, starting with the 25-26 schoolyear.” Heidrick then goes onto catch listeners up on the updates to the suit that came out this week. The settlement faces some changes, and it is unclear whether or not the judge presiding over the case will accept them.

Later on, Heidrick goes into more depth about the settlement and and what it could mean for mid-sized and smaller schools. “Very uncertain times as these institutions all across the country try to navigate what this settlement is going to look like,” Heidrick says. “You have to have stability at the top.”

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Heidrick closes out the show by talking about coaching changes and what they mean for the NCAA landscape as it shifts in the offseason. She talks through a few big coaching changes, like the ones at Arizona, Utah, and Georgia Tech. “We all know, coaching is about the right fit,” Heidrick says. “Just as we think about it for a student athlete and finding the right program, you’ve got to find the right fit.”

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When Rich Rodriguez took over in his first stint as head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers, the college football landscape was devoid of NIL. 

Rodriguez has seen a lot of changes since the last time he led the Mountaineers, many of them centered on the intricacies of NIL and the transfer portal. 

In his last two seasons at Jacksonville State, Rodriguez oversaw their transition from the FCS to the FBS level, and that gave him an introduction to the state of chaos he finds himself back in within the Big 12 Conference.

He about the “open free agency” that has dominated the transfer portal and his experience back at WVU on the College Gameday Podcast. 

“The goalposts have certainly moved a long way, and you have to adapt to it,” Rodriguez said. “You just throw your hands up … This is really hard to build a program when you have open free agency every year.” 

In line with the consensus criticism by numerous college football head coaches, the issue is not solely about name, image, and likeness, nor is it primarily about player movement.

It’s the absence of stability that comes with typical contracts seen at the professional level.

“The NIL and paying them is one part,” Rodriguez said. “It’s like the NFL on steroids. But the biggest part is the open free agency. There’s no rookie salary cap, and there are no three-year contracts. That makes it really, really difficult. But that is what it is.” 

Ultimately, unpalatable as it may be, the landscape of college sports isn’t changing in the foreseeable future. Head coaches need to have a plan to calm the waters, and many are finding that emphasis inside their programs.

Rodriguez’s Plan for Stability in Chaos of NIL

The importance of development, team fit and culture has depreciated in the discussion of NIL, particularly when it comes to multimillion-dollar contracts for quarterbacks to transfer.

“You have to say, okay, how do I adjust to this new thing and still have the right culture?” Rodriguez said. “Everybody uses that word, ‘culture,’ but do they live it every day? Do they adhere to it in the way they go acquire players, develop players, and build their roster? And that’s one thing I said from the start. We’re going to be okay [in] the rev-share world. We’re not going to have in the pre-rev share all the money—maybe somebody else does—but we can still have the best culture.”

It’s not just about culture, but the discipline to implement it in all facets, from how they pay their players to how they run their team, how the salary cap will be divided and how all people in the building need to come to understand that standard.

Rodriguez has a salient point with the term “culture” being thrown around loosely without it always being a tangible thing coaches can point to or players can see.

At West Virginia, Rodriguez intends that to mean direct communication with players, transparency about their place on the roster and trajectory of development and not losing sight of the forest for the trees. 

“You’ve got to be open and honest with your players. We’ve done that—we’ve tried to do that in the last four or five months—and that way, our culture’s going to be set for not just now, but next year and the year after that.”

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