NCAA Basketball: Declaring for the NBA, Coaching Changes and Age Limits

The NCAA men’s basketball season has been over for less than a week but storylines for the offseason are already taking shape.

Paying players and creating player unions are issues across all athletics at the university level and during the summer will be a hot topic. Rule changes will not be on the books in time for the 2014-15 season, but there will be plenty talked about by NCAA fans, coaches and players alike.

Nearly every year the anticipation of who will declare early for the NBA and who will remain in school makes for anxious moments the first two weeks after the end of the season for fans and coaches. Coaches hope they will have all their eligible players return but know that is not often the case today.

Some players have already announced they are headed to the next level. Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid of Kansas have both declared for the NBA draft.

Nik Stauskas from Michigan and Julius Randle from Kentucky are reportedly on their way as well. Those rumors prompted both players to deny they were declaring for the draft.

Usually, the surprise that is the biggest of all is when a player opts to remain in school for another year. Jabari Parker at Duke has been projected to be drafted in the top five if he were to declare for the draft.

However, he has not publicly announced his intentions. The freshmen sensation did say he would consult with his head coach.

If Parker decided to stay, it would likely push Duke to the top as a preseason No. 1.

Early entrants who do not sign with any agent must, per NCAA rules withdraw their intentions to enter the draft prior to April 15 to retain eligibility.

However, that deadline is quite soft considering the deadline in the NBA for underclassmen is April 27 to declare, so a number of players do not speak of their intentions publicly until 12 days after the deadline set by the NCAA.

Two of three major colleges have hired new head coaches already. Jim Christian was hired to coach Boston College and Danny Manning has signed to coach Wake Forest.

California is the only major conference school without a head coach. Chris Mack the Xavier head coach is reported to be the lead candidate for the job.

There could be other openings moving forward once the fallout takes place in the NBA at the end of the regular season later this week.

If a number of NBA vacancies become available then coaches such as Fred Hoiberg at Iowa State, Kevin Ollie at Connecticut and John Calipari at Kentucky could be on the move.

Calipari, following his team’s loss in the national championship game denied that he had an interest in coaching the Los Angeles Lakers. Rumors will swirl once openings are announced and will continue until the spots are filled, which could go far into the summer.

The NBA collective bargaining agreement will not be up again until June of 2017. That means any talk about increasing the age limit in the league is nothing by talk. However, with 10 possible one and done players drafted in the first round this year in the NBA, talk will continue over the league’s age limit.