Aaron Harrison and Michael Qualls were 6-foot-6 basketball players this past winter who earned spots on the All-Southeastern Conference second team.
Now they have something else in common.
Harrison, who played two seasons at Kentucky, and Qualls, who played three at Arkansas, are among the 18 underclassmen who were not selected in last month’s NBA draft and cannot return to college. Former Florida forward Chris Walker and former Alabama and North Carolina State guard Trevor Lacey also got bypassed after leaving early, but the NCAA is looking to reduce these occurrences.
Georgia head coach Mark Fox celebrates after a basket during an NCAA college basketball game between Georgia and Vanderbilt on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, in Athens, Ga.
Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings yells to his team in their game on Feb. 21, 2015, in Nashville.The NCAA men’s basketball oversight committee has a proposal that will allow players to maintain their college eligibility after they declare for the draft. The proposal would be tied into an invitation-only NBA draft combine in May, at which NBA team officials would evaluate and inform hopefuls of their potential at the ultimate level.
“If they’re not invited to the combine, that sends a pretty clear message,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said on a recent SEC coaches teleconference, “but for this to work, we have to let the kids come back to school if they’re not invited to the combine or if they’re told they need to come back to school. I think it’s all good stuff, and I think we’re finally moving in a direction where it favors the kids, and that’s what we should be doing.”