Todd Golden wasn’t afraid to speak his mind this past season when it came to the shenanigans that Alabama tried to pull with its roster. The Crimson Tide rostered a literal NBA G-League player, which wound up not mattering as Florida smacked Alabama anyway.
But now with another SEC foe trying to load up with players who shouldn’t actually still be playing college basketball, Golden is once again speaking out on the absurity of it all.
Todd Golden speaks out against LSU
Golden appeared on the "Field of 68: After Dark" show, and he was asked about the efforts of Will Wade trying to sign RJ Luis Jr. and Yam Madar. Luis spent last year in the NBA G-League after previously playing for St. John's, while Madar was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 2020, has been a professional in Europe since, and will turn 26 years old by the end of the year.
Golden made it clear he doesn’t like the direction the sport is heading:
“We have to have a better solution prior to the season. It's that simple. I do think the reality is that, with our meetings next week, this is definitely going to be a topic of discussion. I think, you know, Commissioner Sankey has a pretty powerful voice. I think Garth Glissman does a fantastic job in our league, continuing to help us, you know, be the leader.
But this is, like you said, not what college basketball is meant to be. Again, we need to help these young guys coming up out of high school. We are already about to deal with five for five, which I think is going to be a massive change, similar to when these guys got the COVID year, you know, four or five years ago, for an extra year of eligibility. That's going to really hurt these seniors to be in high school right now, trying to get these guys into the college game.
So, just allowing these significantly older guys, I can understand 20- or 21-year-olds coming over. I like the idea of having that 19 to 24 window. I think that makes a lot of sense. But again, 25 and 26-year-olds is not what college basketball is meant to be.”
Fine line Golden walks
One of the clapbacks on Golden whenever this topic comes up is the fact that he himself has leaned heavily on Europe for players, particularly with Urban Klavzar. As Golden points out, Klavzar falls within the range of a normal college player and went through a pathway that isn’t uncommon for players from Europe.
The other main difference with players like Luis or Charles Bediako is that those are players who litteraly left college basketball altogether, only to then try and return once that pathway failed. It has forever been accepted that once you leave, you don’t come back.
As frustrated as Golden is, he ultimately doesn’t get the final say as to how to fix the sport. And if the powers that be don’t fix it, one has to wonder how much pressure that might put Golden under to go against his own morals in the future.
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