ESPN college basketball analysts Dick Vitale and Fran Fraschilla are among those arguing that college seniors like Seton Hall’s Myles Powell should be given a waiver by the NCAA to play an extra season after the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament as well as all spring championships.
Although seniors like Powell did play the entire regular season, they have been robbed of playing in their conference tournaments and the Big Dance by the national coronavirus pandemic.
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“Take all those kids, especially the seniors, and say to them, ‘We are going to grant you another year of eligibility and it’s up to you if you want to come back or you want to leave,’ but I think that’s the right thing to do,” Vitale, a Passaic native, said Friday morning on ESPN’s ‘Get Up.’
“And then go to the spring sports, all those kids should have another year added to their eligibility and not be denied. I just feel strongly about this.”
Of course, seniors like Powell and Markus Howard of Marquette may simply want to move along to the pro ranks and get paid.
But Fraschilla, a former college head coach, supports the waiver idea as well.
“It’s fair and the ancillary effect is that it would strengthen college basketball dramatically,” he Tweeted. “Last year’s nearly 100 early entries hurt the game this year.”
Fraschilla’s ancillary point is that by allowing seniors to return, college basketball would be populated by older, more mature players. A year ago, nearly 100 early-entry candidates declared for the NBA Draft, which in turn robbed this season of some star power.
It’s unclear if the NCAA would enact this suggestion, but if Seton Hall’s seniors, for example, came back next year they would be even older and more mature.
Powell turns 23 in July. Seton Hall big man Romaro Gill turns 26 in October and point guard Quincy McKnight becomes 25 in December.
For now, Powell and his fellow seniors are simply devastated by the sudden end of their careers and the missed opportunity to end things one way or another on the basketball court.
“At least I ended a champion,” Powell Tweeted Thursday, referring to Seton Hall ending in a three-way tie with Creighton and Villanova atop the Big East.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton, a Brooklyn native, was among the first to make the waiver suggestion, also arguing that the NCAA should allow for expanded scholarship numbers to facilitate the process.
“Seniors, if they want, should have another year,” he said, according to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman. “Special permission on scholarship numbers for an unprecedented circumstance. Next year only.”
Of course, there are counter-arguments as well.
One is that the regular season in college basketball ended before the postseason games were canceled, so all of the seniors had the opportunity to play a full regular season.
Another, perhaps less persuasive argument, is that by allowing seniors an extra year, it would rob younger players of the chance to see increased playing time and to develop.
As for this season, Vitale also argued that the NCAA should have waited on canceling the NCAA Tournament and considered holding the event later this spring. The NBA is expected to be on hold for at least 30 days, but commissioner Adam Silver didn’t rule out holding the NBA Finals “in July or late July.”
“I think [the NCAA] could have waited just a a little bit longer,” Vitale said. “They had time on their side, to see what would be transpiring.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.