Could Alabama basketball turn to Euro pros? Nate Oats opines | Goodbread

Go to the Oklahoma men’s basketball roster online, click on the bio link for center Kirill Elatontsev, and your return reads “no information available.”

Let’s fill in some blanks.

The Sooners recently added the Russian pro to their roster as a mid-year enrollee, with one semester of eligibility remaining, to strengthen their frontcourt. He’s 6-foot-11, 240 pounds and was twice named the best young player in Russia’s most competitive professional league, VTB United. He’s also been a member of the Russian national team.

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In less than two weeks, Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats and his team will travel to Norman, Oklahoma, to take on the Sooners and Elatontsev, who by that point will only have played a few games of college basketball. The NCAA basketball eligibility door has now been flung open to include not only European pros, but NBA G-League players, as well. It’s altered the recruiting dynamic yet again. And coaches across college basketball are now grappling with their disdain for the entire notion of the newly eligible talent pool, and the possibility that staying competitive might require embracing it.

Count Oats among those torn.

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On Tuesday, he lamented that the eligibility of European pros begets a denial of opportunities for American-born players. Oats, after all, coached at the high school level for 11 years. At the same time, he recognized that from a competitive standpoint, it might not be wise to dismiss the addition of European pros in the future. They make a lot more money than NBA G-League players, he noted, which would make them more difficult to attract.

But Oklahoma has done it, and somebody else will be next.

Oats once went into a Crimson Tide season with only 12 scholarship players, rather than the maximum 13, because he didn’t think it was fair to add another player…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/could-alabama-basketball-turn-euro-204326776.html

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Publish date : 2026-01-06 20:43:00

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