St. John's Best Player Is Transferring And College Hoops Teams Are Apparently 'Tampering' With Him By Using Coronavirus As An Excuse
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There's a lot going on here so let's try to break it down by part. Gotta start with the decision by LJ Figueroa - St. John's best player and a dude who was about to be a senior. He averaged 14.5 per game last year, shot 37% from three. He's the prototypical 6'6" wing that can be a playmaker and disrupt from the defensive side. It's a big loss for St. John's. Mike Anderson is trying to build his own roster and while he's just in year 2, having a guy like Figueroa there as you recruit your guys is a huge benefit. That's obviously gone now.
As for Figueroa he's deciding what he wants to do. He can transfer, he can go play pro overseas, NBA or in the G League. I don't think he's an NBA player as of now. He might be a two-way contract guy, but that's sort of where he is now. As I say with pretty much every person, I don't give a shit what they do. It's their career. If they want to spend a year playing somewhere else in college, cool. If they want to go make okay money for a year, cool.
But here's where the transfer thing is getting interesting. He's not a grad transfer, he'd be a regular sit one, play one. That is unless he gets a waiver because the NCAA keeps fucking up and running these waivers. They are never consistent with their rulings and it's the dumbest shit in the world. So with that in mind, there is a report that college hoops teams are using coronavirus as a way to try and get him eligible this year.
They are going to argue that he's getting out of the NYC area for safety. He's from Massachusetts so it's not like he's an NYC guy too, which helps in a way with their argument. But the fact that this report is out there and coaches are using coronavirus just isn't shocking. Coaches do anything to win, if it's using a pandemic for a waiver they'll take advantage of it.
Really what it just shows is that anyone who was screaming about tampering if transfers don't have to sit out has no idea what they are talking about. Tampering happens every year, proven here with Figueora. It's not going to change if transfers are guaranteed to play right away.