Friday Quickies: Expanded Transfer Market Edition

Just when things looked bad for Kentucky, Calipari finds life in the NCAA working in his favor.

By John Morgan Francis@MonJorgan Apr 24, 2020, 6:40am EDT

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Kentucky basketball head coach John Calipari always seems to bounce back.

On Thursday, John Calipari and his staff missed out on star graduate transfer Matt Haarms. However, Kentucky received exceptional news not long after Haarms made a surprising commitment to BYU.

According to Ralph D. Russo, the NCAA is “full speed ahead” for the one-time exception to begin starting in 2020-21.

Depending on who you ask, the rule wasn’t expected to be set in place until the 2021-2022 season. It seems now that will be put into effect immediately, only assisting Kentucky’s recruiting efforts.

Kentucky can now look into adding more than just graduate transfers to their roster. The new rule will allow all players to bypass sitting out a year, heavily impacting the success of Kentucky basketball on the hardwood.

An example would be Jacob Toppin, who just signed with Kentucky, will be eligible to play as early as the 2020-2021 season.

Kentucky is of course a nationally-recognized program for positioning kids to excel in the NBA (and the NBA Draft), so it wouldn’t surprise Calipari if the program suddenly received an uptick in interest.

“We’re going to have all kinds of calls,” Calipari said this offseason of one-time transfer rule affecting UK. “Kids wanting to join our program, [telling us] ‘I had a great year, I can help your program, can you help me?”

The rule is awesome for collegiate athletes, but also could be significantly impactful for programs as they chase conference and national title banners.