NCAA grants transfer waiver to LSU big man

Bryan Penn-Johnson decided to transfer from Washington this offseason, then committed to LSU on July 19th.

One month later, Penn-Johnson has been granted a waiver to play next season by the NCAA, per Jon Rothstein.

There was no reported hardship with Penn-Johnson in regards to his decision to change schools. Also, the California native is not moving closer to home, but much further from it instead. The NCAA has been very lenient in giving waivers to transfers dealing with hardships and/or moving closer to home, neither of which appear in play here.

In case you forgot, Olivier Sarr left Wake Forest and committed to Kentucky on May 6th. Yet over three full months later, Sarr and Kentucky are still waiting to see what the NCAA will do.

You would think the NCAA would be ruling on these cases in the order they were received, or something close to that. Kentucky reportedly filed for a transfer waiver in May, so the NCAA has had plenty of time to reach a conclusion.

And if the NCAA is going to rule on transfer cases who applied for a waiver months after Sarr and Kentucky did, who knows how much longer they’ll be waiting for a decision.

Making matters worse for Kentucky is classes have begun, so there’s no adding another big man for next season now in the event Sarr is ruled ineligible unless it’s some kind of mid-season addition.

And the NBA Draft entry deadline has passed, so if Sarr is ruled ineligible, it’s too late for him to enter this year’s draft.