NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Longterm impact of RJ Hampton bypassing college

RJ Hampton, one of the most coveted recruits in the entire country is going to Austrailia to play. He will forgo his NCAA Basketball eligibility to sign with the Breakers.

The news that RJ Hampton is playing in the NBL came as a shock to most. Why would a top five recruit choose to go to New Zealand instead of NCAA Basketball? When you stop and think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense for him to do this. He joins a short list of players that have gone overseas instead of college joining the likes of Terrence Ferguson, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Brandon Jennings, though all of them had reasons to go overseas due to their eligibility issues.

Hampton grew up in Dallas and he was able to watch a player like Luka Doncic and like Dirk be successful in the NBA without playing college basketball. They both came from the European league which is the second most talented league in the world. But, Hampton going to the Australian league is no slouch either. He has already made headlines by reclassifying to the class of 2019 which made many believe that he was going to go to a blue blood school, but boy did he shock everyone. If any of his finalists are going to feel this decision the most it is going to be Kansas as they are already short in the backcourt and potentially losing both Grimes and Dotson from last years team.

Impact on Kansas

This recruiting cycle could not have gone any worse for the Jayhawks losing out on Matthew Hurt to Duke and not having RJ choose New Zealand over them. The team started by receiving news the Udoka Azubuike was going to stay for his senior year then later getting the news the Silvio De Sousa was going to able to play next year also helped. Then came the recruiting part.

This team lost the Big 12 regular season title this year for the first time in over a decade and did not even make the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. There were even rumors that Bill Self might take an NBA job. The entire off-season has been a mess and getting RJ would have been the thing that could have pulled them out of the rut. Now they are going to have to survive in a very tough conference with teams on the rise. Right now the Jayhawk faithful have to be getting worried about what next season might hold.

Why Make This Choice?

So why would a top prospect want to go play overseas where there will not be a lot of attention? In reality it might be the best choice for Hampton. As I already said he watched great foreign players for the Mavericks be drafted really high while still playing overseas. He knows there is going to be attention around him much like there was around Luka, so scouts will come to see him. He is a year younger than everyone else in the class meaning he has an extra year to develop in the NBA which will help his stock as well.

So, take both of those things and throw in the fact he will be getting paid next year and why would you not take the deal? His draft stock should not suffer and you will be getting paid while others have to go to class everyday to remain eligible to play. He will also more than likely be one of the go-to players on the Breakers and a NBL MVP would help his stock like it did to Luka. While that is unlikely it is still interesting to think about. An 19-year-old winning a league MVP while everyone else goes to class does not sound bad at all to me.

Could This Start a Trend?

People have said for years that the NBA and NCAA have to fix the one-and-done issue because stuff like this was going to begin to happen. Whether it be just letting them go pro after high school like baseball does or not something has to be done. You will have a few players every year that could go into the NBA and score 15 a game in their rookie season, but they are forced to go to college. Kids want to make money not go to school when they know they can play at the next level. Now Hampton has taken the approach that seems a little strange when you look at everything, but it is a 18 year old’s dream.

Top prospects will learn after this year that if this goes well for Hampton that they could do the same exact thing and still be a lottery pick. That would take away from much of the college game, and more than likely make a fool out of them. This is just the first player to do this, but others have thought about this path, and now someone has taken this option and only time will tell if it was the right one.