Preston is gone

It all reminds me of the Cliff Alexander situation where the parents were involved. And the long wait for a resolution that never came. Billy and is mom knew the rules and KU clearly thought the rules weren't followed. KU's argument was that a semester of missed games was punishment enough but likely the NCAA thought otherwise. So it was unlikely that Billy was going to play at KU.

But before we leave the topic, let's think about crazy the situation is. It isn't the NCAA or the individual schools that won't let high school players go directly to the pros. It is the NBA that insists on one year. So the one-and-done has to wait a year between high school and making an incredible amount of money. In the meantime, he is given a scholarship for an education he is unlikely to complete and helps colleges make an incredible amount of money. A fellow student who is an English major and writes a novel can hire an agent. As someone setting up an LLC, I can hire an agent. About the only people in the country not allowed to hire an agent are college athletes. I don't see why someone about to make millions of dollars in the coming year shouldn't be allowed to have an agent to look out for his or her interests during their one year in college. We all know that the colleges might not always look out for the best interests of the players (e.g., see UNC academics).

I don't know how to fix the crazy system, but until it is fixed there will be more Billy's and Cliff's.

I agree that Preston's family is largely responsible for this situation, and I'm sure we'll eventually get closer to the "whole story". I'm still disappointed in the NCAA but in reality, they only delayed on this for 3 weeks, which is long but probably not excessively long when you hear more of the story.

I do feel bad for the position HCBS and the staff are in. On one hand, there are plenty of KU fans who demand a certain level of success and have set the bar very high for our program. With that, there's a real need to go after McD AA's and the best players you can get. At the same time, many of these coveted recruits are living life like rock stars where they can pretty much do whatever they want. Suddenly they're in college, and the NCAA has rules, as do each university and team. Going from "the big man on campus" in high school where everyone defers to you to a situation where you have a curfew, are required to go to class, and where discipline exists at a multitude of levels can be difficult. As a result, we get the Preston situation, Carlton Bragg, Cliff Alexander and a long list of others who couldn't adapt.

Reading between the lines, it now sounds like his mother's partner "loaned" him a car indefinitely which is no different than "giving" somebody a car. The blurred line between "agent" and "attorney" adds to the sketchyness of the situation. Finally, SOMEBODY had to be talking to the pro team in Bosnia. If those negotiations were ongoing, you could easily argue that Billy had already forfeited his amateurism either by negotiating a deal himself or through a representative (i.e. "agent").

Bosnia is no picnic, and it's certainly not the NBA. Had Billy and his family shown some restraint, he'd be playing at KU in front of stands packed with pro scouts every game. While I'm sure that the scouts go to Bosnia I'm sure you're not going to get anywhere near as much visibility as you would in the US (BTW, how much does an NBA team's GM hate you to assign you to go scout Bosnia?!? Sounds like the guy in military who gets caught with the General's daughter and gets reassigned to a weather post in the Aleutian Islands).

Billy seems like a good kid. Probably a little immature and probably prone to some dumb decisions like any other kid. Just one more example of the parasitic nature of college basketball.