Tad Boyle, Tom Izzo, and the NCAA's Latest Curveball: A Coach's Perspective on a Changing Game
Coming off a tough loss to Northern Colorado, Colorado head coach Tad Boyle didn’t get a sympathy call. What he got was something far more telling - a call from Tom Izzo, one of the most respected minds in college basketball, and a man who's seen just about everything in his 31 years at the helm of Michigan State.
But Izzo wasn’t calling to talk about the Buffaloes’ performance. He wanted to talk about something bigger - something that’s rapidly reshaping the landscape of college hoops. He called to talk about James Nnaji.
Nnaji, a 7-footer who was the first pick of the second round in the 2023 NBA Draft, is now suiting up for Baylor. That’s right - a drafted player, who’s played in the NBA Summer League and logged professional minutes overseas, is about to make his college debut. Baylor will unleash him this weekend against TCU in their Big 12 opener.
And yes, he’s eligible.
That news has sent shockwaves through the coaching ranks, and it’s not just Izzo who’s speaking up. Arkansas head coach John Calipari - who’s known Boyle since his own assistant coaching days at Kansas - has also weighed in. Boyle has talked with both of them, and he’s not mincing words.
“It makes no sense to me,” Boyle said. “I’ve listened to Tom Izzo, and I’ve talked to Tom Izzo.
I’ve listened to John Calipari, and I’ve talked to John Calipari. And both those guys, what they said and how they said it, I couldn’t agree more.”
Boyle’s frustration isn’t just about Nnaji. It’s about the bigger picture - a college athletics landscape that feels like it’s running without a map, or worse, without a driver.
“As coaches, we’re all self-preservationists. Same with athletic directors.
That’s human nature,” Boyle said. “The problem is, we’ve got nobody - and I mean nobody - who’s looking at college athletics and saying, ‘What’s best for the sport?’
Not just basketball. Football, women’s basketball, soccer - nobody’s doing that.
Everyone’s thinking, ‘What’s best for me?’ And that’s a big problem.”
To be clear, Nnaji didn’t sign a pro contract. He didn’t enroll in college before now.
But he did play in the NBA Summer League and has logged professional minutes overseas. He’s not the only one with pro experience now playing college ball - BYU’s Abdullah Ahmed, for instance, has 54 games in the NBA G League under his belt.
But Nnaji is the first player drafted by an NBA team to turn around and play college basketball.
It’s a new frontier, and coaches like Boyle are trying to navigate it in real time.
Boyle’s been through his fair share of change already - the explosion of the transfer portal, NIL deals, revenue sharing - and he’s adapted. But what makes this moment different, he says, is the lack of clear leadership at the top.
Coaches can adjust to new rules. What’s harder is adjusting to a system where the rules feel like they’re being rewritten on the fly - or worse, written with no long-term vision in mind.
And yet, despite the frustration, Boyle knows the game doesn’t wait for anyone.
“A lot of coaches are going to do whatever they’ve got to do to preserve their program and make their program the best,” he said. “Even if it’s not what’s best for college basketball in general.”
That’s the tightrope coaches walk now. On one side is loyalty to the players already in the locker room - the ones who were recruited with certain promises. On the other is the pressure to keep up in a rapidly evolving arms race.
Boyle’s approach? Be honest.
Be consistent. And don’t make promises you can’t keep.
“We don’t make a lot of promises when we recruit them,” he said. “I don’t promise starting positions.
I don’t promise minutes. They’ve got to come in and earn that.”
And when it comes to mid-year transfers - like Nnaji - Boyle has drawn a line. Not because he doesn’t recognize the talent, but because he’s made commitments to the players already in his program.
“If I had a chance to sign the kid that Baylor signed, I’m not saying I wouldn’t,” Boyle said. “But I don’t recruit mid-year transfers.
I’m not saying I would never do it. But if I did, I would be breaking my promise to the guys I recruited.”
That’s the core of Boyle’s philosophy - trust and accountability. He’s not going to bring in someone midseason if it means blindsiding the players who committed to Colorado under different expectations.
But come the offseason? That’s a different story.
“Am I going to recruit a guy next year if we have roster spots available that’s better than the guys we got? That’s my job,” Boyle said. “That’s all our jobs.”
As Colorado prepares to open Big 12 play at Arizona State, the spotlight may be on Baylor and Nnaji this week, but the bigger conversation is just beginning. College basketball is changing fast, and coaches like Boyle are trying to keep their programs - and their principles - intact in the middle of the storm.