Johnny Juzang got his NCAA transfer waiver. Analyst explains what it means for Olivier Sarr.
The news Wednesday that former Kentucky basketball player Johnny Juzang had received a waiver from the NCAA to play immediately at UCLA this coming season was met with optimism that it might be a good sign for the Wildcats’ own transfer situation.
Some UK fans were quick to assume that if Juzang was able to get a transfer waiver to play right away at his new school, the same outcome should be on the horizon for Olivier Sarr, who is attempting to play for the Cats in the 2020-21 season after leaving Wake Forest.
The two cases, however, are very different.
“They are far from similar,” Rivals.com national analyst Corey Evans told the Herald-Leader on Thursday.
Though the NCAA recently tabled a vote on allowing players to transfer one time without the penalty of sitting out — ending Sarr’s hope for an automatic, positive conclusion to his transfer situation — the overseeing body has also made it quite clear that they will be lenient with players who are transferring closer to home amid the ongoing uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.
Juzang, who was a freshman at Kentucky this past season, is from the Los Angeles area, so it was no surprise that the NCAA approved his waiver to play for UCLA next season. Sarr, a native of France, is attempting to go from the state of North Carolina to Kentucky, so the NCAA’s implied exception for players moving to be closer to their families doesn’t apply in his case.
Evans pointed out that Juzang and his family talked about the impact COVID-19 had on his decision from the onset of the transfer process. Sarr, meanwhile, told ESPN in multiple interviews that he was leaving Wake Forest for basketball-related reasons.
“Johnny didn’t really talk a whole lot about basketball when he transferred,” Evans said. “Johnny discussed moving closer to home. Putting that together with the coronavirus, it makes too much sense (that he would get a waiver).
“With Olivier, that’s like comparing apples and oranges. He left, clearly, for basketball purposes. So comparing the two is far from equal.”
Sarr’s case, as far as what’s been made public, hinges on the untimely firing of Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning, who had convinced the 21-year-old center to bypass the opportunity to put his name in this year’s NBA Draft and instead return to college for one more season of development under Manning, a former No. 1 draft pick and NBA All-Star.
Sarr says he followed that advice, and then Wake Forest fired Manning on the day before the draft deadline. He claims that didn’t give him enough time to make an informed decision on whether or not to enter his name in the draft.
While that is a unique circumstance, the NCAA has not historically granted players a transfer waiver simply because of a coaching change. Some players who have left due to coaching changes have received waivers in the past, but those cases have included additional circumstances (often a player returning closer to home or a player being denied a realistic opportunity to play for his school’s new coach).
Sarr, who is considered the No. 1 transfer in the country, doesn’t meet either of those criteria. He averaged 13.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game this past season and has said that if he doesn’t get approval from the NCAA to play in 2020-21, he will explore professional possibilities rather than sit out a year at Kentucky.
Good news for Sarr, Kentucky?
Evans did have some positive insight on Sarr’s situation, and — just because his case is much different than Juzang’s — there could be a sign there that bodes well for Kentucky.
“I was surprised by how quick that waiver went through,” Evans said. “That’s the one promising thing is that we have never seen waivers go through this early in the process, so that, to me, is saying that the NCAA is being serious about speeding this process up.
“And I just think that Kentucky wants transparency. They just need to know if Olivier is going to be eligible or not. And, as we’ve talked in the past, sometimes we don’t figure that out until, literally, after the college season begins. So, it’s May and you’re already figuring out who’s going to be eligible for the upcoming season. That’s definitely a plus. If Olivier is not ruled eligible, then Kentucky understands what they’re up against. In May (or June), not in November or December.”
A quick resolution, obviously, would allow UK to set its roster for next season and — if Sarr is not ruled eligible to play right away — would give the Cats more of an opportunity to seek other options to shore up the 2020-21 frontcourt.
The Herald-Leader was told on May 7 — the day after Sarr announced his transfer to Kentucky — that UK had already begun preparing his transfer waiver request to the NCAA. A UK spokesman could not confirm Thursday that the request has been completed and sent to the NCAA, saying the school would not comment on “any ongoing items with the NCAA.”
An NCAA spokeswoman confirmed to the Herald-Leader this spring that such waiver requests usually get a ruling about three weeks after they are received, though she noted that all cases are different and some could last longer than that. There is also an appeals process for transfer waivers that are denied initially.
Evans had an optimistic prediction for Kentucky fans hoping to see Sarr suit up for the Cats this season.
“I think he gets the waiver,” he said. “I think he’s going to have Danny Manning, who’s going to be a benefactor for Kentucky. I think he’s going to help in his favor. I think the timing really works in his favor, with the draft process and the firing.
“My guess — with all that’s going on in this world right now, and then you throw in the Wake Forest situation with Danny being relieved of his duties, the draft process timing — I think he’s going to get that waiver. But that’s an educated guess, at best. Because there’s no rhyme or reason to what they do. There really isn’t.”
Manning, it should be pointed out, has had a relationship with John Calipari for decades. Calipari was an assistant at Kansas — his first college coaching job — during Manning’s freshman season there. More recently, Calipari picked Manning to be one of his assistant coaches on the USA Basketball U19 team that competed in the FIBA World Cup in 2017.
The former Wake Forest coach is expected to help Sarr’s attempt at a transfer waiver. New Wake head coach Steve Forbes is also expected to be supportive of Sarr’s request. But, as Evans pointed out, it’s often difficult to handicap what the NCAA will do in such cases.
“So, buckle up,” he said. “Until that waiver is received, it’s going to be a little suspenseful.”
