College Basketball’s Former Pros Are Off to Extremely Slow Starts 

Theirry Darlan and James Nnaji set college basketball on fire when the former pros signed with college teams.

“Shame on the NCAA,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said when Nnaji committed to Baylor in December. 

But for all of the complaints that Darlan and Nnaji’s pledges drew from college coaches, neither player’s production has indicated that their moves were anything seismic. 

Darlan, who joined Santa Clara in September, is averaging 6.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game as a reserve on 37% shooting, and just a 32% clip from 3-point range. Santa Clara is 14–5 this season and off to a 5–1 start in West Coast Conference play. The 21-year-old averaged 10.9 points and six rebounds per game on 45% shooting in the G League a year ago, but hasn’t seen the success translate. 

Nnaji’s sample size is smaller, but even worse. In three games, the 7-foot Nigerian center is averaging 3.3 points while playing roughly 16 minutes per game through three games since signing with the Bears in December. Nnaji was the 31st overall pick by the Pistons in the 2023 NBA draft; the Knicks have held his draft rights while he played professionally in Spain and Turkey.

Now it’s on London Johnson, Darlan’s former G League Ignite teammate, to buck the trend. Louisville—No. 20 in the latest AP poll—decided to burn his redshirt over the weekend. 

Johnson has two years of eligibility and was active on Saturday for the team’s win against Boston College after a wave of injuries wiped out the roster. 

Louisville coach Pat Kelsey told reporters on Saturday that the idea was Johnson’s. The team is without Mikel Brown—a projected lottery pick in June’s draft—who has missed the past six games due to a back injury. Brown’s injury led Johnson to recently tell Kelsey that “I think I can help us.” 

“I give the kid a lot of credit for his willingness to do it,” Kelsey said to reporters. “It’s going to be really good to have that depth.”

Johnson’s debut will come less than two weeks after Nnaji appeared in his first game since returning to college years after being drafted.. 

Before Nnaji’s first game against TCU on Jan. 3, Baylor coach Scott Drew tried to lower expectations for his newest addition. 

“Well, I can tell you that he hadn’t played five-on-five since summer and was rehabbing an injury,” Drew said of Nnaji. “So, physically, it’s going to take a little time to get caught up, and then with basketball, offense, defense, all that stuff, what I’d love to see is a triple-double.

“But let’s just start with being able to be on the court and help us. We’d like to try to put him out there, see what he can do, and then go accordingly. It might be two minutes, four minutes, 10 minutes, 12 minutes, who knows? But we’d like to give him a chance.

Kelsey is already limiting expectations for Johnson, too. He told reporters that Johnson didn’t play on Saturday because it was “too soon.” He said Johnson told him “my head’s spinning” after a pregame film session as he tries to get up to speed on the Cardinals’ playbook. 

“We tried to go warp speed to get the kid ready,” Kelsey said, “but this is college stinking basketball at the Power (Four) level. His mentality for the last month was, ‘I’m redshirting; I’m lifting; I’m getting my body right; scout team; running the other team’s stuff.’ … It just kind of went to, ‘Deep breath—slow down. Let’s build this thing a little bit. Let’s get to practice; let’s ramp you up—don’t just throw (you) out to the wolves.’”