{"id":703910,"date":"2026-04-07T19:19:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703910\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:19:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:19:28","slug":"2023-second-round-pick-plans-to-enter-college-basketball-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703910\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 second-round pick plans to enter college basketball transfer portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A controversial college basketball player<\/a> put his name in the transfer portal. Baylor forward James Nnaji plans to enter, according to Joe Tipton of On3<\/a>. The 7-foot, 250-pound center will look for a new home and has three more years of eligibility left, barring a redshirt year.<\/p>\n

Nnaji\u2019s background<\/p>\n

Nnaji\u2019s inclusion in college basketball is controversial, since he was drafted in the NBA. The Detroit Pistons selected him with the No. 31 pick in the 2023 NBA draft. His rights were traded to the Charlotte Hornets and the New York Knicks in the Karl Anthony Towns deal.<\/p>\n

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However, Nnaji still hadn\u2019t played college basketball or in the NBA. Before he was drafted, he played for FC Barcelona and bounced around in multiple leagues (Basquet Girona, Merkezefendi) from 2020-25. He enrolled with the Baylor Bears on Dec. 24, 2025.<\/p>\n

Nnaji\u2019s eligibility argument<\/p>\n

Since he had never played in an NBA game, never enrolled in a college, and was within five years of what would be his high school graduation, Nnaji got to come back and play for the Baylor Bears\u2019 men\u2019s team. As a freshman, he averaged just 1.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, 0.2 assists, and 18.2 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

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Several players from this past season faced the same eligibility case as Nnaji. Virginia\u2019s\u00a0Thijs De Ridder,\u00a0Ole Miss\u2019\u00a0Ilias Kamardine,\u00a0North Carolina\u2019s\u00a0Luka Bogavac,\u00a0Illinois\u2019\u00a0Mihailo Petrovic,\u00a0Louisville\u2019s\u00a0Sananda Fru\u00a0and\u00a0Texas A&M\u2019s\u00a0Rub\u00e9n Dominguez\u00a0were all international pros that went back to college basketball.<\/p>\n

The difference between Nnaji and those players is that none of them were drafted in the NBA. They could still sign as undrafted free agents with any NBA team.<\/p>\n

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Status of Baylor<\/p>\n

Baylor has had a decline since their national championship in the 2019-20 season. They fell in the Round of 32 six years in a row after that, but in the 2025-26 season, the team sputtered to a 17-17 record. They fell to Arizona State in the Big 12 tournament and lost in the College Basketball Crown semifinal to Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

The transfer portal for college basketball opened on April 7, 2026, and some big names have entered. Kansas\u2019 Flory Bidunga, Wake Forest\u2019s Juke Harris, and Wisconsin\u2019s John Blackwell are the top names available in the portal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controversial college basketball player put his name in the transfer portal. Baylor forward James Nnaji plans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[1616,88209,7,2399,473,217,188,2465,2811,23156,6982,563,1043,6,231,772,1544,191,2051,1774],"class_list":{"0":"post-703910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-2023-nba-draft","9":"tag-alejandra-foster-pavilion","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-baylor-bears","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-college-basketball","14":"tag-detroit-pistons","15":"tag-flory-bidunga","16":"tag-houston-cougars","17":"tag-james-nnaji","18":"tag-joe-tipton","19":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","20":"tag-michigan-wolverines","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-ncaa","23":"tag-ncaa-basketball","24":"tag-ncaab","25":"tag-new-york-knicks","26":"tag-transfer-portal","27":"tag-virginia-cavaliers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116365046260459557","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}