Calipari Quote About New NCAA Rule Makes Sense…But Could Invariably Be Misinterpreted

The NCAA has established a new rule regarding the draft deadline. And it's a good one. They've simply pushed back the date by which basketball players have to take their name out of the draft.

Here's why this is great.

Now, players can participate in the pre-draft combine--which precedes the new deadline by 10 days--and get evaluated by the experts whose information will be passed on to the NBA bigwigs.

And players invited to the combine can now work with their coaches during this period up to 20 hours a week.

It's the best thing, really, for the kids.

Of course, those who declare still can't hire an agent and expect to pull out of the draft. But now they'll be able to get valuable information and make better decisions about their futures.

About the new rule, UK coach John Calipari--in an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal--said this:

“Well we were behind it. There was a group of us that just said, look, we got to do right by these kids, give 'em an opportunity to be in a combine that's not controlled by college basketball. It's controlled by the NBA. Let them get the right information, the real information, from the NBA, and then if they choose to come back, let them come back. So what will happen is, just about every player on your team should declare for the draft to see if they get invited to the combine. Now, they don't get invited to the combine … probably you're not getting drafted. Maybe.”

I couldn't agree more with any of that.

But here's the part that, if I know Calipari's critics, could get really skewed out of whack:

"...just about every player on your team should declare for the draft..."

We live in a world where taking words and phrases out of context and forming them into whatever one wishes has become more common.

Especially with a polarizing figure like John Calipari.

But, hey, he's right.

This will give EVERY player on a team the opportunity to see what his chances would be.

How many times do we see kids declare early then go undrafted because they got bad information and/or were forced to make such an important decision too early?

The new rule should eliminate that from every happening again.

SHOULD...