Todd Golden takes shot at Will Wade’s NBA recruiting at LSU originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Will Wade has caught the attention of many around college basketball. After having a rough transition period with no players left on the LSU Tigers basketball roster, he had to start pulling in talent from somewhere.

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However, there weren’t many who expected it would come from the NBA. One of those to question Wade’s recruiting tactics was Todd Golden. The Florida Gators basketball coach made an appearance on the Field of 68 Podcast with Jeff Goodman and aired out his thoughts on what’s happening in Baton Rouge.

“When you’re bringing in 25, 26-year-olds that have played. First of all, they’ve been drafted and then played professionally for an extended period of time,” Golden said. “That’s not what college athletics is supposed to be.”

Golden understands why NBA bounce-back players are trying to be eligible with the fruitful NIL offerings. But this isn’t a pay-for-play model for those who’ve already been drafted into the league.

“I know a lot of it has changed,” Golden added. “You know, and then the financial pieces are as important and influential as ever. The players are now getting a significant piece of the pie, which they rightfully deserve, but again, this is not what college basketball is supposed to be.”

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Wade is one of the first to test the waters to see how the NCAA rules on former players coming back to college after going to the NBA. Golden ultimately sees this all as the right step towards a resolution.

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“I do believe this will be a net positive, because we’re going to have to see some action. We’re going to have to see if guys like this are going to get cleared or not,” Golden said. “I don’t think they have a great chance to, but you never know. And maybe Will (Wade) knows more than both of us do.”

Wade will get a clear indication of how the rest of the Southeastern Conference feels about this latest haul. SEC meetings are scheduled to start next week.

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