LAS VEGAS — Moe Odum signed a professional basketball contract in Kosovo this summer. Now he is headed to San Jose State, with an expected return to college basketball in December. AJ Storr is at UNLV, still waiting for permission to play.
Try explaining that to somebody who just wants to watch a basketball game.
Odum has protection through a California court case. The order Storr relied on was stayed, and his attempt to get another one in Texas has not gotten him back on the floor. The NCAA has to follow those orders.
But I have a hard time looking at where this has left college basketball and calling it a reasonable way to decide who gets a fifth season.
Storr would start for UNLV. He led Ole Miss with 15.5 points per game last season, and putting him alongside Sebastian Mack would give Josh Pastner two proven scorers in his backcourt. The Rebels have already played three exhibitions and their opener without getting to see how that works.
Mack scored 31 points in Tuesday’s 89-77 win over Northern Arizona. Imagine an opponent trying to keep him from getting downhill while also accounting for Storr. Pastner could move either one off the ball, make a defense choose where to send help and have another scorer available when the first action breaks down. Those are possibilities worth exploring over a preseason.
Instead, UNLV is into its schedule without knowing whether that backcourt will ever play together.
The Athletic’s Tobias Bass reported Odum’s transfer Tuesday, with Dec. 18 against Stanford as his expected debut. San Jose State is getting a guard who averaged 16.4 points and 5.7 assists at Arizona State last season. That is a substantial addition, and I would be excited about it if I were a Spartans fan.
Getting him back to college basketball has taken some doing. Arizona Sports reported that Odum signed with KB Trepça in Kosovo. Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini said the Big 12’s policy against bringing back players who had signed professional contracts stood in the way of his return to the Sun Devils.
Odum found another school. He also has the court protection Storr currently lacks.
I have no problem with San Jose State taking him, or with Odum trying to play another season. I do have a problem with a system that makes finding the right court so consequential to a college basketball career.
UNLV does not even have to look outside its own athletic department to see the difference. Marley Washenitz, another Arizona State transfer, was cleared through the California case that includes Odum, as the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The Lady Rebels can use her. Pastner cannot use Storr.
That should put away any suggestion that this is about the NCAA having it out for UNLV.
Storr had court protection when UNLV announced his signing in August. The Tennessee injunction on which he relied was later stayed. In October, Judge Ryan Luna indicated he would deny emergency orders to players seeking relief in Waco after already pursuing similar requests in other states.
Pastner had expected Storr back sooner.
“I thought he was going to be able to play versus Missouri,” he said Monday.
UNLV recruited Storr knowing his eligibility depended on litigation. The Rebels took that risk, and it is fair to hold them to it. No one guaranteed Pastner a season with him.
The NCAA says its cutoff protects roster stability. This is a strange version of stability.
The association changed its rules this summer to generally allow qualifying athletes to compete throughout a five-year window tied to age and college enrollment. Athletes who still had eligibility could receive the more favorable result under the old rules or the new ones. Those who exhausted their eligibility in 2025-26 were left out.
Storr played four seasons, one each at St. John’s, Wisconsin, Kansas and Ole Miss. He is among the players challenging that exclusion.
The NCAA has a legitimate concern here. Schools had made roster and financial commitments, and players had chosen where to enroll or transfer. NCAA official Jennifer Henderson explained in a sworn statement summarized in a Rhode Island court decision that reopening eligibility could displace younger players and disrupt those plans.
An Ohio appeals court also made a point that UNLV fans should acknowledge: An open roster spot does not mean nobody gets hurt. A player can keep his scholarship and lose his minutes.
Storr would take somebody’s minutes. Probably quite a few of them. If a younger Rebel came to UNLV expecting a larger role, Storr’s clearance could change his season.
I still favor giving Storr the chance to play. Fifth-year players who obtain court orders are already changing rosters and competing for those minutes. Keeping him out will not take Odum off San Jose State’s roster or Washenitz off UNLV’s. It leaves another player waiting while the season moves on without him.
I would extend the new rules to athletes in Storr’s position who meet the age, enrollment and other requirements, with schools required to honor their existing roster and financial commitments. That would not protect everyone’s playing time. Neither does the arrangement college basketball is living with now.
And if Odum helps San Jose State beat UNLV, I will still want him eligible. This argument has to hold up when the other team benefits.
Pastner should be finding out which combinations work with Storr, how he and Mack share the offense and whether he trusts them together to finish a close game. There would be plenty to argue about. UNLV fans have never needed much help with that.
Give them a chance to argue about how Storr played.
