All of a sudden, players are coming to college basketball in reverse.
The 25-year old Kyree Walker is the latest to travel a path that is rather new in Division I hoops: He has already played professionally, but he never played in college, and now he wants to.
Walker played high school basketball against Anthony Edwards. He was in the same class as Jonathan Kuminga, the Class of 2020.
Back then, he was a three-star recruit out of Hillcrest Prep in Phoenix.
He ended up passing on his commitment to Arizona State to join the NBA G League, where he played for the Capital City Go-Go.
From there, he went to play professionally in Greece, then in Canada, then in Mongolia.
Now, Walker is seeking a D-I scholarship, and he has drawn interest from a ton of schools, reports college hoops insider Jeff Goodman:
Kyree Walker, 25, who has played in the G-League and professionally for the last 4-plus years, has drawn interest from Fresno State, Texas Tech, Louisville, Rutgers, Tennessee, Michigan State, Kansas, Maryland, FSU, Cal, UTEP, Missouri and Washington, his agent Chris Diaz told…
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) December 19, 2025
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A few other players have already traveled this path back to college basketball. The key in the NCAA's decision-making on this appears to be the actual money made by these players in their professional journeys. If they were just receiving money for "necessary" expenses, then it's not viewed as removing amateurism by the NCAA's updated standards.
Of course, college sports are much different than even five years ago. There are revenue sharing payments and NIL deals.
It makes sense why someone like Walker would want to show up and be a big man on campus. But it's certainly not the traditional student-athlete path.
Will this continue? If teams keep landing grown hoopers with professional experience and it works, then you can bet the lines will keep being pushed and blurred here.
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