LaMelo Ball made waves on Sunday’s episode of Ball in the Family where he revealed both USC and Kansas had been in contact with him about playing college ball. Ball said he was “for sure” playing college ball, though the recorded conversation with his brother, Lonzo, and his manager Darren Moore came back in November.
While little has been said on the USC connection since Sunday’s episode, the Kansas connection may no longer be. KUSports.com’s Matt Tait reports that the Jayhawks are not recruiting Ball and never were.
Sources within the KU basketball program told me Wednesday night that the Jayhawks were not recruiting Lonzo Ball’s youngest brother nor had they ever had contact with LaMelo or his family about recruiting him to play at Kansas.
The report certainly comes across as a much more straightforward account of things than Ball’s reported phone call with the Jayhawks.
Tait furthered his adamancy that Ball would not play at Kansas later on in the piece.
But February, November, 2018, 2019; it doesn’t matter. Kansas has never contacted LaMelo ball about playing for the Jayhawks, and even if he does wind up going to college — a feat that would require some creative work-arounds in terms of his amateur status and NCAA eligibility — it will not be at KU.
Obviously, no one knows what Ball’s future may hold. The outlook for him playing a game for the NCAA is remarkably bleak. But Ball is a cash cow and NCAA does like making money over anything else. It’s a remote possibility but if NCAA gets some dollar signs on the mind, then putting Ball on a high-profile Division I program would be exactly what the doctor ordered.
All that being said, the hurdles necessary for the Ball family to clear would be far too many and it does seem very unlikely he ever suits up for a college that isn’t a junior college.
Only time will tell. The only thing we do know is no one knows anything.
