INDIANAPOLIS –If there is anyone who can relate to new Kentucky recruit Enes Kanter, it is West Virginia freshman Deniz Kilicli.
Both are from Turkey.
Both played with professional teams in their home country.
And both came to the U.S. seeking a better life and the experience of NCAA basketball.
“I played with him two years ago. He’s a pretty good guy,” the 6-foot-9, 265-pound Kilicli said Friday at the Final Four.
“He’s good, a real good player. From high school to college basketball, it’s going to be hard for him. I don’t know how long it’s going to take but he’s a great player, a great person.”
The 6-9 Kanter verbally committed to Kentucky earlier this month. He is now at Stoneridge (Calif.) Prep, his third American high school this year.
Kanter initially committed to Washington, but then changed his mind.
Kanter grew up playing for Turkish club Fenerbahçe Ülker’s youth teams. Last fall he made his pro debut in the Turkish Basketball League and later played in the Euroleague.
Multiple sources said Kanter didn’t take any money for his appearances.
The NCAA currently prohibit players with professional backgrounds who haven’t been paid from competing on an amateur level in the U.S, but that could change if proposed legislation passes in August, according to this story in Omaha.com.
The Amateurism Committee’s bylaw drafted for the 2009-10 NCAA legislative cycle would “permit an individual prior to initial full-time collegiate enrollment to engage in outside competition with a professional athletics team without jeopardizing intercollegiate eligibility.”
“I don’t know if he played with pro players because I haven’t seen him play in two years,” Kilicli said of Kanter.
Like Kanter, Kilicli played for the Pertevniyal Istanbul Club team in Turkey because high schools there don’t offer prep basketball.
The NCAA then punished him by making him sit 20 games to start the season.
Kilicli says that punishment scared off European players from Serbia, Turkey and Germany from coming to the U.S.
“Lots of the European talent, they’re scared to come here after my suspension. Lots of guys in Serbia, lots of guys in Turkey, lots of the guys in Germany, after they heard that [about the suspension], they were like, ‘Oh, man, I can’t sit 20 games,'” Kilicli said
Kilicli says the new legislation could encourage other those players to come to the U.S. instead of remaining in Europe.
“Yeah, they will come here,” he said.
(Photo courtesy DraftExpress.com)
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