How does the line go?

He played ’em like a Stradivarius?

Something like that.

I’m thinking about Milan Momcilovic (and his very adroit financial team).

By waiting until the last moment to report he shall return to college hoops, he shall be reaping the benefits of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

His ability to deposit a basketball through the netting in the basket from long range, combined with his perception of the situation shall make him a very wealthy college student.

It is said that the Universities of Kentucky, Arizona, St. John’s and Louisville are those competing for his talents.

One senses that the NIL offers have increased by the day.

Let me be very clear. I would love for him to be wearing a University of Louisville uniform next season.

But how much is he really worth?

I daresay not as much as he is going to get.

The latest rumor and innuendo before he announced his draft withdrawal decision was the ticket would cost, ahem, $7 million.

Playing about 30 minutes a game, he averaged just under 4 made triples last season at Iowa State, connecting on an almost incomprehensible 49% of his attempts.

He can toss the biscuit in the basket. He is not regarded as anything exceptional in any other area of the game. He’s a role player, though one of significance in today’s game.

So, just for shits and giggles, and because I am a hopelessly addicted unrecovered hoopaholic, I pulled up a calculator.

Let’s say that $7 mill number is hyperbole, a bit of frantic inflation.

Let’s say he generates an NIL deal of $6 mill, a smidge ($1,000,000) more than the generally regarded upper limit this cycle.

And, more a focus of an offense wherever he lands, he drains 5 treys a tilt. Over, for example’s sake, 34 games. That’s 170 made threeballs.

$6,000,000 divided by 170 = $35,294.12. Per make.

Gulp.

We’ll soon find out which institution of higher learning considers it a beneficial investment.

 * * * * *

Obsessing with the draft withdrawal tracker as I sadly have been, even after the Flory Bidunga decision — Get a life, Seedy — there’s been an outlier whose name continued on the still in the draft list.

Even through to this Thursday morning, when the deadline passed.

Gabe Dynes.

I thought it odd.

To say the least.

Conjuring up conceivable reasons why he was in the draft at all, and still in the draft now.

So, I checked in with Dana Brown, U of L basketball SID about his status.

“Gabe is coming to campus and will play for Louisville.”

Not really obsessing about MMom though I’d love to have him in red & black, I’ve now got to stir up some other Card hoops issue to stress about.

Wishful thinking. Power forward from Eastern Europe??? An Aussie marksman???

  * * * * *

I’ve stated it often.

How grateful I am, all things considered, that Pat Kelsey is the coach of the University of Louisville Cardinals.

That said, I do still lament how very very very close U of L came to naming Dusty May as coach.

He would appear to be the next great one.

He’s won a title already just a short while into his stint at the upper echelon of the sport.

And obviously thinks outside the box. Which is one of his most positive attributes.

Which I thought of this morning, when reading an article about how he’s hired as assistant an Israeli who was coaching in Japan, whom he’d never met, and who has never coached in the States.

Mody Maor.

Because two years ago, on a coaching podcast, he heard Maor talking about his strategies for screening angles in transition.

That’s how winning hoops is fashioned.

— c d kaplan