Florida men’s basketball will start the season without 20-year-old freshman [autotag]Urban Klavzar[/autotag], according to Swamp247.
Klavzar’s eligibility remains in question, and third-year Gators head coach Todd Golden addressed the hold-up last week.
“We’re working on it on a day-to-day basis and hoping for good news soon but nothing definitive,” Golden said. “We can’t play him yet but, again, my hope is that we’ll hear something in the next however-many-days until Monday with some good news. Listen, the guy deserves to play college basketball. That’s just how I feel.”
Although the specifics of the issue remain unknown, but Jacob Rudner of 247Sports notes that it could be linked to Klavzar’s time in the second division of the Spanish basketball league system.
NCAA rules say that players forfeit eligibility if they “have ever taken pay, or the promise of pay, for competing in that sport.”
Klavzar’s professional history was public when Florida added him to the roster as an international signee, and the program remains optimistic that he will be declared eligible for at least part of the season.
“He’s getting straight As right now here at Florida,” said Golden, “and I understand a lot of the rules and legislation that’s in place and the reason why it is but this guy deserves to play college athletics.
“There’s no benefit with him not being able to play for Florida. It’s not a disadvantage to somebody else. He’s done all the academic work to be admitted into a place like Florida and now I think he deserves the right to play.”
Klavzar is a pick-and-roll scorer who can shoot near 40% from three-point range and attack the basket. There are questions about his game translating from Euro ball to the SEC, which points to Golden’s argument of him deserving an opportunity to prove himself at this level.
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