The ongoing Athletics/Academics issue continued, as UK Athletics released a story that detailed how UK Athletics is doing more than most schools in terms of helping out its university. The story comes in the wake of faculty calling for the athletic department to give more to the university fund. On a related note, the proposal to take out a loan from the university was stopped. Now, private funds will finance the potential Commonwealth renovations.

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This may be the last year of college basketball players ‘testing the waters.’

A new NCAA rule has moved the withdrawal date, currently set at May 8, until mid-April (the first day of the spring signing period, to be exact). UPDATE: Jeff Goodman just tweeted that April 10 will be the new date.

The rule hurts players, as it essentially eliminates the ability to declare for a draft but not hire an agent, to get feedback on their potential NBA standing.

The rule was designed to help coaches be able to replace underclassmen who leave early. Since players will have to be committed one or the other by spring signing day, rosters will be set in terms of who is leaving and returning. “NBA camps have barely begun and teams haven’t starting holding individual workouts,” the article said.

For perspective, the three UK players who declared did so on April 20 this year. None have hired an agent yet.

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UK basketball will put on a “Kentucky Combine,” which is a private workout for the potentially NBA-bound Cats. The Combine will be May 2-3 (next Monday/Tuesday) at the Joe Craft Center, with all NBA teams invited to watch Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, DeAndre Liggins, Enes Kanter and Josh Harrellson work out. Calipari outlined three main reasons for putting on the Combine:

1. NBA teams are prohibited from working out or having contact with any players until after the Declared List is released, which happened on April 28.

2. This means players have only just over a week in which to meet with and workout for teams before an ultimate decision must be made.

3. The players are not allowed to miss class during the week to travel to workouts or to visit with teams.

The Combine will give them a chance to get evaluated by NBA personnel and gather more information as the May 8 deadline to withdraw from the NBA Draft approaches. And, its another example of UK being a “players-first” program.