Former UCLA standout Amari Bailey said he is attempting to become the first basketball player to return to college after playing in NBA games.

Bailey, 21, has hired an agent and a lawyer to prepare to fight for NCAA eligibility with hopes to join a college team and play one more season.

He said he started to explore a return to college earnestly in 2025 but has wondered whether there was a way back to the NCAA since the day he was drafted in 2023. He said he made some mistakes as an 18-year-old freshman and left UCLA with “a lot to prove left on the table.”

“Right now I’d be a senior in college,” Bailey told ESPN. “I’m not trying to be 27 years old playing college athletics. No shade to the guys that do; that’s their journey. But I went to go play professionally and learned a lot, went through a lot. So, like, why not me?”

The 6-foot-3 guard played one season at UCLA in 2022-23 before entering the 2023 NBA draft, where he was selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the second round. He played in 10 games for the Hornets during his rookie season on a two-way contract and spent two years in the G League before being cut over the summer.

His effort will be another substantial legal test for the NCAA’s ability to enforce rules that decide who can play college sports during an era when waivers and lawsuits have steadily eroded a ban on professional players joining NCAA rosters.

NCAA president Charlie Baker said in December that the association would not grant eligibility to any player who has signed an NBA contract. However, Alabama forward Charles Bediako — who also played in the G League on a two-way NBA contract — tested the NCAA’s rules in state court and won an injunction that has allowed him to play for the Crimson Tide in recent games.

“The NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any players who have signed an NBA contract,” NCAA senior vice president of external affairs Tim Buckley said when asked about Bailey’s plan to return. “Congress can strengthen NCAA rules so professional athletes cannot sue their way back to competing against college students.”

Bediako argued in court documents that the NCAA has been “selective and inconsistent” in enforcing its eligibility rules. His lawyers cited a recent NCAA decision to allow James Nnaji, a 2023 NBA draft pick who played professionally in Europe rather than signing with an NBA team, to suit up for Baylor.

Bailey was selected 10 picks after Nnaji in the same draft and signed the same type of contract as Bediako. Bailey told ESPN that playing a few minutes in a small number of NBA games late in his rookie season isn’t a good reason to treat him differently than those players.

“You’ve got a college-aged kid who wants to go to college, and you’ve got a system that says, ‘Too bad, you’ve gone to a different league so you’re out forever,'” said Elliot Abrams, Bailey’s attorney. “I don’t see any real justification for it.”

Abrams helped former North Carolina football player Tez Walker restore his NCAA eligibility in a pivotal 2023 decision and said he has since worked with numerous other college athletes to help navigate the waiver process. NCAA rules allow athletes to play four full seasons during a five-year period that starts when they first enroll in college. Bailey would have one year remaining in that five-year window for the 2026-27 season.

The NCAA, which is fighting to overturn the Bediako court decision, prohibits anyone who has signed a professional contract from playing college sports unless the money they are making from their pro team covers only “actual and necessary expenses,” such as food, rent, health care and training costs associated with playing their sport.

“It’s not a stunt. I’m really serious about going back. I just want to improve my game, change the perception of me and just show that I can win.”

Amari Bailey

NCAA members adopted the “actual and necessary expenses” exception in 2010 as schools began increasingly recruiting players from overseas. The new rule required the NCAA to handle players on a case-by-case basis, and schools have steadily pushed the waiver limits, from teenage European league players to older, higher-paid players in those leagues and then to the G League. The issue has become more pronounced in the past couple of years as schools started paying players directly and the money athletes can make in the NCAA has started to outpace what they can earn in professional leagues.

The association initially changed the rules to accommodate a European system that places young players who make only enough to cover their living expenses alongside highly paid professionals within the same club.

Baker said in a statement earlier this month that these lawsuits ultimately take away opportunities from high school players, and veteran coaches have loudly opposed the lack of a clear standard for fear that it will lead to an unfettered two-way street between the NBA and college.

“A judge ordering the NCAA to let a former NBA player take the court Saturday against actual college student-athletes is exactly why Congress must step in and empower college sports to enforce our eligibility rules,” Baker said shortly after Bediako was granted a chance to play for Alabama.

Bailey said he thinks most college basketball prospects want to compete for spots with the best players in their age group regardless of where they have played in the past. He also said that he thinks the five-year limit is fair but that perhaps it would be more realistic to prohibit players who signed a full NBA contract or first-round draft picks.

Bailey’s only professional contract was worth $565,000, he said. He argues that many starters for top-level college teams are making similar amounts of money, if not more.

He said he has been training twice per day at home in Southern California and plans to begin speaking with schools in the near future about joining their roster for next season. He said he doesn’t have a specific team in mind but is looking for a place where he can prove that he can be a leader, run an offense at point guard and carry a team to the Final Four.

“It’s not a stunt,” Bailey said. “I’m really serious about going back. I just want to improve my game, change the perception of me and just show that I can win.”

His new team would have to petition the NCAA for a waiver to allow him to play. If the NCAA denies the waiver request, Bailey and his attorney could file a lawsuit in state or federal court to challenge the decision.

Bailey, who appeared in a reality television show about basketball moms in his early teens before moving to Los Angeles to play on the same high school team as Bronny James and other future NBA players, said he was not concerned about the criticism he might receive for his push to go back to school.

“I feel like I’ve dealt with a lot, and this wouldn’t be anything different,” he said.

Abbey Murphy started off 2026 with a pop — and she knew exactly what she was doing.

In an early January showdown between Murphy’s No. 3 ranked Minnesota and No. 12 Minnesota State, the senior captain carried the puck through the neutral zone late in the first period and then decided to dazzle.

“Most people would never even think about doing that,” Minnesota coach Brad Frost said. “Or have the courage to try.”

Murphy flipped the puck into the air and knocked it down between a defender’s legs. It was a move she saw on social media a few weeks back from Michigan State forward Ryker Lee, a Nashville Predators prospect. Lee and Murphy are summer training buddies in Chicago.

Lee pulled off the move and managed to get a shot off, which was saved by the goalie. When Murphy regained control of the puck, she dished it to freshman Bella Fanale for the easy tap-in.

Murphy’s highlight assist went viral. ESPN’s John Buccigross called it “the greatest assist of all time.”

It’s called the greatest assist of all time. Abbey Murphy. 28 goals and 50 points leads the nation. #cawlidgehawkey 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/GnIJzHnHTW

— BucciOT.Com (@Buccigross) January 11, 2026

“Ridiculous,” said her Team USA linemate Taylor Heise, the 2024 PWHL playoff MVP. “That will be called the Murphy for literally the end of time.”

Murphy would have been a top pick in the 2025 PWHL draft but returned to Minnesota for a chance to win a national championship. Frost gives his 23-year-old captain a lot of freedom on the ice; this is how she chooses to use it.

“To see women’s hockey get that recognition it deserves, obviously is a main reason why I try to do that kind of stuff,” Murphy said. “Just to be different and shine on a different stage.”

Murphy is projected as one of Team USA’s biggest breakout stars at this year’s Olympics. She is a hockey unicorn.

“She calls herself the Brad Marchand of women’s hockey, but I think she’s more than that,” said Heise, the star forward for the PWHL’s Minnesota Fleet. “She’s a dynamic forward who can go scrummy into corners but also can toe drag you and make you look like a fool.”

When she left for Milan, Murphy led the NCAA in goals (36 in 26 games) as well as penalties (23).

“Me being a coach here for 26 years, I don’t know of any other player like Murph,” Frost said. “I’ve kind of used the [Matthew] Tkachuk or Marchand comparison, but I think that’s doing a disservice to Murph. She has the skill of a Connor McDavid and a chip similar to Marchand.”

Adds Team USA coach John Wroblewski: “There’s always that fine line with a player that plays the way that she does, and I’m truly amazed at how she’s mastered it. I’ve never seen that combination.”

At 5-foot-5 and 145 pounds, the Chicago-area native is a lethal blend of skill, confidence and physicality. Bodychecking is illegal in college or international women’s hockey, but organic body contact happens. While Murphy pushes the boundaries, sometimes her intensity is too much at that level.

According to her teammates and coaches, referees sometimes like to make an example of Murphy. She is, after all, the player who dared to take a slap shot into an empty net last April.

“A lot of times as an agitator, it takes a really long time to be a consistent pest for the opposition,” Wroblewski said. “And then, the referees then become aware of it, and they try to take an agenda into their hands too and try to nullify the pest. They have to gain the respect of the referees, and they have to be able to solidify it with the way that they play.”

Murphy’s play should say it all. She and Heise were Team USA’s most dynamic duo in the four-game Rivalry Series sweep over Canada, with Murphy scoring five goals. That includes the first American hat trick against Canada since Hilary Knight at the 2023 World Championships.

But Murphy is also the type of player who likes to chirp to engage deeper in the game. Similar to the elite professional pests, like Abby Roque or Matthew Tkachuk, Murphy has been known to escalate things.

“Other teams have at least one or two people on their team that are told that you have to rattle Abbey. That’s what it is,” Heise said. “But if you go at her, it’s all hands on deck. You better hope that your mom, your sister, whoever she knows about you, you’re done.”

There was a time Wroblewski worried Murphy wouldn’t be able to dial things back. When he took over the program following the 2022 Olympics, the Americans had a tryout camp in Buffalo in August for the upcoming Worlds.

“You want to talk about toeing the line? She was so far over the line that I was like we can’t bring this,” Wroblewski said. “Her intensity was so heavy. I didn’t know if she was going to hurt one of yours or the opponent. As a new coach I was like, we can’t start the new squad with this type of play.”

Murphy was one of two teenagers on the 2022 Olympic roster that won silver. Now she was being left at home. Wroblewski and the coaching staff brought her back for the following Rivalry Series.

“Slowly and surely you get to understand the person behind all of this, and that’s when things totally change,” Wroblewski said. “She is fun to be around. She’s cool yet she’s got a degree of intensity, but honestly much more, laid back and chill. So considerate. It’s unbelievable that when she puts those skates and helmet on, she’s a different person.”

Said Heise: “I think people sometimes miss out on who she is, and that’s actually a very respectful human. It’s always yes ma’am and thank you. I want to make it known she will do anything for you. She is from a family where family is everything.”

Murphy grew up in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. The values came from her dad, Ed, a United States Marine, and her mom, Lynne, a trauma nurse and former college softball player. Murphy has two older brothers. One played water polo and football, the other was a wrestler. Nobody in the family played hockey.

But Murphy once saw a neighbor playing in his backyard and wanted to try. “A couple days later, my dad knocked on their house and was like, ‘You’re going to waste me so much money,'” Murphy laughs.

When she was 15, Murphy’s dad gave her coach permission to give her the business if she took undisciplined penalties. As she ascended in the sport, so did her reputation.

“Playing college hockey, you can get into the heads of other people. And I became a very hated player very quickly,” Murphy said. “Sometimes I took it too far, absolutely. But I’d have Frosty there to yell at me or sit me if he had to. I mean, it was needed.”

The biggest difference in women’s hockey since the last Olympics is the emergence of the PWHL. No longer do the Americans or Canadians have to centralize for training camps ahead of the game; everyone either plays in college hockey or the even more competitive PWHL, meaning they’re entering these Games in top form. Jayna Hefford, the PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations and Hockey Hall of Famer, predicted an Olympic tournament with unprecedented physicality, speed and skill.

“The game has been elevated since four years ago,” Hefford said. “And it’s going to be noticeable.”

There’s also a new wrinkle in the Olympics: The next generation of stars have built brands that connect fans before they become professionals. Murphy is in the mix for the top pick of this year’s PWHL draft depending on who selects No. 1. But it’s an absolutely stacked class, and Team USA teammates Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards will make equal cases.

Murphy’s greatest gift is her complexity. She is the alpha superstar that’s dribbling pucks in the air for viral highlights, and also the prototypical hockey player who went out of her way in every interview to credit her teammate who actually scored. “If Bella Fanale didn’t tap that in backdoor, then it’s not really anything,” she said.

Murphy, at 23, is a superstar who knows who she is.

“I’m someone who likes to play with speed and a lot of tenacity and love to make plays and obviously score goals and stuff like that. And it’s a huge part of my game,” Murphy said. “But obviously you hear the other side, kind of that annoying agitator on the ice who honestly just does whatever it takes to win. That’s my game.”