[ad_1]
To the shock of some, Lengthy Seaside State freshman star Alex Nikolov turned skilled on Friday by signing with Lube Volleyball in Italy, forgoing his closing three years of collegiate volleyball.
Nikolov served as arguably the largest impediment of the College of Hawaii males’s nationwide championship season in 2022, averaging slightly below 20 kills per match in opposition to the Rainbow Warriors.
All the newest sports activities information from Hawaii’s sports station
“There have been occasions when he took over the match every time Hawaii and Lengthy Seaside performed,” Spectrum volleyball analyst Ryan Kalei Tsuji advised KHON2. “I believe it’s nice information for the College of Hawaii and College of Hawaii followers when the perfect participant out of your largest rival decides to not come again. I believe it’s somewhat disappointing as a result of he was a enjoyable participant to observe. There was little doubt that folks thought he was gonna go away early. I don’t suppose folks thought he was gonna go away after his first yr simply due to the cash that was offered to him. However general, I believe the College of Hawaii advantages so much from this. They’ve everybody returning.”
No one doubted {that a} promising skilled profession was forward for Nikolov, the one participant in NCAA Division I males’s volleyball historical past to win AVCA Nationwide Participant of the 12 months as a freshman. However turning skilled after one yr has little priority in males’s collegiate volleyball. LBSU legends TJ DeFalco and Josh Tuaniga, the 2 most up-to-date gamers from The Seaside to win nationwide Participant of the 12 months, each completed their full school careers in 2019 earlier than transferring on to profitable professional alternatives.
It has been barely over a yr since laws was handed to permit NCAA athletes to have the ability to revenue off of their Title, Picture and Likeness (NIL). One of many uncommon exceptions is worldwide gamers similar to Nikolov.
At Hawaii, its present dynasty below head coach Charlie Wade and assistant Milan Zarkovic has been buoyed by an inflow of worldwide expertise. Jakob Thelle, Dimitrios Mouchlias, Filip Humler, Guilherme Voss and Spyros Chakas had been all impression gamers on the 2022 championship workforce, and all are anticipated to return for the 2023 season. None graduated from excessive colleges in America.
Time will inform whether or not Nikolov blazed a path for worldwide gamers to return after him or if he’s a uncommon case of a generational participant who selected to money in on a professional payday that matches his expertise.
“I don’t suppose we’ll see that a lot of an impression from this that there could also be a couple of gamers down the road (who go away college early),” Tsuji mentioned. “Nikolov is a participant that obtained a fairly good paycheck from this and determined to depart. I simply don’t suppose there’s sufficient cash within the NIL proper now for males’s volleyball particularly to be a call maker as as to whether a few of these athletes ought to keep or go. When skilled cash is available in, if that participant needs it, there’s no manner that NIL will compete with that, so I don’t actually see that occuring all too usually.
“Having mentioned that, I believe that it sparks a dialog about how these overseas athletes and gamers from all sports activities ought to be given a chance to earn a living by NIL, and I believe that’s laws that must be mentioned on a nationwide degree to seek out methods to permit these overseas athletes to additionally, in keeping with their American teammates, be capable of earn a living.”
[ad_2]
Source link