Babacar Sane can play for St. John's when season opens after judge rules on temporary restraining order
Babacar Sane of G League Ignite reacts after hitting a three-pointer against the Perth Wildcats as time expired in the first quarter of an NBA G League Fall Invitational game on Sept. 6, 2023, in Henderson, Nevada. Credit: Getty Images
A New York judge ruled on Monday that St. John’s forward Babacar Sane, the gifted forward from Senegal who played professionally in Germany last season, will be eligible to play for the Red Storm when the regular season begins on Nov. 2.
Judge Karina Alomar, who last month granted Sane a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the NCAA after it ruled him ineligible, ordered that the TRO remain in place until a Nov. 9 at hearing where witnesses will testify.
Alomar’s ruling gives the Red Storm a chance to open the season with the full roster coach Rick Pitino assembled and, perhaps, a Top 15 national ranking, despite some unresolved eligibility concerns.
Sane and St. John’s will have played three exhibition games and their first two regular season games before the case returns to court.
Pitino called the assembled group of Storm players “definitely [my] most talented at St. John’s” at Thursday’s Big East Media Day.
He called the presumptive starting backcourt of Quinn Ellis and Ian Jackson “as good a backcourt as there is in the nation” and the deep group of frontcourt players “as good as anybody in the country” because of the depth.
Pitino announced in a social media post on Friday that Sane and returning junior Ian Jackson were elected co-captains for this season by their teammates.
The NCAA’s position is that Sane is ineligible because of his “intent to professionalize,” according to court documents. Prior to playing in Germany, he competed for two G League teams and signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Utah Jazz in 2024.
Utah waived him six weeks later — before he could participate in team activities — but the NCAA’s attorneys on Monday made the deal sound like the crux of their argument.
Sane’s attorneys counter that the association has cleared players with similar G League and pro experience and that he did not do any team activities for the Jazz.
St. John’s has three other new players with eligibility questions: Ellis from the EuroLeague, Indiana transfer Reed Bailey and Auburn transfer Keyshawn Hall.
Ellis is awaiting word on a “reinstatement” application to the NCAA and has a similar profile to other foreign pros who’ve been ruled eligible.
Bailey and Hall have sued the NCAA for a fifth year of eligibility after their class, the 2022 high school grads, were not grandfathered in with last season’s juniors, sophomores and freshmen for a newly introduced guideline that allows a player to compete five seasons in five years. Both are currently eligible to play by court order.
A California court in September granted Bailey, and approximately 70 other players whose eligibility was to expire after the 2025-26 season, a TRO that made them all immediately eligible and at least one more hearing in the case is scheduled.
Hall was granted TRO in a New York court last week that made him eligible and is scheduled for a hearing Tuesday morning in Queens Supreme Court. Late Monday, attorneys for the NCAA filed a request for more time to prepare and said they intend to seek suspension of Hall’s TRO.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
