Andre Drummond Paid To Attend UConn Because He Didn’t Want Coach Jim Calhoun To Strip Another Player’s Scholarship

Andre Drummond revealed that he refused a scholarship offer from UConn because they were going to strip the offer from another player for him.

4 Min Read

Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Andre Drummond was a five-star recruit and ranked as one of the nation’s best prospects coming out of high school, but he ended up being a walk-on at the University of Connecticut.

He has gone down as one of the greatest walk-ons in NCAA history, and Drummond recently spoke out about the circumstances that led to it.

“I think to this day, I might be the first high school player to ever tweet where he’s going,” Drummond said on the Varsity House podcast. “So, I tweeted it, got a phone call 10 minutes later, it’s Jim Calhoun. He’s like, ‘Yo, are you serious?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I want to come.’ He said, ‘Alright, (but) one problem, we have no more scholarships.'”

“I’m like, ‘Okay, well I’m going to hang up now.’ He said, ‘Wait, maybe you could pay for school? We know that you’re not going to do f****** four years of college here.’ So he’s like, ‘We could strip the scholarship from one of our players to give to you and just put him on financial aid. Would you want to do that?’ At the time, I didn’t know who he was till I got there, but DeAndre Daniels was the player they were talking about. I was like that’s not right, I don’t want to do that. So I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t want it. Let him keep it. I’ll just pay for school and figure it out from there.’ So, yeah I paid for school.”

Daniels would have certainly appreciated Drummond not wanting to go that route. It was a great gesture on Drummond’s part, as he easily could have demanded that a highly-rated player like him should get that scholarship.

In his only season at UConn, Drummond averaged 10.0 PPG to go with 7.6 RPG, but he wasn’t able to lead them to glory in the NCAA tournament. He did get to see his college team win the national title this year, though, as they beat the Aztecs in the championship game.


Andre Drummond Has Taken Some Measures For His Mental Health

Drummond’s NBA career hasn’t quite gone to plan, but he remains a serviceable big man even today. He is having a decent 2022-23 season off the bench for the Chicago Bulls, too, averaging 6.0 PPG and 6.7 RPG. 

While things are okay on the court, Drummond is dealing with some issues off it. He recently announced he’ll be deleting his social media and will change his number as he wants to focus on his mental health. He also sent a strong message that if anyone else is struggling with it, then it’s okay to ask for help.

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Gautam Varier is a staff writer and columnist for Fadeaway World from Mumbai, India. He graduated from Symbiosis International University with a Master of Business specializing in Sports Management in 2020. This educational achievement enables Gautam to apply sophisticated analytical techniques to his incisive coverage of basketball, blending business acumen with sports knowledge.Before joining Fadeaway World in 2022, Gautam honed his journalistic skills at Sportskeeda and SportsKPI, where he covered a range of sports topics with an emphasis on basketball. His passion for the sport was ignited after witnessing the high-octane offense of the Steve Nash-led Phoenix Suns. Among the Suns, Shawn Marion stood out to Gautam as an all-time underrated NBA player. Marion’s versatility as a defender and his rebounding prowess, despite being just 6’7”, impressed Gautam immensely. He admired Marion’s finishing ability at the rim and his shooting, despite an unconventional jump shot, believing that Marion’s skill set would have been even more appreciated in today’s NBA.This transformative experience not only deepened his love for basketball but also shaped his approach to sports writing, enabling him to connect with readers through vivid storytelling and insightful analysis.
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