Lubin, Darrion Williams, Dallin Hall Win Texas Injunction For 5th Year

The NCAA's five-year eligibility math has been a mess all offseason, and today it finally broke in favor of the players again. Ven-Allen Lubin, Darrion Williams and Dallin Hall were among the group granted a temporary injunction in Texas, per attorney @TexasTrialGroup, extending a TRO the same group had already secured. That's the difference between hoping you get to play and knowing you get to play.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Ven-Allen Lubin, Darrion Williams and Dallin Hall, among others, were granted a temporary injunction for a 5th year today in Texas, per attorney @TexasTrialGroup. The group was previously granted a TRO. t.co/lrtqWhezN8

Lubin's path here is the wildest of the three. He's already played for UNC, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and NC State without ever taking a redshirt, which is exactly the kind of career that the NCAA's new age-based 5-for-5 rule was supposed to shut out. He averaged 13.6 points and 7.1 rebounds for the Wolfpack last season, and he was fighting through the summer just to be sure that production had a place to go this winter. Now it does.

Darrion Williams' case is a little different — his fifth year came out of a separate class-wide preliminary injunction in Colorado covering the entire high school class of 2022 that exhausted four seasons this spring, and today's Texas ruling only reinforces where things stand. Williams bounced from Nevada to Texas Tech to NC State, put up 14 points a game in ACC play last season, went undrafted, and has now re-signed with Texas Tech to run it back with head coach Grant McCasland.

Dallin Hall's road covers just as much ground — BYU, then Virginia, then a transfer portal stint tagged Do Not Contact while his eligibility case worked through the courts. He's since committed to Utah State for the extra season the injunction just made official. Three different stories, three different schools, one shared legal fight that just cleared its biggest hurdle.

None of this is final-final — injunctions are injunctions, not permanent rulings, and the NCAA hasn't exactly been shy about appealing these age-based eligibility fights all year. But for right now, three veteran college hoopers who thought their careers were over get to go play. Worth watching whether the NCAA tries to claw this back before tip-off.