The NCAA ruled on Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa on Friday night -- and the ruling was neither favorable for the player nor school. He's been suspended for the rest of this season and all of next season too, which means he won't play for the Jayhawks again until at least the start of the 2020-21 season.
And that's if he plays at all.
Like I've said before, I'm sympathetic toward De Sousa's situation because there's literally no evidence that he knew his guardian accepted money to guide him to Kansas. But, that said, there's no way to enforce amateurism rules unless the NCAA holds student-athletes and universities responsible for what those running recruitments do outside of the rulebook, which is why the NCAA's decision can be called both unfair and reasonable. I mean, what was the alternative -- to let Kansas benefit from a player the NCAA determined a Kansas "booster" bought for the school? That seems just as wrong as anything else. Either way, Matt Norlander and I opened this episode of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast with a long conversation on the De Sousa situation. We talked about it for about 30 minutes -- and I eventually explained why the sensible compromise would've been for the NCAA to rule him permanently ineligible at Kansas but eligible next season at any other school.
After that, the conversation went like this:
- 30:30: Michigan lost at Iowa on Friday night. Then Michigan State lost at home to Indiana on Saturday. So it was a bad weekend for the two biggest basketball brands in that state. They play each other in three weeks.
- 38:30: What was more ridiculous -- NC State scoring just 24 points at home in a 23-point loss to Virginia Tech or Memphis falling behind 27-1 at USF (before Jeremiah Martin scored 41 second-half points in a comeback attempt that fell just short)?
- 46:00: North Carolina won at Louisville. Kentucky won at Florida. So that's two nice road wins for a pair of blue bloods heading in the right direction under Hall of Fame coaches.
The latest Eye on College Basketball podcast is below. Give it a listen. If you're not already subscribed, please subscribe via iTunes. And if you've already done that, thank you. #ShoutsToDevanDowney.
