Well, that didn’t take long.
The NCAA on Friday declared Memphis freshman James Wiseman ineligible. But that’s only part of the story, as he then played in the Tigers’ 92-46 romp over UIC on Friday night after a judge issued a stay of the NCAA’s ruling. That means this is going to become quite a story.
Memphis said in a statement that head coach Penny Hardaway provided $11,500 in moving expenses to help Wiseman and his family move from Nashville to Memphis, where he then played for Hardaway at Memphis East High School as well as with the Nike-sponsored Team Penny travel program. The school added that the NCAA declared him eligible in May, then obtained new information that led to further investigation, which turned up documentation of the contribution to moving expenses.
A little before 8:30 p.m. Eastern, while the game was being played, the NCAA had one more statement on their Twitter:
NCAA statement on James Wiseman: pic.twitter.com/B4hClOQxMj
— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) November 9, 2019
Wiseman is widely considered the likely top pick in next year’s NBA Draft. What will make this fascinating to watch is the fact that Wiseman is taking little if any risk in all of this – it’s on the school to take the risk of contesting this, especially if he continues to play all the while. Wiseman will be selected high in the NBA Draft no matter what; the school could be hit with infractions that would lead to punishment, and Penny Hardaway could lose his job if the NCAA levies significant punishments.
After the game, Hardaway offered nothing new, but he handled a series of questions well given the circumstances. Asked about Wiseman playing last night, he told ESPN, “That’s just up to the school. We’re just going to go about it legally moving forward. Obviously, James has a right to do what he did, and we’re moving forward from it.”
With Wiseman leading the way, the recruiting class Hardaway brought in garnered many headlines and has many thinking they will be back in the NCAA Tournament this year and make a run. Hardaway has said his team will win a national championship, which raised eyebrows but shouldn’t. What coach with big-time talent isn’t setting a high bar? Can you blame him for that?
We’ll have more on this later, and this still appears to be only the beginning. Buckle your seat belts, fans.
Side Dishes
The night had a few important matchups, and most were pretty good. The most surprising was Utah State annihilating Weber State 89-34, as one might have expected a closer game. LSU got past Bowling Green 88-79, Auburn took care of Davidson 76-66, and later on, Washington edged Baylor 67-64 in the Armed Forces Classic behind 23 points and seven rebounds from Nazriah Cater, and VCU survived North Texas 59-56 at the Siegel Center.
In sleeper matchups that were as good as advertised, Richmond needed overtime to hold off Saint Francis U 100-98, while Vermont got 15 points and 10 rebounds from Anthony Lamb to edge St. Bonaventure 61-59. Also, Mississippi State needed a furious comeback to beat Sam Houston State 67-58, scoring the last 17 points of the game to pull it out.
While Buffalo doesn’t figure to completely fall off the map after Nate Oats left and heavy personnel losses, it was a bit surprising to see Dartmouth come to town and beat the Bulls 68-63 on Friday night. But the surprise of the night involved another team from New England, Division I newcomer Merrimack. The Warriors went to the Midwest and knocked off Northwestern 71-61 in Evanston for their first Division I win, just a couple of days after losing by 20 at Maine.
Two big individual outings on the night came from players at New England schools. Jordan Roland set a Northeastern record with 42 points on 14-20 shooting as the Huskies beat Harvard 84-79, and Christian Lutete had 51 points on 16-25 shooting along with nine rebounds as UMass-Lowell went on the road and beat LIU 87-74.
While some margins of victory by teams over non-Division I opponents have certainly raised eyebrows early this season, Utah did them one better on Friday night as they ran away from Mississippi Valley State 143-49. The 94-point margin of victory is a Division I record, beating the previous mark of 91 points set by Tulsa over Prairie View in December 1995.
Arizona State lost 81-71 to Colorado in Shanghai without Romello White and Taeshon Cherry as they were suspended due to a violation of team rules prior to the trip. Without them, the Sun Devils were out-rebounded 48-36 and were dogged by foul trouble on the night.
Tonight’s Menu
As can be expected, it’s a busy day of games, though college football will take center stage and especially the latter part of the afternoon down south. A few teams have their season opener as well.
- Early games of note include Robert Morris visiting Notre Dame (noon), Morgan State visiting Temple, Georgia State at College of Charleston (2 p.m.), Stony Brook going to Seton Hall (2:30 p.m.) and Texas Southern traveling to Wichita State (3 p.m.)
- Later in the afternoon, we have Hofstra hosting Monmouth, Lipscomb hosting Middle Tennessee, UNLV hosting Kansas State, Austin Peay traveling to Western Kentucky (4 p.m.), Oregon State hosting Iowa State, NJIT traveling to Providence, Penn going to Rice (4:30 p.m.)
- In an old Mountain West matchup, BYU hosts San Diego State (4 p.m.)
- In the Sunshine Slam in Kissimmee, Florida, Delaware takes on Southern Illinois (3 p.m.), then UTSA takes on Oakland (5:30 p.m.)
- The evening has some good ones on tap, led by Texas at Purdue and Southland Conference contender New Orleans visiting Butler early on (7 p.m.), then Oklahoma and Minnesota battle in Sioux Falls and Bethune-Cookman visits Texas Tech (8 p.m.), Rhode Island travels to Maryland and Cal State Northridge heads to New Mexico (9 p.m.) and a good late one is Oregon hosting Boise State (11 p.m.)
- The first game in the Summit League/WAC Challenge is on tap with South Dakota State traveling to CSU Bakersfield (10 p.m.)
