KU Basketball: Free Cheick Diallo

Still no decision from NCAA on KU Basketball freshman Cheick Diallo.

The Kansas Jayhawks continue to wait on an NCAA ruling regarding its prized first-year player Cheick Diallo. The freshman did not travel with the team to the Champions Classic in Chicago this week, as the investigation into his eligibility drags on into the regular season.

Sure, the Jayhawks could use a 6-feet 9-inch power forward who can run, jump and defend. But this is about Diallo and his future as an amateur athlete. This is about the NCAA ruling in a timely and reasonable manner with respect to the parties involved.

It’s important the NCAA gets this decision right, yes, but it’s time for them make a decision one way or the other.

Attorney Don Jackson, who’s representing Diallo’s guardian Tidian Drame, believes the NCAA has already made a mistake in its investigation, according to The Kansas City Star‘s Rustin Dodd:

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"“In the situation regarding Mr. Drame, the NCAA staff internally — before these schools got involved, they were not a part of the process, they did not interview this young man’s guardian — they took what I believe was a procedurally incorrect step of having him characterized as an ‘agent’ already."

If that’s the case, Diallo’s prospects of being cleared to play college basketball this season could take a big hit. Anytime you’re dealing with “agents” as a high-school athlete, the rules get tricky.

However, many believe it’s unfair to label Drame, an agent.

FoxSports.com‘s Reid Hargrave says Diallo is the victim of a broken system more than anything, and that the NCAA should allow Diallo to play immediately, and then address the real issues of its eligibility processes:

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"The process, however — the absurd amount of paperwork frequently requested by the NCAA, the un-American principle that the burden of proof falls on the accused, the hyper-concern over elite student-athletes associating with agents — is broken."

There’s certainly more to this case than meets the eye. Kansas fans think Diallo should be eligible without question. The NCAA handles this as a unique case, and their end goal isn’t to get a decision out as soon as possible.

It’s complicated, drawn-out, probably antiquated system, and right now, KU Basketball and Cheick Diallo are simply caught on the train tracks.

While the NCAA recently has ruled on several other student-athlete cases in men’s college basketball, the Cheick Diallo case has no end in sight.

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It’s still wait-and-see mode for Cheick Diallo and KU Basketball. Hopefully, for the sake of the student and the NCAA’s credibility, a ruling will be handed down soon.

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