LAWRENCE, Kan. _ Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa has been cleared to play in the 2019-20 basketball season by the NCAA's Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement, the organization announced Friday.
De Sousa had his appeal hearing with the NCAA committee on Friday morning and, after the ruling was issued, said he'll play for KU this season.
"THANK YOU," De Sousa tweeted on Friday afternoon.
In a release, the NCAA stated that its Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement "determined additional relief was appropriate" in De Sousa's case.
The NCAA initially ruled on Feb. 1 that De Sousa must sit out the remainder of the 2018-19 basketball season and all of 2019-20 "because his guardian received payment from a university booster and agent and agreed to receive additional funds from the same person." KU appealed the matter on April 18.
"I'm so excited to be able to come back to Kansas to play and to continue my education," De Sousa stated in a release issued Friday afternoon. "It's an amazing feeling. I want to thank the NCAA committee for the opportunity to do what I really want to do. All those days and nights wondering what would happen ... .this makes it all worth it. I also want to thank everyone at Kansas for working so hard to make sure I can follow my dream. Jayhawk Nation, I can't thank you all enough for the unconditional support and for sticking around throughout this. I tried to turn the year off into a blessing. I got to work on my game and my academics, and now I'm going to make the most of this opportunity."
KU athletic director Jeff Long said he was, "thrilled by the decision of the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee to reinstate Silvio, "and I am thankful that Silvio has the opportunity to continue his academic work and play basketball for KU. He is an exceptional young man, and I am so happy that he gets to do what he truly wants to do, which is study and play basketball at KU."
De Sousa's attorney, Scott Tompsett, gave one simple statement to The Star in a phone conversation.
"I'm very happy for Silvio. The NCAA got it right," Tompsett said.
On April 19, in an interview with The Star, Tompsett noted, "In all my years doing this work it is perhaps the strongest case I've ever seen in what I'll call the equities. This is a young man who is completely and totally innocent."
KU assistant basketball coach Kurtis Townsend said he learned the news while on a golf outing with his dad in California where Townsend is on vacation. Head coach Bill Self also is out of town on vacation.
"This is great. We're really happy for Silvio," Townsend said. "We are excited to have him. He'll make our team better. We got better today for sure. Silvio gives us a lot more depth inside. We have some of the best post guys for sure."
Townsend said he was most happy for De Sousa.
"He's a great kid," Townsend said. "He really deserves it. He handled it as well as anybody could handle it."
De Sousa, who has declared for the NBA draft, had stated publicly that if his suspension was lifted by the NCAA's Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement, he would opt to return to KU for his junior season next year. De Sousa has until May 29 to take his name out of the NBA draft.
"Jayhawk Nation, can't thank you all enough for the unconditional support & for sticking around throughout this," De Sousa tweeted.
In February, the NCAA stated in a release that "according to the facts provided for purposes of the reinstatement request, De Sousa's guardian received payment of $2,500 from an agent and booster of the school. He agreed to accept additional payment of $20,000 from the same individual and an Adidas employee for securing De Sousa's enrollment at Kansas." KU Athletics has an apparel sponsorship contract with Adidas.
During a federal trial regarding corruption into college basketball last fall, former Adidas representative T.J. Gassnola testified that sometime before January 2018, he overnighted a $2,500 payment to De Sousa's legal guardian, Fenny Falmagne. Gassnola said he sent the money in an envelope inside a magazine, so De Sousa could pay for online classes.
Gassnola testified that he also originally offered Falmagne $20,000 to help him get out of a previous arrangement with a Maryland booster, who was paying Falmagne $60,000 with the expectation being that De Sousa would attend Maryland. Gassnola testified that he had discussed previous payments with then-Adidas executive Jim Gatto before making them.
Falmagne told The Star he did receive $2,500 in cash in the mail. He told The Star it was not apparent who sent the money. He told The Star he gave the money to charity _ a church in Florida. Falmagne said the NCAA was aware of this and has receipts of the transaction that he provided to the organization.
He said it was not true that he agreed to accept $20,000 for securing De Sousa's enrollment at Kansas.
"That did not happen. There's nothing there," Falmagne told The Star.
De Sousa appeared in 20 of 23 games in 2017-18, when KU made the Final Four, before sitting out last season.
