The NCAA announced on Friday night that Kansas sophomore Silvio De Sousa has been ruled ineligible for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.
This likely ends his college career.
De Sousa’s guardian, Fenny Falmagne, received $2,500 from Christian Dawkins and agreed to accept another $20,000 from a former Adidas consultant, T.J. Gassnola. The second payment was to payback a booster from Maryland that had paid Falmagne $60,000 to get De Sousa to College Park.
“In my 30-plus years of coaching college basketball, I have never witnessed such a mean-spirited and vindictive punishment against a young man who did nothing wrong,” Bill Self said in a statement released by the university. “To take away his opportunity to play college basketball is shameful and a failure of the NCAA. Silvio is a tremendous young man who absolutely deserves to be on the court with his teammates. This process took way too long to address these issues. We will support Silvio as he considers his options.”
“We are shocked and incensed by today’s decision,” added athletic director Jeff Long, who noted that Kansas will “immediately appeal” this ruling.