Kansas Basketball has had its fair share of drama over the past year or two. That could continue as LaMelo Ball has expressed interest in playing for the Jayhawks.
The Kansas Basketball program has had some drama recently and it’s possible that they could have some more coming their way. In the most recent episode of Ball In The Family LaMelo Ball revealed that he has been in talks with Kansas about potentially playing for them next season. It is important to note that this took place around Thanksgiving so a lot may have changed since then and it also is very unlikely he becomes NCAA eligible either.
The Jayhawks have dealt with players being ineligible recently and they may not want to deal with that again. Billy Preston was ruled ineligible for the 2017-18 season after questions about the owner of the car he was driving came into question. After a lot of drama surrounding his situation, Preston decided to go overseas in late January 2018.
The more recent and current situation is surrounding Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa. This is tied into the FBI scandal with Adidas. His guardian excepted $20,000 for him to go to Kansas. It is still unclear if Bill Self knew of this but it has been reported that both he and De Sousa had no knowledge of this payment.
Even if they did we wouldn’t expect them to come out and admit it but for now, we should believe them. The results of the investigation led to De Sousa being ruled ineligible for the rest of this season as well as the whole 2019-20 season. Kansas has already appealed this decision and they are waiting to hear back.
The LaMelo Ball situation is way different than those two though. He has played overseas with the JBA USA team as well as in Lithuania with the pro team Vytautas. That is before we even discuss Big Baller Brand. Melo also has a signature shoe which is definitely against the NCAA Rules. It’s going to be an uphill battle for him to be eligible but there are a couple of starting points that makes his case interesting.