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Shabazz Muhammad Eligibility Concerns; May Not Be Able to Play In NCAA


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The NCAA has contacted each school recruiting the nation's top-ranked high school basketball prospect, Shabazz Muhammad, and made them aware of financial dealings that could compromise Muhammad's amateur status, multiple sources have told CBSSports.com.

 

The sources told CBSSports.com that the NCAA is specifically interested in connections between Muhammad's family and financial advisers Benjamin Lincoln and Ken Kavanagh. Lincoln is a North Carolina-based financial planner whose brother, Geoff Lincoln, is an assistant coach for Muhammad's high school team in Las Vegas. Kavanagh is a New York-based financial planner.

 

Muhammad's father, Ron Holmes, acknowledged to CBSSports.com in multiple phone calls this week that he knows both men and has been questioned by an NCAA investigator about the relationships. Sources told CBSSports.com Lincoln paid for at least two of Muhammad's unofficial visits to college campuses and that Kavanagh has helped fund Muhammad's summer team, the Las Vegas-based Dream Vision Foundation. Holmes, who has hired legal counsel to assist with getting the NCAA inquiry resolved, confirmed both statements as true to CBSSports.com.

 

"We hit it off immediately and became very close friends," Holmes told CBSSports.com in an exclusive interview. "When Benjamin and I met in 2007, my son Shabazz was in the seventh grade. Back in 2007, none of us knew that Shabazz would be able to play college ball, let alone be as good as he is now. In fact, I don't remember any colleges contacting us until Shabazz was in the ninth or 10th grade.

 

"By 2010, Shabazz was getting a lot of interest from high major colleges, including North Carolina and Duke," he said. "We had an opportunity to take unofficial visits to both schools in North Carolina. Benjamin offered to pay for our plane tickets and hotel room. When we went on the visits, we filled out the NCAA compliance forms and fully disclosed that our family friend, Benjamin Lincoln, had paid for the trips.

 

"When we were approached by the NCAA, we cooperated naturally," he continued. "We had told the truth from the beginning and had disclosed everything. It is frustrating that we have been honest and above board from the start and now there are those who are questioning what we did. ... I don't think we've done anything wrong."

 

Reached by phone, Lincoln told CBSSports.com that he did indeed fund at least two of Muhammad's unofficial visits but insisted he believes his involvement is within NCAA rules.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/17511404/ncaa-warns-schools-to-be-wary-over-top-recruit-muhammads-eligibility

 

Would really suck if Shabazz is ruled ineligible as I was really looking forward to watching him play next year, regardless of where he decided to go to school. The guy looks like he is going to be a star and would be a very exciting player to watch. I know that pretty much every power school were interested in him at one point or another.

 

Hopefully he isn't ruled ineligible or anything like that.

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I'm pretty new on this whole process. If he's ruled ineligible, will it be for only this year or permanently? Is the reason he might be ineligible be because of the kind of thing that happened in the blind side?

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If he is ruled ineligible, it means he can not play college basketball ever.

 

Did you follow the whole Enes Kanter and Kentucky thing last year? If so, it would be the same as that. In case you don't know what happened, Kanter played in Turkey and receieved money, housing and things like that from his Turkish leage team and it was ruled by the NCAA that he receieved more funds than needed for standard living, so he was not allowed to play with Kentucky last season.

 

With Muhammed, by what I gather, he may have received money from these two men and if that is the case, the NCAA could rule that he is ineligible for receiving money if any sort of rules were broken. You can receive money so long as no NCAA rules are broken. If they deem rules were broken, he won't be allowed to play in the NCAA.

 

As for the blind side thing, I have no idea as I never watched the movie nor am I all that familiar with what the movie is based on.

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  On 3/1/2012 at 1:33 AM, Built Ford Tough said:

If he is ruled ineligible, it means he can not play college basketball ever.

 

Did you follow the whole Enes Kanter and Kentucky thing last year? If so, it would be the same as that. In case you don't know what happened, Kanter played in Turkey and receieved money, housing and things like that from his Turkish leage team and it was ruled by the NCAA that he receieved more funds than needed for standard living, so he was not allowed to play with Kentucky last season.

 

With Muhammed, by what I gather, he may have received money from these two men and if that is the case, the NCAA could rule that he is ineligible for receiving money if any sort of rules were broken. You can receive money so long as no NCAA rules are broken. If they deem rules were broken, he won't be allowed to play in the NCAA.

 

As for the blind side thing, I have no idea as I never watched the movie nor am I all that familiar with what the movie is based on.

 

I have a basic knowledge of what happened with Enes last year, so I think I know what you mean. If he doesn't play in NCAA, do you think he'll go and play in Europe or something?

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  On 3/1/2012 at 3:12 AM, Real Deal said:

Ugh. Man, he visited Kansas just 3-4 days ago, strongly considering them. This sucks.

 

If it helps ease the pain, last I heard he had narrowed his list down to 4 schools and Kansas wasn't one of them. He hasn't completely ruled them out, but it is speculated that the 4 leading candidates are Kentucky, Duke, UCLA and UNLV.

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  On 3/1/2012 at 3:15 AM, Built Ford Tough said:

If it helps ease the pain, last I heard he had narrowed his list down to 4 schools and Kansas wasn't one of them. He hasn't completely ruled them out, but it is speculated that the 4 leading candidates are Kentucky, Duke, UCLA and UNLV.

He said this after his visit on the 25th of this month:

 

  Quote
“It’s been hectic with the visits, but I needed to take it to the next step, to see where I want to go,” Muhammad told Sporting News. “I knew that once my season was over, this is what I’d need to focus on. I need to pick the coaches’ heads about what I can do to affect their program next year. (Kansas) coach (Bill) Self is such a good coach, and the environment there was really nice. Once you’re there, the adrenaline’s definitely there. I can see myself playing there. It is such a higher level in college. I can’t wait to embrace that.”

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2012-02-29/shabazz-muhammad-kansas-duke-kentucky-ucla-recruiting

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Like I said, I'm not counting Kansas out by any means and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he went there. It is speculated that his top four are those teams I mentioned, but who really knows as it is exactly that; speculation.

 

Recruiting update: Muhammad has already visited Kentucky (during Midnight Madness) and Texas A&M, as well as an unofficial visit to USC. He officially visited Kansas this past weekend (Feb. 25) and will be at Duke on March 3. His last visit will probably be to Arizona, although UCLA may get a visit as well. At this stage it appears to be a four-team race between Duke, Kentucky, UCLA and UNLV.

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/basketball/mens/story/_/id/7608132/top-uncommitted-prospects-2012-class

 

 

If I had to guess, I say he ends up at Duke or UNLV (assuming he is eligible), but I really wouldn't be surprised at him going to anyone of Kentucky, Duke, UNLV, UCLA or Kansas. I don't see him going to Arizona, although they do have a fantastic class coming in, which is part of why I don't see him going there.

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I'm not understanding why the schools are being "warned" about him. By the time the college basketball season rolls around (meaning, next season), he will be deemed eligible or ineligible...unless the process will drag out for that long, and I'm not sure why it would.

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