Alabama Men's Basketball Nearing Closure on Jahvon Quinerly Appeal with NCAA
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama seems to be closing in on a final decision regarding the eligibility of Villanova transfer guard Jahvon Quinerly, who had his initial request not to sit out this season rejected by the NCAA.
Alabama has appealed the ruling, with Quinerly unable to play in a game until the matter is resolved.
“It would have been nice to have Quinerly out there tonight," Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said following his team’s 81-80 home loss to Penn.
That wasn't all he had to say on the topic.
“We’ve got a conference call scheduled before the next game," Oats said while referring to Florida Atlantic visiting Coleman Coliseum on Monday (7 p.m. CT). “I think we’re supposed to get an answer fairly quickly after the conference call. Other than that, my guess is we’ll know by late Monday afternoon basically just in time for the game whether [Quinerly’s] cleared to play or not.
“If he plays it’s great. We could certainly use him out there. He’s really good. If they don’t give [the appeal] to us I’ll be disappointed, but like we tell the guys, ‘Control what you can control.' We can’t control what the Appeals Committee decides, and we can’t control what the referees did tonight. Just control what you can control.
“I thought maybe myself, the players and all of us got a little bit worked up maybe about some stuff [during the loess] that we couldn’t control. We’re going to do the same thing with clearing him."
Quinerly’s case and waiver request is based on his being unfairly connected with recruiting violations found by the FBI and involving his recruitment by Arizona. He was cleared of those allegations by the NCAA before playing last year at Villanova.
In most cases when an appeal is heard via conference call, the player involved (in this case Quinerly) is allowed to personally address the Appeals Committee and tell them all the circumstances involved in his appeal.
“Our legal team and compliance office; I think is the best in the country after dealing with them on issues that we’ve had. We’ve got all the resources in the world and we’ll use all the resources we can in getting (Quinerly) eligible and we’re going to do everything we can to get him eligible and hopefully (the committee) will give us a favorable ruling.”
When BamaCentral asked Oats if there was a firm date set for the appeal conference call he replied, “It is scheduled already. I believe it’s next Monday. I’ve got to double-check on that, but [UA Compliance] let me know today that we do have it scheduled and we should have an answer by game time next Monday night.”
