How Parsa Fallah’s Latest Legal Win Impacts Oklahoma State Basketball

The Oklahoma State men’s basketball team has been holding a scholarship for their fan favorite center. He may just get to use it.

Parsa Fallah. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Oklahoma State student-athletes continued their wins in court on Wednesday.

Parsa Fallah, the center for the men’s basketball team who has been seeking a final year of eligibility in the courts, received a temporary injunction in two different courts.

He was part of two cases — one in California and one in Oklahoma — and he received a temporary injunction in both cases that allows him to play for the Cowboys until the case is finally settled.

The Oklahoma case, per Scott Wright of 247Sports (subscription required), also involved Cowboys football player Iman Oates — who received a temporary injunction earlier this summer — and Cowgirls soccer player Ellie Geoffroy. That case was filed in Payne County, Oklahoma, of which Stillwater is the county seat.

It’s not clear when the case will be settled.

Parsa Fallah’s Impact on OSU Basketball

Oklahoma State Cowboys forward Parsa Fallah. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Earlier this year men’s basketball coach Steve Lutz told reporters that the Cowboys were keeping a scholarship for Fallah on the chance he could play next season. At the time, he was pursuing an additional year of eligibility based his complicated emigration to the U.S. from Iran.

But he attached himself to the NCAA’s new “five-for-five” legislation in California this summer. The NCAA’s new age-based rule gives student-athletes five years to play five years. For those students that have eligibility remaining, the NCAA will apply the current and former rule, and the student-athlete will get the amount of eligibility most advantageous to them.

Fallah is unique in that both have played more than four years. The Iran native has been in college for five years — three at Southern Utah, including a redshirt, followed by one at Oregon State and one at Oklahoma State.

If Fallah remains eligible, there is another matter — his knee. In the home regular-season finale in February he tore his ACL, an injury that at the time felt like it ended his career. But these legal proceedings have given him a new opportunity, should they hold.

It’s unlikely his knee would allow him to play when the season opens in November as he would be about nine months into his recovery. But a return for Big 12 play in January — 11 months after the injury — would be more realistic.

If he can play, the 6-10 center would boost the Cowboys’ frontcourt as he did a season ago. He averaged 14.7 points and 6.0 rebounds for Oklahoma State. He would also be the most experienced player on the roster at 6-10 or taller.

This all assumes Fallah ultimately wins his case. That is one step closer to reality.