Star freshman Wall may be ineligible

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Freshman point guard John Wall may be ineligible to play, according to an ESPN.com report released Thursday.

According to the ESPN.com story, UK had been investigating Wall’s eligibility for months to determine benefits Wall may or may not have received from his former AAU coach, Brian Clifton. Clifton was a certified agent with FIBA, basketball’s international governing for a year. Wall and Mississippi State recruit Renardo Sidney are both involved in the allegations.

UK spokesman John Hayden said he had no knowledge of the ESPN report.

“As far as we’re concerned, it’s a non-issue,” Hayden said.

UK athletics spokesman DeWayne Peevy said in a statement released by UK athletics, that all UK student-athletes are considered eligible unless it is noted otherwise.

“The University of Kentucky will not comment on the academic or eligibility status of any UK student-athlete,” Peevy said. “We will continue to respect the privacy of all our student-athletes in regards to personal information.”

ESPN cited an unnamed source within UK who said the school is working to determine the status of Wall’s eligibility. SEC commissioner Mike Slive told reporters on Thursday at SEC basketball media day it is an amateurism issue.

“Those are strictly amateurism issues,” Slive said. ” As we told our people, somebody needs to determine if they are eligible. It’s not relative to you, it’s relative to them.”

Because Clifton was an agent, any benefits Wall accepted from Clifton equated to being accepted from an agent and would have to be repaid before he could become eligible. NCAA rules also state that student-athletes can also be held out of 10 percent of a team’s games as part of the punishment.

Stay tuned to kykernel.com for more information as it becomes available.