CARDINALS

NCAA nears Shaqquan Aaron decision

Jeff Greer

@jeffgreer_cj

The NCAA has concluded the information-gathering part of its month-long investigation into the amateur status of Shaqquan Aaron, a freshman on the University of Louisville basketball team, and expects a final decision on Aaron's eligibility this week barring setbacks, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the case told The Courier-Journal on Monday.

The NCAA team tasked with certifying the amateur status of prospective student-athletes flagged Aaron's eligibility application this summer and began its inquiry into Aaron's amateurism in earnest in November, said Aaron's mother, Madinah.

Follow-ups on eligibility applications are a common occurrence for the NCAA's eligibility center if a student-athlete has transferred between high schools multiple times.

Aaron, a 6-foot-7 wing who was the highest-rated high school prospect in U of L's 2014 signing class, attended two California high schools before graduating from Rainier Beach High in Seattle. He qualified academically for Division I college athletics, which is why he's still allowed to practice, attend classes at U of L and travel with the basketball team.

Everett Glenn, the former president of a California-based sports management firm who is providing counsel to the Aaron family, said that the NCAA is looking into tuition payments during Aaron's freshman school year at Mater Dei High School, a Los Angeles-area school known for its powerhouse sports teams.

The Aarons, Glenn said, provided "clear proof" that they covered the remaining costs of Aaron's partial scholarship to attend Mater Dei. The school's website states that tuition for non-Catholic students was $14,000 for the 2014-15 school year and $12,600 for Catholic students, slight increases from when Aaron would have been a freshman at Mater Dei over the 2010-11 school year.

A spokesperson for Mater Dei declined comment on Monday, citing privacy laws.

"The answers we submitted showed that we paid for school," Glenn said. "They can't have proof he didn't pay for school because he did. We're trying to disprove stuff that doesn't exist."

But an NCAA source with direct knowledge of the case told The Courier-Journal on Monday that the investigation extended beyond tuition payments. The source also disputed Glenn's claim that "we're talking about a couple hundred bucks."

In conjunction with U of L, the NCAA completed a "statement of facts" on Nov. 7 after Aaron and his family answered the eligibility center's questions, Glenn said. But the NCAA and U of L's compliance office, representing Aaron in the investigation, could not agree on "two or three" issues, the NCAA source said.

"The whole process hinges on the ability to develop that information," the NCAA source explained. "Sometimes it happens more quickly than others. In this situation, and it's not unique, there was an additional step."

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That step — hashing out the unspecified "two or three" issues that U of L and the NCAA couldn't agree on — took a few weeks. U of L submitted its final paperwork for the Aaron case last Wednesday.

A committee made up of 15 members who do not work directly for the NCAA or Louisville reviewed U of L's paperwork on Monday and notified U of L of its findings on Monday afternoon, U of L spokesman Kenny Klein confirmed.

In the next few days, the NCAA will review the committee's report and determine Aaron's status.

"We're not looking at issues that are incredibly unique to this situation," the NCAA source said. "This isn't the type of situation that's long-term."

But the process has already run longer than Aaron, his parents, Glenn or U of L coach Rick Pitino hoped.

Madinah Aaron said she is "fed up" with the NCAA and that "the past few months have been unreal." Aaron has not considered redshirting or transferring from U of L because of the inquiry, she said.

"That's not an option — this is the school he wanted to go to," said Carl Aaron, Shaqquan's father. "He just wants to go to school and play basketball."

Aaron has missed the first five games on U of L's schedule and will likely sit out of the Cardinals' Tuesday night matchup against Ohio State at the KFC Yum! Center.

He played in both of Louisville's intrasquad scrimmages before the 2014-15 season but did not dress for the team's two preseason exhibitions.

Pitino on Monday said that while he typically agrees with the NCAA "in a lot of things they do, I couldn't disagree with them more in their handling of this case."

"I just wish they'd make a decision," Pitino said. "You can't get those five games back. It makes no sense to me. He did nothing wrong.

"It's time to make a decision for this young man's benefit."

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).