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Kansas Forward Silvio de Sousa Wins NCAA Appeal, Eligible For 2019-20 Season

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Kansas got a major dose of good news Friday when Silvio de Sousa won his NCAA appeal and was declared eligible for the 2019-20 season.

"I'm so excited to be able to come back to Kansas to play and to continue my education," De Sousa said in a statement. "It's an amazing feeling. I want to thank the NCAA committee for the opportunity to do what I really want to do. All those days and nights wondering what would happen...this makes it all worth it. I also want to thank everyone at Kansas for working so hard to make sure I can follow my dream. Jayhawk Nation, I can't thank you all enough for the unconditional support and for sticking around throughout this. I tried to turn the year off into a blessing. I got to work on my game and my academics, and now I'm going to make the most of this opportunity."

De Sousa did not play during the 2018-19 season, but did practice with the Jayhawks.

"I am thrilled by the decision of the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee to reinstate Silvio," Kansas Athletics Director Jeff Long said, "and I am thankful that Silvio has the opportunity to continue his academic work and play basketball for KU. He is an exceptional young man, and I am so happy that he gets to do what he truly wants to do, which is study and play basketball at KU."

On Feb. 1, the NCAA declared de Sousa ineligible for two season because of his guardian’s role in accepting money from a former Adidas executive.

Last October during the federal basketball corruption trial, Thomas "T.J." Gassnola testified he made concealed payments of $20,000 to Fenny Falmagne, de Sousa's guardian.

“The kids and I never took money from anyone,” Falmagne told The Kansas City Star in April 2018. “This is bigger than basketball. These kids and I have sacrificed so much because we know this could change our countries and nation. Anyone that knows me will know that coach Larry Brown is the only person that I take advice from because who he means to me and the kids. He told me, ‘Fenny, the people at Kansas are good people and will help Silvio achieve his dream.’ And look what it did listening to him. Made it to the Final Four and got significantly better.”

Kansas also returns big man Udoka Azubuike and should have a formidable frontcourt with Azubuike and de Sousa.

Guards Quentin Grimes and Devon Dotson are testing the NBA Draft waters and have until May 29 to decide whether to return to campus.

Five-star point guard R.J. Hampton will decide after that whether to enroll at Kansas, Memphis or Texas Tech based in part on what players declare for the Draft.

Should Kansas get Dotson or Grimes back plus Hampton, they could be a Final Four-type team.

“They got Big Dok [Udoka Azubuike] at the five, hopefully Silvio [de Sousa] gets cleared at the four,” Rod Hampton, the player's father, said this week on a Memphis radio station.

“If Devon comes back, him and R.J. in the backcourt. And Quentin Grimes may come back, you never know. So they just got some experience, man. That’s the most intriguing thing about them.”

Hampton said he could still see R.J. playing at Kansas even if Dotson and Grimes both return to campus.

"That’s a three-headed monster,” he said. “Grimes didn’t have the best year that he wanted to last year but he can play. I saw some glimpses of him at the Combine with the old Quentin Grimes I knew from high school, but this isn’t high school. So that would be a legitimate three-headed monster.”

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