Silvio De Sousa Cleared to play today

According to Kansas Mens basketball on Facebook!

Alas, Silvio is not yet ready for prime time. When he entered the game, KU was up 21-13. When he left 4 minutes later, after a turnover and foul, the game was tied 21-21. Not sure how much he will be able to help until March. But nice that his issues are resolved. Being here this semester will make him ready to go next year.

I think he will improve a lot quickly. He was "sped up" quite a bit. I think he may not help a lot against WVU on Monday but probably will the 2nd time we play them.

This is what his job description should look like right now:

• Don't make stupid mistakes..do no harm
• Play defense
• Get rebounds
• Occaisonally set a pick

If he can do that, we can keep Dok in the game and he'll be fresher in the 2nd half.

Now, on the Preston issue: I think it's significant that the NCAA cleared DeSousa but didn't say anything about Preston. At this point, I surmise that the car is in fact going to be found as impermissible. KU will be cleared of wrongdoing, and will lobby for a half-season (time served) suspension. Whether the NCAA decides to let him back this year or not will be up to them, but if I were to place a bet, I don't think he'll be playing with us this year.

USC has a guy in a not dissimilar situation and they have unilaterally decided he will not play this year. Especially is there is any Adidas lurking in the background of his story, Billy's main contribution as a Jayhawk will have been beating Missouri in that exhibition game. Sad.

Regarding Billy, it's clear that KU is acting with an abundance of caution on this. The NCAA never said he couldn't play. It was KU's compliance office that pulled him.

So KU was clearly worried enough to dig into it. The fact that the KU "investigation" took around 6 weeks to conduct and then finally present to the NCAA speaks volumes. Now the questions are:

1.) At what point do we cut our losses. Does it make sense for Billy and/or the team for him to join the roster after 3/4 of the season is over?

2.) If he is out for all of 2017/18, would he consider coming back next year (if eligible) to let the NBA scouts see him play for a year in competition, or is his draft stock strong enough to just leave?

I smell a poll coming on.....