De Sousa story by Tom Keegan

I agree, NotO, but as foolish as it may be, I’m going to try to remain a cockeyed optimist regarding his chances to play next season. I do think that KU needs to push the NCAA for any action it may take so Silvio can plan his future. It took them no time at all to clear that Dukie for play last year, hopefully they can similarly make a timely decision on Silvio, for his own good, especially as it appears there is no Fed evidence that Silvio knew anything about any shenanigans his guardian was pulling.

And to be frank, if the only Fed evidence available are the adidas rep’s expense account, i.e. there are no financial institution records showing the guardian actually got the money, and none of the accused turns Fed witness, a good defense attorney could make the case (as has been validated in at least one non-KU instance already IIRC) that the expense account entries related to Silvio’s guardian were bogus ones designed to cover corporate theft by the rep and his consultant.

I know that the SDNY attorneys office has a rep for having their ducks in order, but I also notice that they have not brought charges against the guardian, telling me they don’t have a complete paper/wire trail leading to him that would allow them to do so.

So yeah, I’m saying there is a chance.

Today on Rivals JayhawkSlant subscription site Shay Wildeboor responded to a question asking for his thoughts on Silvio playing next year —

shay wrote: Unless I hear otherwise, I expect Silvio De Sousa to be in uniform next season. Listen, his guardian has made it quite clear, and on a number of occasions I might add, that he took absolutely no money and De Sousa took no money. I know it's easy to say things and then find out that wasn't the case. However, I liken this to the recruit that will no longer take my phone call because Kansas is no longer in-the-mix.

Instead of picking up the phone and doing the interview, said recruit just doesn't take my call, and I generally get the hint. With his guardian, my guess is he would simply ignore the phone calls/text messages and avoid the attention had something wrong gone down. Fenny has made it clear that nothing went down, so I expect to see De Sousa in a Kansas uniform next season.

Link to Shay, De Sousa?


Since Shay is one of the media people that has real ins with the coaches and staff, and has the rep for keeping his mouth shut on off-the-record stuff until given the okay to mention it, his pretty positive reply says a lot to me. Even if he only specifically mentions Silvio and his guardian Fenny, if he had other “insider” info to the contrary, I do not believe he would have been so positive in his response.

I am on record as thinking it very likely that De Sousa is done. That does not mean I am giving up hope that he is not, despite the cut and dried opinion of writers like Keegan.