The NCAA placed the University of Memphis men’s basketball program for three years and levied a $5,000 fine for Level II and III recruiting violations.
The ruling came about following allegations that back in 2017 then-East High School head coach Penny Hardaway paid James Wiseman and his family when he was still in high school. The NCAA considered him a booster because he had donated to his alma mater. Hardaway did not become Memphis coach until tne following year, 2018.
Wiseman ended up attending the University of Memphis , where he averaged 19.7 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks before being slapped with a 12-game suspension by the NCAA. When his appeal was denied, he left school and prepared for the NBA Draft, where he would be taken no.2 overall by the Golden State Warriors.
Speaking to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, in 2020 Wiseman had this to say:
“I wanted to have a great collegiate career. I wanted to win a national championship. But throughout the course of the first two games, everything started to go down in terms of my mental [well-being]. I was getting depressed. It was dehumanizing for me.”
In addition the ruling also stipulated that Memphis must vacate and Wiseman-participated wins, which are all three games he appeared in for the Tigers.
