STARKVILLE — The NCAA has ruled Mississippi State forward Kristers Zeidaks ineligible for the 2011-12 men’s basketball season.
The NCAA Eligibility Center confirmed Zeidaks, who is from Latvia, will be suspended for this season and 11 games next season for his participation in a league that included professional players and for playing against professional players in his home country.
Zeidaks will be allowed to practice with MSU, to travel with the team on road games, and to continue to receive financial aid from the university.
The MSU compliance office went through an appeal process in late October with the NCAA Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement after the initial ruling was handed out. The appeal was denied.
The ruling is the second suspension levied against a MSU player by the NCAA in the past two years. Junior forward Renardo Sidney sat out the 2009-10 season and the first nine games of the 2010-11 season after the NCAA determined he received improper benefits and for his unethical conduct.
MSU signed Zeidaks, a 6-foot-8 forward, to a National Letter-of-Intent on July 27. The 21-year-old was scheduled to have three years of eligibility when he arrived in Starkville. After the ruling became official Thursday, Zeidaks will have only a year and a half left of college basketball eligibility.
MSU officials confirmed the issue with Zeidaks’ status isn’t that he was compensated for playing in the Latvian league but that there are questions surrounding the definition of a contract. Zeidaks signed a roster registration form every year from 2008-10 to compete in the league. MSU’s appeal rested on its understanding that the registration forms Zeidaks signed didn’t compromise his amateur status because he wasn’t compensated for playing on the club team.
On the day he signed with MSU, university officials categorized it as “extremely likely” Zeidaks would have to sit out some games at the start of this upcoming season, but they were surprised by the length of punishment the NCAA handed out.
“We are incredibly disappointed by the NCAA’s ruling regarding Kris,” MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin said in a university release. “Mississippi State has not yet seen a written report of the appeal committee’s decision, thus we will withhold further comment until we’ve received that report and had the opportunity to review with our compliance staff and outside counsel.”
An appeal to the Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement is the last resort for an institution trying to get a different ruling on a player’s current eligibility after a ruling by the NCAA staff.
Another point of contention between MSU and the NCAA was whether Zeidaks’ case should be decided by a rule the Eligibility Center changed last year. The NCAA amended its rules to say an athlete may maintain eligibility if he plays against professionals, but not if he plays with them and if he’s not compensated for the games he participates in.
“Mississippi State men’s basketball student-athlete Kristers Zeidaks must sit out … for signing a contract with a professional basketball club and competing with professionals in games between 2008-2010 prior to enrolling at Mississippi State,” NCAA spokesperson Christopher Radford said in a written statement. “The circumstances of this case do not fall under the parameters of the new rules governing competition with professionals and contracts with professional teams that became effective August 2010.”
Mississippi State Director of Compliance Bracky Brett said in July that Zeidaks’ situation was “not very complicated” and similar to the issues regarding MSU’s international recruits in tennis and other non-revenue sports, but “somewhat unique to the men’s basketball office from time to time.”
MSU coach Rick Stansbury declined comment Thursday when contacted by The Dispatch, saying the process was still in the appeal stage.
Zeidaks didn’t play in MSU’s exhibition game against Florida Tech on Saturday. He will be ineligible to participate in the team’s final exhibition game at 7 tonight against defending NAIA national champion Pikeville at Humphrey Coliseum.
MSU will open its 2011-12 regular season at 7 p.m. Monday against Eastern Kentucky in the opening round of the 2K Sports Invitational.
Zeidaks, who took the open scholarship left by the withdrawal of center John Riek from the basketball program earlier in July, represented his country in the Under-20 European Championships last year. In six games, he averaged 13.7 points and 6.2 rebounds, shot 47.1 percent from the field, and had six steals. His best outing was against Greece, when he had 19 points.
The NCAA’s ruling on Zeidaks leaves MSU with just six front-court players on scholarship. Only junior center Renardo Sidney and junior forward Wendell Lewis have participated in a regular-season game for the Bulldogs.
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