Indiana basketball is still waiting for clarity as the programs completes its roster rebuild.
New head coach Darian DeVries has 11 scholarship players on board so far, but getting to the target of 13 has been complicated as two players from last year’s team attempt to return.
Both Luke Goode and Anthony Leal filed hardship waiver requests to obtain an additional year of eligibility, but as of late May, both are still awaiting a verdict.
“Their waivers are still in process,” DeVries said Wednesday evening at an alumni event. “My understanding, as you probably all know, is a ton of waivers have been filed, I think there’s a little bit of a backup there. From a timing standpoint we don’t really have a lot of clarity on when those decisions will be made. The sooner the better, but that’s really out of our control.”
DeVries acknowledged he has attempted to keep the last two spots open for Goode and Leal.
“That’s why we’ve held back a couple scholarships, trying to see how this process plays out for them, and then making a decision off of that,” DeVries said.
While Goode and Leal are possible late adds to the roster, DeVries is also moving in parallel path under the assumption their waivers are not approved.
“We still have a couple open spots, so we’re still actively recruiting to see if there’s something that fits and makes sense, and we can probably go a lot of different directions with that.
Indiana’s current 11 players will begin arriving on campus over the next week, meaning any new players will be getting a late start. Team workouts should begin next week.
There will be a chance to get caught up via the program’s upcoming foreign tour that provides 10 additional practices this summer. The team travels to Puerto Rico for games August 5-12.
Historically there have been two key criteria to obtain the waiver. First, the player should not have appeared in more than 30% of their team’s games in the applicable season, and second, they should not have appeared in the second half of that season.
Neither Goode nor Leal’s fact patterns appear to be on all fours with those rough guidelines. But recent rulings have demonstrated that these are not rigid requirements, however.
For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
