Attorney for Cheick Diallo’s guardian has concerns with NCAA investigation

As the start of the men’s basketball regular season came and went Friday night, Kansas freshman forward Cheick Diallo remained sidelined while the NCAA continues its investigation into his academic eligibility and relationship with his legal guardian, Tidiane Drame.

The NCAA on Friday issued full clearance to Central Florida’s Tacko Fall, who had previously been sidelined in a similar initial eligibility case. But attorney Don Jackson, who is currently representing Drame, told The Star on Friday that he was “not overly optimistic” that a ruling on Diallo would come during the next few days.

Jackson expressed concern that the NCAA has tried to define Drame as an “agent” before interviewing Drame or consulting with the schools that recruited Diallo, including Kansas. In addition to the traditional definitions of an agent, the NCAA classifies an agent as any third party, including family, that “seeks to obtain any type of financial gain or benefit from securing a prospective student-athlete’s enrollment at an educational institution or from a student-athlete’s potential earnings as a professional athlete.”

That definition, in part, is referred to as the “Cam Newton” rule after the former Auburn quarterback’s father tried to benefit from his recruitment. Drame, a Mali-American, helped bring Diallo to the United States during Diallo’s freshman year of high school and has since guided his journey to college basketball.

“That’s a huge issue,” Jackson said of the NCAA’s conduct, “because you go through these investigations, you go through these interviews. At the end of that process, the parties will agree to a ‘statement of facts’ in the case.”

Jackson continued: “In the situation regarding Mr. Drame, the NCAA staff internally — before these schools got involved, they were not a part of the process, they did not interview this young man’s guardian — they took what I believe was a procedurally incorrect step of having him characterized as an ‘agent’ already.

“As a result of that, it complicates this case. It doesn’t just complicate this case. It complicates any future case where you’ve got a questionable relationship.”

Jackson has been adamant that the relationship between Drame and Diallo should be considered acceptable under NCAA rules.

Back in Lawrence on Friday night, Diallo sat at the end of the bench while the KU student section spent some of the night chanting “Free Diallo.” Kansas coach Bill Self has tried to remain optimistic about Diallo’s prospects of playing. But even if Diallo were eligible to play in Kansas’ season opener, Self said there was no guarantee Diallo, a 6-foot-9 forward, would be in the starting lineup.

“He’s really raw,” Self said Thursday. “Raw is good. You can mold raw. … There’s some things he can do you can’t teach. But he needs repetition. Every day that he’s out, it obviously is a negative because he needs the repetition far more than Landen (Lucas) would, let’s say, because Landen already has repetition. It’s a big loss not having him.”

As the case drags on, Diallo could risk missing multiple games, including Tuesday’s trip to the Champions Classic in Chicago. But for the last month, Self said, Diallo has remained a consistent presence at practice.

“He changes practice every day because he tries so hard,” Self said. “If other guys don’t try, they can’t keep up from an effort standpoint. He’s one of the best role models we’ve had, because nobody — nobody since I’ve been here for 13 years — tries harder academically than he does. Nobody.”

Earlier this week, Drame hired legal representation and Self has braced for the possibility of a lawsuit or legal fight. Almost every night, Self says, he’ll receive a text from Diallo, asking if there’s been an update on the case. To this point, there has been none.

“He’s frustrated beyond measure because it’s something that if we can’t understand it, certainly he can’t understand it,” Self said. “All he knows is, ‘I grew up in Mali. I left my family to come over here to live out a dream. I went to where it was a good school. Now they’re saying I can’t play because of the school I went to.’

“It’s hard for us to understand that,” Self continued. “But it’s even harder for him if you stop and think about it.”

Even as the process has dragged on for months, even as Diallo sat out the opener, Self remains hopeful that Kansas’ young big man will become eligible to play this season.

“I’m confident that we will” see him on the floor, Self said. “But that obviously hasn’t been the consensus with everybody making decisions, at least to this point. But it’s still ongoing.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 7:49 PM with the headline "Attorney for Cheick Diallo’s guardian has concerns with NCAA investigation."