QUESTIONS RAISED ON AGE, ELIGIBILITY OF MOUPHTAU YAROU

An odd story concerning Villanova circulates this morning as Questions About Age of Moupthau Yarou Arise according to Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News.

Multiple sources pointed Sporting News to an item on the website for FIBA—basketball's international governing body—that listed a Mouphtaou Yarou, age 23, as competing in a 2007 Africa club tournament.

If Yarou were 25 now rather than 19, as his bio on the Villanova website indicates, it would be possible he could be ineligible to compete for the Wildcats. If it were the same person and the FIBA age is correct, this could jeopardize Yarou's college basketball eligibility. NCAA rule 14.2.3.5 states that in each year an athlete enters any organized competition beyond his 21st birthday, the athlete sacrifices one year of eligibility.

Villanova is currently not concerned with the issue as they have received his passport, his naturalization papers and his international student athlete form which report him as being born in 1990. A compliance official, according to the Sporting News, plans to speak with the freshman big man about the issue.

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