The NCAA, upon second thought, has decided to give Peace a chance.
Pitt freshman center Peace Ilegomah has been cleared to play by the NCAA and is immediately eligible, school officials announced Friday. The decision is the end result of a Pitt appeal filed last month to reverse an earlier NCAA ruling that would have forced the Benin City, Nigeria, native to miss the 2017-18 season and lose a year of eligibility.
“Our compliance team, led by Dustin [Gray], along with [assistant coach] Sam [Ferry], did a tremendous job working with the NCAA to determine Peace’s eligibility status,” Pitt head coach Kevin Stallings said in a statement. “Peace is an outstanding young man with a terrific opportunity to grow on and off the court at the University of Pittsburgh.”
The NCAA’s original ruling came after it deemed that Ilegomah’s final year of schooling in Nigeria was equivalent to the ninth-grade level in the United States. After moving to the country at age 14, Ilegomah attended high school for four years in the U.S. before spending a prep season at Montverde Academy in Florida.
Based on the NCAA’s evaluation, those five years, along with his final year of school in Nigeria, meant Ilegomah was effectively in high school for six years. The NCAA requires that incoming prospects graduate high school within five years or else they lose eligibility in some way.
With the decision, the 6-foot-9 center gives the Panthers another tall player on a team decidedly short on them, though Stallings has said previously that Ilegomah is developmentally behind fellow big men such as Ryan Luther, Terrell Brown and Kene Chukwuka. In his prep school year at Montverde’s Center for Basketball Development, Ilegomah averaged 11 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks per game.
Pitt’s 2017-18 season begins in two weeks, with a Nov. 10 matchup at Navy.
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG
First Published: October 27, 2017, 9:15 p.m.