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Report: NCAA has yet to clear Kentucky's Skal Labissiere

Report: NCAA has yet to clear Kentucky's Skal Labissiere

Two months ago, Kentucky coach John Calipari downplayed a question regarding whether he was confident coveted freshman Skal Labissiere would be eligible by the start of the season, telling reporters in Lexington, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah."

Turns out it may not be so simple.

With Kentucky's season opener only five weeks away, Labissiere still has not been cleared to play by the NCAA, his guardian Gerald Hamilton told ESPN.com on Wednesday. At issue are some red flags in how Hamilton handled the 6-foot-10 forward's high school years after he immigrated from Haiti in 2010 following the massive earthquake that hit the country.

A Memphis AAU coach told CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish last November that Hamilton once sought his advice on how to profit from an elite prospect. Multiple college coaches also anonymously told Parrish that they weren't bothering to recruit Labissiere because Hamilton had strongly implied that it would require a donation to his charity just to get in the door.

When Hamilton had Labissiere attend two different Memphis-area high schools and play for three different AAU programs, it led to the Tennessee School Sports Athletic Association ruling the prospect ineligible to compete his senior year. Hamilton responded by creating something called Reach Your Dream Prep, a home school team that essentially existed only so that Labissiere would have somewhere to play last year that was outside TSSAA jurisdiction.

Given all that, it's not hard to see why NCAA investigators would want to take a hard look at Labissiere's guardian before clearing him to play as a freshman. Nonetheless, Calipari seems confident that Labissiere will be ruled eligible to play by the time the Wildcats open the season next month.

Having Labissiere eligible will be crucial to Kentucky's hopes of returning to the Final Four and challenging for the national championship. Labissiere, Rivals.com's No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2015, is formidable enough at both ends of the floor that scouts consider him a surefire lottery pick in next June's NBA draft.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!