More FBI Investigation Fallout: De'Anthony Melton and Austin Wiley Out for Season

So it’s not really a shock, but with the Brian Bowen news yesterday it’s worth talking about. Both USC and Auburn made decisions today to hold out De’Anthony Melton and Austin Wiley out for the season respectively. We’ll start with USC and Metlon. The Trojans put out the following in a press release:

“Based on information discovered through its internal investigation regarding the receipt of extra benefits, primarily to a close family friend of De’Anthony Melton, USC has concluded that De’Anthony will not compete with the USC men’s basketball team in the 2017-18 season. De’Anthony is a valued member of our program.  He will have options for his future at USC, including remaining in school on scholarship while continuing to work on his degree and practicing with the team, and potentially compete for the Trojans in the 2018-19 season.”

Personally I hate this whole thing. I hate that these guys can’t compete in games over a few thousand dollars – Melton is accused of having a close family friend receive $5,000 from Christian Dawkins who was supposed to steer him toward using Dawkins as an agent and towards Munish Sood as a financial adviser.

As for USC, this is a massive loss as it has been all year. Melton is a first round talent when it comes to the NBA Draft – something he’ll likely be a part of in just a few short months. What makes Melton so important to this USC team is the fact that he impacts the game without the ball in his hands. This team is full of individual talent, but they are missing the thing that sort of stirs it all together. That’s what Melton does. He’s a good defender. He gets others involved. He’s able to score when he needs to. That’s what USC is missing and why they are struggling this year.

For Auburn, it’s a little different. The NCAA announced it was holding Wiley out – something that was different than the USC decision. This was said about Wiley from an NCAA release:

‘Auburn men’s basketball student-athlete Austin Wiley will not be eligible for competition until the 2018-19 season following an NCAA reinstatement decision. After an internal investigation, Auburn self-reported violations involving recruiting, extra benefits and agent-related activity.’

Wiley is another guy who is an NBA talent guy. He was expected to take a serious leap this year since he joined the Auburn team at the midway mark last year. He spent the summer playing for the USA U-19 team in Egypt and was expected to be one of the best bigs in the SEC this season. It’s been a different story for Auburn than USC obviously. Auburn is also without Danjel Purifoy – arguably its two best players – but here the Tigers are sitting with just one loss this season.

Both USC and Auburn had assistant coaches arrested during the investigation. However, there’s even more to this story now. Jonathan Givony of ESPN said these two players were two of a few that weren’t allowed to compete in the G-League this year as well. The reason is because they were enrolled at school for the current academic year. Mitchell Robinson was another player who looked into this according to Givony.

With Wiley being ruled ineligible by the NCAA it makes me believe it’s damn near impossible for the NCAA to let Brian Bowen play this year. He’s currently enrolled at South Carolina, but with the report that his father took money to get him to Louisville via Adidas, I don’t see how a different ruling comes out. Either way, this thing is still hovering over the sport.