Junior men’s basketball guard Giovanni McLean will not play basketball at Quinnipiac University to begin the 2014-15 season, stemming from an investigation involving transcript fraud, according to Vice President for Public Affairs Lynn Bushnell.
“The NCAA has issued a temporary waiver allowing Giovanni McLean to continue his studies at the university for the remainder of the fall semester,” Bushnell said. “He is, however, prohibited from playing and practicing with the basketball team until the NCAA issues a final decision.”
McLean transferred to Quinnipiac this year from Westchester Community College.
McLean, a native of the Bronx, NY, averaged 16.8 points and 7.4 assists per game with Westchester last season. He helped them advance to the 2014 NJCAA Division I National Tournament. In the tournament’s first round, McLean scored a season-high 34 points and seven assists in a double overtime loss to Wallace State Community College. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound guard also had offers from Oklahoma, Missouri, St. John’s and Fordham, among other schools.
Quinnipiac men’s basketball head coach Tom Moore said that both McLean and sophomore Kasim Chandler would see significant time at point guard this season at Quinnipiac Media Day on Sept. 28. At the time, Moore added that the two could play together.
Other colleges removed three of McLean’s WCC classmates from their rosters, after Richard Fields, the men’s basketball assistant coach at WCC, was fired Oct. 16 for forging a signature on their transcripts. WCC is working with the Inspector Generals Officer and the National Junior College Athletic Association about the investigation, according to Patrick Hennessey, a spokesman for WCC.
Keith Thomas of St. Johns University was ruled academically ineligible, and Jamell Walker and Damien Davis of Florida A&M University had their full scholarships revoked, according to Lohud news.
The WCC men’s basketball program has since been suspended during investigations.
“At this point we are working with the Inspector Generals Office and we decided to suspend our own program at the time being while we take a look at the transcripts,” Hennessey said.
On Oct. 22, an academic fraud scandal revealed nine university employees were fired at the University of North Carolina, according to NBC News. The investigation found that nearly 1,500 student athletes were getting A’s and B’s automatically in courses and about 3,100 students were enrolled in courses that did not even exist.
