Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Otzelberger: UNLV cooperated with Joel Ntambwe waiver request

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Steve Marcus

UNLV Runnin’ Rebels head coach T. J. Otzelberger responds to a question following the Rebels 86-71 win over the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons at the Thomas & Mack Center Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019.

The NCAA has denied Joel Ntambwe's waiver request to play this season for Texas Tech, and on Friday UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger said his program "cooperated" with Ntambwe's request and the NCAA during the process.

Ntambwe emerged as a starting forward for UNLV last season as a freshman under Marvin Menzies, but when Menzies was fired Ntambwe entered the NCAA transfer portal. When Otzelberger was hired two weeks later, the new coach tried to re-recruit Ntambwe and let him know that his scholarship would be honored.

Ntambwe decided to transfer to Texas Tech, however, and under NCAA rules transfers between Division-I programs have to sit out a redshirt year before gaining eligibility. Players can apply for a waiver for immediate eligibility, but those requests are usually based on some type of hardship, such as a need to be closer to home to deal with a family crisis.

A transfer can also be granted immediate eligibility at his new school if it's discovered that he was "run off" from his old school—a common occurrence in college basketball that happens when a new coach decides he doesn't want to honor the scholarship of a player he has inherited.

On Thursday, Texas Tech coach Chris Beard spoke to the press and laid the blame on the NCAA for its inconsistency in determining which players receive waivers and which players are denied.

"I'm really disappointed for Joel. I'm floored by it. Sick stomach all day long. Just feel terrible for him," Beard said. "It's not my place to put the case out there in the public light, but I would tell you that he had a more than legitimate case on why he transferred from his first institution out of his control. I really don't understand this."

Three other UNLV transfers were granted waivers to play immediately this season: Trey Woodbury at Utah Valley, Tervell Beck at Kent State and Ben Coupet at Little Rock. Former Rebel Shakur Juiston (Oregon) is also playing immediately, but he is a grad transfers and therefore did not need to apply for a waiver. Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua reportedly did not apply for a waiver and is sitting out a redshirt year at Baylor.

That led to some speculation (and online accusations from Texas Tech fan blogs) that UNLV somehow opposed Ntambwe's waiver request and actively worked to get it denied by the NCAA.

Otzelberger pushed back against that idea.

"We've cooperated," Otelberger said. "It wasn't brought to our attention until recently that Joel was seeking a waiver. Many of the other ones, it was brought to our attention immediately that that was the course of action. We just recently found that out about Joel and we've been cooperative to this point."

When a transferring player applies for a waiver, the NCAA requests certain information from the previous school, including a report on the player's academic standing and, most pertinently, whether he would have been welcomed back under scholarship.

Otzelberger made it clear that Ntambwe could have returned to UNLV this season, but chose to transfer.

"Joel wasn't ran off the team," he said, "and so we've supported the NCAA in the findings that they had and said, "You know what, whatever you guys think is the right course of action, we'll be supportive of that in this case."

Current Runnin' Rebel Donnie Tillman received a waiver after transferring from Utah over the offseason. Otzelberger juxtaposed Tillman's situation, in which he moved back to Las Vegas to help manage his mother's health, with Ntambwe, who transferred purely for basketball purposes.

"I think first of all there has to be a basis for getting a waiver," Otzelberger said. "Donnie Tillman's waiver makes sense because his mom is here and there's some circumstances that present themselves that make sense [why] someone is moving back to home. Everyone is handled uniquely in how they're evaluated. The NCAA pretty much makes those decisions. I think from the university's standpoint, our stance on each of them is you either end up in a position of you support it—you support what the NCAA says—or you're not in support of things. To me, we've taken a stance on the waivers of, the guys that were essentially run off the program, we've supported all those. Beyond that, we support the decision that the NCAA makes and how they go about going through that process and leave it in their hands."

UNLV has two transfers who are sitting out the 2019-20 season in junior guard David Jenkins and sophomore forward Moses Wood. Jenkins, like Ntambwe, decided to transfer after a coaching change at his previous school (Otzelberger moved from SDSU to UNLV in March); unlike Ntambwe, Jenkins did not apply for a waiver because he wouldn't have had much of a case.

After sitting out this year, Ntambwe will have three seasons of eligibility remaining at Texas Tech.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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