WICHITA, Kan. -- The NCAA has reinstated eligibility for senior men's basketball guard Clevin Hannah and senior baseball infielder Taylor Gilmore, but both will have to sit out the first three and six regular-season games, respectively, Director of Athletics Eric Sexton announced today.
 
Both played without being properly certified as amateurs prior to the 2008-09 season. They had not violated NCAA rules but were ineligible because of an administrative error.  The NCAA initially reinstated their eligibility subject to the condition that they be withheld for the first 10 percent of the season.  WSU appealed the original 10 percent withholding decision to the NCAA Committee on Reinstatement but was not able to convince the committee to change the outcome.

“I believe we did everything in our power to prove to the NCAA that Clevin and Taylor were not at fault, and consequently should not have been held responsible.” Sexton said. “However, the NCAA is treating all similar cases that occurred during the 2008-09 season with a withholding penalty. We respect the NCAA process because as a member, it is also our process. We have put additional measures in place to ensure that we avoid a similar occurrence in the future.”

“I am certainly not satisfied with the penalty that will cost Clevin three games of his senior season,” said Head Coach Gregg Marshall. “Clevin does not deserve to pay the price for this situation. We did hold him out of the exhibition game in hopes that the committee would consider it as one of the games he had to sit out, but that did not come to fruition.”

Hannah, a 5-foot-11 senior from Holly Springs, Miss., started 33 of 34 games for WSU in 2008-09 after transferring from Chipola, (Fla.) College, and led WSU in scoring with 11.2 points per game.

Gilmore, a non-scholarship infielder, started five of the 20 games he played, while hitting .136 in 2009.