Kentucky Basketball: Nerlens Noel Cleared By The NCAA

Hat tip: Wild Weasel

Nerlens Noel was cleared by the NCAA today to play college basketball at Kentucky. Here is the USA Today story:

Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari said during an interview on ESPN on Wednesday morning that star freshman Nerlens Noel "is cleared to practice and cleared to play games."

Wednesday afternoon, NCAA spokesman Bob Williams confirmed that in an email to USA TODAY Sports. "Nerlens Noel is cleared to practice and compete," Williams wrote.

No doubt this will be greeted with great joy amongst Maryland fans, who had earlier kinda sorta been celebrating his likely absence. Trust me when I tell you that with this young group, that only makes a victory in Brooklyn more likely, not whatsoever a slam dunk. Still, it's nice to be full strength against the Maryland Terrapins and Duke Blue Devils (barring injury, of course).

Many foes of UK and general Calipari haters now have one less thing to write stupid tweets about, which is always welcome. I'm sure Bobby Knight is preparing to launch into a tirade about some ethical question or the other, but the bottom line is -- This is a matter which has now been fully investigated by the NCAA, and somewhat unusually for these types of things, resolved without any sort of punitive action.

The possibilities for schadenfruede are endless. Please feel free to indulge yourselves.