Despite being seven games into the season, Southern Miss has yet to learn the fate of guard Andre Curbelo's waiver from the NCAA.
"It's been a very frustrating experience," said Southern Miss coach Jay Ladner in a press conference on Tuesday. "His waiver was filed in a very timely way back in September. There has been little communication from the NCAA concerning his situation. We are seven games in and literally have heard nothing until yesterday."
According to Ladner, the NCAA asked for further documentation on Monday, which Southern Miss filed an extra 35 pages regarding Curbelo's waiver.
Curbelo is a two-time transfer after spending two years at Illinois before arriving at St. John's last year. According to Ladner, the school filed for a "mental health waiver," but Ladner could not share further details regarding the details in the waiver.
"There are seven standards the NCAA requires," Ladner said. "He meant each one of those. I thought, from my naïve self, that it was a no-brainer. He hit and exceeded every one of those standards to obtain the waiver.
"The St. John's people also fully supported the fact that he should play at Southern Miss. That's usually a big part of the waiver, which is support from the prior school. It's a new type of waiver."
St. John's posted an 18-15 overall record in the 2022-23 season but experienced a coaching change after head coach Mike Anderson was fired this past March.
According to the termination letter obtained by ESPN, Anderson was fired for "failure to create and support an environment that strongly encourages student-athletes who are in the men's basketball program to meet all university academic requirements…failure to perform your duties and responsibilities in a manner that reflected positively on St. John's University ... in actions [that] brought serious discredit" to the school and "failure to appropriately supervise and communicate with your assistant coaches."
The frustration for Southern Miss comes after Ole Miss recently received approval for Moussa Cisse. Cisse is also a two-time transfer after spending two seasons at Oklahoma State and then spent last year at Memphis. Both Ole Miss and USM have been using the same law firm to handle their NCAA waiver cases.
"Ole Miss just got a player eligible," Ladner said. "Our waiver was filed at the same exact time by the same exact law firm. Five weeks ago, they had a decision, and they were allowed to appeal. They won on appeal, so the kid is now eligible. What's frustrating is that we haven't even been told that.
"We need to hear something because our team is in limbo. This young man is a game-changer. He is a dynamic player and a potential All-American.
Ladner also provided a small update on senior guard Neftali Alvarez, who could potentially miss the year due to foot surgery. If Alvarez were to play this season, then it would exhaust his NCAA eligibility.
"They said about Christmas will be about the 10 weeks we were told for him to heal," Ladner said. "Nef is going to get a second update on Monday. His first update was perfect. He's progressing really well.
"If we have Curbelo and another guard with Mo Arnold, who is playing his last year, then we probably sit Nef…We will have some decisions to make, but the first thing is making sure that he is 100% healthy."
Southern Miss (3-4) travels to play UAB (4-3) on Friday. The Golden Eagles are familiar with the Blazers after having played them in the NIT tournament last season. Tipoff for that game is set for 6:30 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+.
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