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Questions About Yarou’s Age Arises
Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News has released a story that Freshman Mouphtaou Yarou may be a bit older than his 19 years on his passport.
DeCourcy sites a 2007 African Cup tournament that notes Yarou’s age, then, as 23.
Villanova’s Compliance Department is on it and they inform us that all of Mouphtaou’s paperwork (his passport, naturalization papers, and international student form) note that the 5-Star Big Man is, indeed, 19 years old.
Yarou had 8 points and 6 rebounds in 26 minutes in ‘Nova’s exhibition win over Kutztown.
Update: Dana O’Neil reports that Yarou will play in Friday’s opener against Fairleigh Dickinson according to Head Coach Jay Wright-”He has been cleared by the eligibility center and will play.”
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33 Responses to “Questions About Yarou’s Age Arises”
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I hope it’s just a typo and this all gets sorted out.
Greg Oden looks 55.
Mouph actually looks 19 (aside from his size)
As such, I don’t doubt that he is 19, but appearances can be deceiving.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
He’s only 19.
Should I be freaking out???
call me very, very ignorant, but it’s not a class (1-4, or 5) thing? wasn’t ralph dalton 40something – or derek coleman – when he finally graduated?
This is always a question with foreign players. I agree that he looks young in his face. His body looks like that of a 25-year old, but some people are genetic exceptions which definitely appears to be the case with Mouph.
Hey, if millionaire businessman Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield; Back to School) can enroll in college as a 50-something student and star on the college diving team, who cares if Mouph is only 25?
Paul '91 Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 9:47 am
AND, Mouph can’t even pull off a “Triple Lindey” if his scouting reports are to be believed.
MIKE Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Ed… I love the Thornton Mellon reference.
tommyboy Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
But is he a chick magnet like Thorton was?
Ed '77 Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
From what I hear, Mouph has become a bit of a cult hero with the fairer sex.
Does anyone understand the process should an official challenge / complaint to the NCAA be made concerning Mouph’s age? What are the criterion for accepting the challenge / complaint? Who collects evidence, who makes the final ruling? Who has standing to make a challenge / complaint to the NCAA?
Thorton Melon was also an olympic-class diver. Have no fear the NCAA will be retroactively scanning the tape for infractions…
Fingers crossed that it’s just a typo… The age thing wouldn’t really matter, except that he’s been playing in international tournaments and whatnot, and the NCAA, being the lackluster institution it is, counts those as years against Mouph’s eligibility, so at 23 he would have just used up all his eligibility
If there is any doubt about the validity of the claims, and if the penalty for using an ineligible player is to retroactively forfeit all games in which the ineligible player participated, the wise thing may be to request a formal declaration of eligibility from the NCAA, and sit Mouph until the response is forthcoming .
That’s just me, I use belt and suspenders. I would think a quick phone call to Mr. Yarou might be in order.
I’m curious as to how this possible bombshell comes out now just as the season is about to start
Nervous Nelly Reply:
November 12th, 2009 at 9:52 am
If you had a bombshell that would potentially be disruptive to your opponent’s season, when would you fire it?
On the FIBA website, if you add the ages of the players up and divide by 12, the average calculates to 24.6, which is 25 rounded up. Yet the listed average age of the team is 24. Why?
Well, if you consider Yarou’s age to be a typo and he was actually 17 instead of 23, then the average of the team comes out to 24.1, which is 24 when rounded down.
What would be the big deal if his age came back at 25? What’s the max age you can play? Anybody know the NCAA legal?
Just a thought maybe Yarou’s age was changed to 23 for the tournament because he was too young. I mean this guy is obviously physically imposing.
EXPLANATION: OK, folks the rub is this… players have 5 years to play 4 years of a sport (skipping the rare 6th year). So yes Rodney Dangerfield can be on the Diving Team at age 50 if he’s never been on an organized team after he turned 21..
Nervous Nelly Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I think what you are saying is that worst case, Mouph has at lease one year of eligibility, even if all the allegations are fact; that is comforting, coupled with confidence that the program would not be “caught with their pants down”.
Who cares what some paper program says. The info is often wrong, ever measure the basketball players, or weigh the football guys? Reminds me of believeing everything you see on the net…….ugh.
read the article. Villanova’s compliance department is not too concerned. The NCAA is not worried – they have already cleared Mouph to play and are referring any and all questions on this to Nova. Seriously, is one to be believe the passport which says his age is 19 or some random website.
The fact that the NCAA is currently okay with the situation along with the math that Mike presented give us confidence that he is fine for this year.
However, if new evidence is presented to the NCAA, I assume they could change their position.
The Nova program would not look bad since it has good reason to think he is 19, but of course it could affect his eligibility next year.
I don’t think our opponents will let this go away any time soon.
tommyboy Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
How old were those Chinese gymnasts?
When do individual tickets go on sale?
Cleared to play according to ESPN.COM!!!!
espn’s resportng that he has been cleared to play. wasnt to worried about this from the begining considering the webbsite had multple errors
his body looks of an NBA player, but he does seem more…….matured?……than the other freshman. it doesnt matter, i think hes 19, but with foreign players its tricky ala Miguel Tejada etc.
Wright was on at 5 with Missy. Discussed the issue regarding Mouph. Said the first he heard of the rumor was 2 days ago. Said even though the NCAA cleared him to play Friday, they still will need to see his birth cert that was sent from his family back in Africa. Said the family knew about this story/rumor 5 years ago and have been trying to get the site to correct the info ever since.
Nervous Nelly Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Well done Jay Wright…
From PhillyNews.com:
“Gordon Finch, Villanova’s assocatiate AD for compliance, told the Sporting News: “I don’t have a compelling need to look into it because I believe it’s probably a typo. We’ve got his passport, his naturalization papers and his international student athlete form, all of which don’t have that [older age] as his birthdate.”
According to the Sporting News, a player named Mouphtaou Yarou is listed on the roster of a team that competed in the 2007 Africa Cup for Men’s Clubs tourney. He’s listed as being from the hometown of Matitingou, one letter off from what Villanova lists as his hometown in Benin, with a birthdate of June 26, 1984. Villanova’s Yarou is from Natitingou. “