Syracuse Center Fab Melo Ineligible For Entire NCAA Tournament

Word trickled out shortly after that the eligibility issue was related to academics. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports gleaned some information from CBS Sports, indicating that the NCAA looked into Melo’s schoolwork and found that “he didn’t do some of the work.”

Whether this means that Melo did not do certain assignments or perhaps had someone else do the schoolwork for him is unclear at this time. Either way, Melo’s ineligibility is nothing but bad news for the Orange, who will enter the tournament as a No. 1 seed but are a significantly weaker team without their center.

Melo was suspended indefinitely on Jan. 21 and missed three games before rejoining the team on Feb. 2. With Melo sidelined, Syracuse suffered its first and only loss of the regular season in a 67-58 defeat at Notre Dame on Jan. 21. The Orange then defeated Cincinnati 60-53 and West Virginia 63-61 before Melo returned.

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Syracuse center Fab Melo did not travel with the team to Pittsburgh and will not participate in the NCAA Tournament because of an eligibility issue, the university announced Tuesday.

Melo, the starting center for the Orange, had been averaging 7.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. His presence was felt more on the defensive end, however, where he was averaging 2.9 blocks. He was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Year before the start of the conference tournament last week.