UTC’s Justin Tuoyo loses the ball at the net as he is blocked by Western Carolina’s Torrion Brummitt (4) and James Sinclair (25) during the Mocs’ SoCon basketball game against the Catamounts on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga.Western Carolina guard James Sinclair’s senior basketball campaign can continue.
The 6-foot-2 Sinclair, who was the Southern Conference player of the month for November, was ruled academically ineligible after the Catamounts dropped a 66-60 decision to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last Thursday. He sat out the team’s game against UNC Greensboro, an 82-72 win.
Sinclair has averaged 17.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.1 steals for the Catamounts. He has 986 points in his four-year career.
“Through routine academic processes that are in place for all students, university officials discovered that Sinclair failed to follow proper protocol for repeating an academic course,” a statement on WCU’s athletics website read. “University officials determined through normal review processes that a course he had taken on two occasions had been counted twice in calculating his grade point average, when it should have been counted only once.
“As a result, the student-athlete is now eligible under NCAA regulations to participate fully as a member of the men’s basketball team.”