Xavier has lost its eligibility appeal for freshman forward Will Caudle, who remains a partial qualifier and will be ineligible this season.

        Though Caudle can practice with the team and can earn a fourth year of eligibility if he completes his degree requirements within four years, XU is down to nine scholarship players this season.

        “Will is an amazing kid, and he never stopped working because of that (uncertainty),” XU coach Thad Matta said. “We'll turn a negative into a positive in the fact we get him five years in our program.”

        The NCAA wrote Caudle's mother, Darlene Wellington, in June and said her son, a 6-foot-9, 225-pound graduate of Indianapolis Warren Central, was a half-credit short in English requirements. Caudle's freshman year was at Indianapolis Roncalli, and a course there that his family believed to be a Level II English course was actually Level I, a remedial level.

        Wellington said Warren Central academic counselor Dave Shelbourne had checked his transcripts numerous times and didn't see that discrepancy. Caudle started school at XU this summer and took two English classes, passing both, but the NCAA does not factor that into initial-eligibility decisions.

        “All of this hit us from the blind side,” said William Wellington, Caudle's stepfather. “It's really sad. But we're going to keep our heads up.”

        Caudle averaged 13 points and seven rebounds last season, shooting 64 percent, and made the Indiana all-state team.

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Caudle stays ineligible

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