Cal Basketball: NCAA Grants Eligibility to Top Transfer Jaylon Tyson

Cal confirmed the news, with coach Mark Madsen saying in a statement: “We are very thankful that the NCAA has approved Jaylon Tyson’s waiver for immediate eligibility. We are excited that he will be back on the court Friday night playing the game he loves.”

Tyson, a 6-foot-7, 215-pound junior forward, came to Cal from Texas Tech, where he averaged 10.7 points and 6.1 rebounds and shot nearly 40 percent from the 3-point arc last season.

The NCAA denied his eligibility last month on the basis that he is a two-time transfer, having begun his career at Texas.

Tyson’s argument for eligibility centered on his treatment by former Texas Tech coach Mark Adams, who Tyson argued made racially insensitive comments to him.

“Last year, I was racially discriminated against on multiple occasions. I was called a slave, and that Mark Adams was my master,” Tyson, who is Black, told Sports Illustrated. “When he said that I kind of froze and went down a dark path in my life that I had never [experienced] before. It was very embarrassing for me and my family to have to go through this process.”

Those remarks, along with a report by Goodman that Adams had spit in the face of another player and defended his right to do so, made it shocking that the NCAA didn’t immediately accept Tyson’s bid for eligibility as a transfer.

Adams was dismissed as Tech’s coach after the season, although inexplicably he has an assistant coaching position at another school.

Madsen, talking about the issue after the NCAA first denied Tyson, said he was confident the decision would be reversed.

“I’ve looked at the waiver material — I’ve been looking at it for months — and I believe he has a very . . . I believe it’s extremely important for Jaylon Tyson to be granted this second waiver,” he said.

“Not only for himself, but for every other student-athlete who finds himself in a situation like this in the future.”

Without Tyson, Cal opened its season Monday with a 71-66 victory over St. Thomas of Minnesota. The Bears face Pacific (0-1) on Friday with an 8 p.m. tipoff at Haas Pavilion.