NCAA denies eligibility waiver of Memphis star Dain Dainja

According to Jason Munz of the Memphis Commerical Appeal, the NCAA has officially denied the eligibility waiver of Memphis star Dain Dainja. Already playing for five seasons across three different schools, Dainja was hoping to get one more opportunity to play college basketball.

“I’m really proud of Dain and how he handled everything during his time with us,” Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway said in a statement via the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “He gave us great energy every single day and embraced our program and culture from day one. We’re obviously disappointed with the NCAA’s decision because we know what this opportunity meant to him, but that doesn’t take away from the impact he had here. Dain’s future is incredibly bright.

“I just want to thank him for everything he gave to our program — his time, his energy, and his belief in what we’re building here. I also want to thank our compliance office and university administration. They put in countless hours navigating this complex process and worked tirelessly on Dain’s behalf. We’re going to keep supporting Dain however we can, and I know he’s going to be successful wherever life takes him next. He’ll always have a place in our Memphis family.”

Dainja began his career at Baylor back in 2020-2021. He took a redshirt season and watched from the side as the Bears went on to win a national championship. The original goal was to have Dainja be a part of the 21-22 squad, and initially, the plan was executed. However, after three games, Dainja decided he wanted to transfer and made his way to Illinois.

Having to sit out the rest of that season, Dainja was not back on the court until a year later. Two years were spent under head coach Brad Underwood, having a massive role with the program. His final campaign saw him play in all 37 games while averaging 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

Hardaway then won a massive NCAA transfer portal recruitment to bring Dainja to Memphis. This past season was his best of his career, averaging 15.0 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Everyone in Memphis wanted to have Dainja back for another year, potentially looking at one of the sport’s best players.

However, the fight appears to be over after this waiver denial from the NCAA. As Hardaway mentions, thenext chapter is upon the player in the coming months.