New on Sports Illustrated: Report: James Wiseman Signs With Agency, Officially Ending College Career

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James Wiseman has officially turned his attention to preparing for the 2020 NBA draft.

James Wiseman has officially turned the page to the next stage of his basketball career. 

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Wiseman, a potential No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft, has signed with Excel Sports for his professional representation, ending his college career. In doing so, he will start preparing for the 2020 draft.

On Dec. 19, Wiseman announced that he had left the University of Memphis and was turning his attention to the NBA.

Wiseman's departure from Memphis came amid a 12-game suspension he was in the middle of serving. He received the ban on Nov. 20 after the NCAA discovered his mother accepted $11,500 from coach Penny Hardaway to help the family relocate from Nashville to Memphis in 2017. Wiseman was still in high school at the time. The NCAA also ordered him to donate $11,500 to a charity of his choice. Memphis appealed Wiseman's suspension, which the NCAA ruled to uphold on Nov. 27. He was eligible to return from his suspension on Jan. 12, 2020, when Memphis faces South Florida.

Hardaway was an assistant coach at East High School in Memphis at the time he made the payment to Wiseman's mother. The NCAA determined he was a University of Memphis booster because he donated $1 million to the school in 2008 to help establish its Penny Hardaway Hall of Fame.

Wiseman was first ruled ineligible by the NCAA on Nov. 8, hours before Memphis' game against Illinois-Chicago. However, a Tennessee judge put the ruling on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the forward against the NCAA. Wiseman later withdrew his lawsuit because it became "an impediment" to Memphis' efforts to reach a resolution with the NCAA on his eligibility status, his lawyers said.

Wiseman played three games for the Tigers, averaging nearly 20 points per game on 77% shooting from the field. 

In joining Excel Sports, he joins an agency that represents a number of the league's top players, including Nikola Jokia, Kemba Walker, Kevin Love and Brandon Ingram. 

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