Alabama 5-Star Transfer Jahvon Quinerly's Appeal to Play This Season Denied

Alabama point guard Jahvon Quinerly's appeal to play this season after transferring from Villanova was denied Tuesday, according to ESPN's Jeff Borzello.

Per Joey Blackwell of Sports Illustrated, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne and head men's basketball coach Nate Oats released a joint statement on the NCAA's decision:

"We can't begin to express how disappointed we are with this decision. Jahvon and his family have been through a set of circumstances that no student-athlete in the history of the NCAA has experienced. 

"Their name has been falsely dragged through the mud for two years, and we felt confident that the NCAA Committee for Legislative Relief would recognize this very unique set of circumstances. We will continue to support Jahvon and his family in every way that we can."

When Quinerly committed to Villanova in 2018, he was a 5-star recruit and the No. 29 overall player and No. 7 point guard in his class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

Although Quinerly appeared in 25 games for Villanova last season, he averaged just 3.2 points, 0.9 assists and 0.8 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per contest. As a result, he transferred to Alabama in June a few months after Oats was hired away from the University at Buffalo.

Before Quinerly signed his letter of intent with Villanova, he committed to Arizona in 2017 but decommitted following an FBI probe into whether recruits received improper benefits, per Borzello. Quinerly was recruited to Arizona by former assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson, who was arrested as part of the probe.

The denial of a waiver to Quinerly is a major blow to an Alabama team that suffered a surprising season-opening loss to Penn before bouncing back with a 78-59 win over Florida Atlantic.

The Crimson Tide are coming off an 18-16 season, and they have reached the NCAA tournament just once in the past seven seasons.

With Quinerly ineligible to play until the 2020-21 campaign, Kira Lewis Jr., Jaden Shackelford and John Petty Jr. are in line to eat up most of the minutes at guard this season.