Nebraska guard Ahron Ulis charged in Iowa gambling investigation

The Nebraska basketball program is currently in Spain for a 10-day trip that includes three games against local teams.

When the team departed the U.S. on July 28, Ahron Ulis was expected to play in those games. But after the first contest in Madrid against the Madrid All-Stars on Monday, Ulis didn’t play. Following that game, Husker head coach Fred Hoiberg told reporters via Zoom that Ulis wouldn’t play at all on the trip because he was working through a “situation.”

On Wednesday morning, The Gazette, a newspaper in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, broke the news of why Ulis wasn’t playing. According to John Steppe of The Gazette, Ulis was charged with "tampering with records" by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which is investigating sports gambling at Iowa and Iowa State.

According to a criminal complaint, Ulis, who spent three seasons at Iowa from 2020-23, allegedly made approximately 1,850 wagers that totaled over $34,800. Of those 1,850 approximate wagers, the complaint noted over 750 of them were made before Ulis was 21 years old, which is the legal betting age in Iowa.

According to an updated version of the NCAA’s reinstatement guidelines for sports wagering violations that were approved by the D1 council in June: “For cumulative wagering activities that greatly exceed $800, NCAA reinstatement staff are directed to consider whether additional loss of eligibility, including permanent ineligibility, are appropriate.”

The complaint also alleges at least one of Ulis’ wagers was on an Iowa sporting event, and “over 430” were on NCAA-sanctioned football and basketball games.

Here’s more from the NCAA’s updated reinstatement guidelines for sports wagering violations:

— “Student-athletes who engage in activities to influence the outcomes of their own games or knowingly provide information to individuals involved in sports betting activities will potentially face permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports. This would also apply to student-athletes who wager on their own games or on other sports at their own schools.”

— “If a student-athlete wagers on their own sport at another school, education on sports wagering rules and prevention will be required as a condition of reinstatement, and the loss of 50% of one season of eligibility will be considered.”

Shortly after Nebraska's 86-83 in over Valencia, Hoiberg hopped on a Zoom call to address reporters and denied knowing anything about Ulis' situation during the time when Nebraska was recruiting him.

"We've been working with compliance on this since we were made aware of a possible eligibility issue with him," Hoiberg said via Zoom on Wednesday. "We were not aware of this issue at the time we were recruiting him in the transfer portal this spring. We weren't certain where the eligibility question would end up, we just just focused on the basketball end of things this summer.

"We had no knowledge of any possible legal charges until I was I was made of it just before tonight's game. I can't, and I'm not going to, comment on any of the legal issues."

Hoiberg said he hasn't heard anything about a timeline for a decision on what will happen to Ulis.

"We were made aware of an eligibility issue with Ahron. Really, it was in May when we found out about that, after Ahron was already signed with us," Hoiberg said. "We have no idea when this will all be resolved. We'll continue to cooperate as well as we can through this and take it from there."

What's the plan for Ulis when the team returns home following its Spain trip? Hoiberg said Ulis still won't play in the remaining game in Spain. But the plan right now is to continue normally until more information becomes available.

"He will continue to practice with our team," Hoiberg said.

Nebraska currently has one scholarship available for its 2023-24 roster. Hoiberg stayed

"We've been continuing to look for the best possible player to fill that last scholarship," Hoiberg said. "It's something where we feel really good about getting Matar (Diop) when we did, a really high-quality big man a couple weeks ago. We'll continue to see what develops and what may come to potentially fill that last scholarship as long as that player fits into the culture we have with this group right now. We'll continue to be diligent with it and see where it goes."

Ulis was set to be the top option at point guard for Hoiberg's team this upcoming season. With Ulis' future as a Husker now up in the air, what's the plan at point guard?

During his Wednesday Zoom call, Hoiberg said he's been pleased with how second-year player Jamarques Lawrence has "ran the show" in Spain. Lawrence played in 28 games and started 12 last season as a true freshman.

After a season-ending injury to Emmanuel Bandoumel, Lawrence entered the starting lineup to finish the season and the 6-foot-3 guard averaged nine points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 39 percent from 3-point range.

Another player who's done well at point is 6-4 walk-on guard Cale Jacobsen, a product of Ashland-Greenwood who has "given us really good minutes." Hoiberg also said the 6-6 Ramel Lloyd Jr., who used his true freshman season last year to redshirt, has "shown flashes of being able to handle the ball."

"I feel really good about our bigs being able to initiate offense," said Hoiberg, who noted there were stretches last season where Derrick Walker got the offense started. "Brice Williams is certainly a guy who can get the ball up the floor and get us into our system. I think this team is built to be a multi-handler team. Jamarques, I've been proud of him, he had great minutes as a freshman to play with the ball in his hands.

"We'll see where this goes, but I do like the make-up of this group as far as multiple guys who can get us into our offense."

Discuss this story and more at the Insider's Board.