Eric Manuel

Eric Manuel (born December 21 1968) was an American college basketball player.

Born in Macon, Georgia; Manuel made the "Parade" and McDonald's All-America teams as a high school senior in 1987. The 6-6/1.98 m small forward/shooting guard signed with the Kentucky Wildcats, and broke into the starting lineup by the middle of his freshman year. He was named to the all-Southeastern Conference freshman team.

Just before the start of his sophomore season, however, questions surfaced about his college admissions exams. Manuel had fallen short of a qualifying score on his previous attempts to take the SAT and ACT. When he took the ACT at Lafayette High School in Lexington—home to UK—he finally got a passing score. In 1989, as part of a larger probe into the Wildcat program, the NCAA investigated Manuel's test scores after finding out he'd made a dramatic nine-point improvement when he took his last ACT. [ [http://www.kernel.uky.edu/sportsdaily/hoops98/page02b.html Kentucky Kernel - Hoops'98 ] ] When Manuel took the ACT at Lafayette High, 211 of a possible 219 answers were the same as those of another student, Chris Shearer. To the NCAA, this suggested that Manuel had cheated. Manuel adamantly denied any wrongdoing, but voluntarily sat out the 1988-89 season while the investigation progressed.

It was to no avail. On May 20 1989, the NCAA placed Kentucky on three years' probation for a number of serious recruiting and academic violations. As part of the ruling, the NCAA took the unprecedented step of banning Manuel from playing another game for "any" NCAA member school. The NCAA found that Manuel had cheated on the ACT and lied to the NCAA and university staff. [cite news |first=William C. |last=Rhoden |authorlink=William C. Rhoden |title=Kentucky's Basketball Program And 2 Players Heavily Penalized |work=The New York Times |date=1989-05-20 |accessdate=2007-10-12 ] It also forced Kentucky to vacate its two wins in that year's NCAA tournament (though it allowed Kentucky to keep all of its regular season wins), saying that UK should have known Manuel was ineligible. In a separate action, the SEC stripped Kentucky of its 1988 regular season and conference tournament titles. [cite news |title=Goodbye, Kentucky |work=The New York Times |publisher= |date= |accessdate=2007-10-12 ]

"Raw Recruits," a book that took a critical look at the UK program, noted that there was an empty seat between all students, and that Shearer was right-handed and sitting to Manuel's left. The book's authors, Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian, said that Manuel would have had to look over an empty space and Shearer's right arm to copy off of him—something that would not (or should not) have gone unnoticed by Shearer and the six proctors for the test had it happened. Shearer reportedly boasted that he'd helped Manuel get into Kentucky. [cite book |last=Wolff |first=Alexander |authorlink=Alexander Wolff |coauthors=Armen Keteyian |title=Raw Recruits |year=1991 |publisher=Pocket Books |location=New York City |isbn=978-0671704285 ]

Manuel transferred to a junior college in Tennessee before enrolling at NAIA power Oklahoma City University. The NAIA initially tried to ban Manuel from playing for any of its member schools as well, but ultimately an Oklahoma district court judge allowed Manuel to play. He helped lead Oklahoma City to consecutive NAIA titles in 1991 and 1992. He was picked up by the New Jersey Nets of the NBA, but couldn't crack the roster. He played for a few years in Europe, then returned to Oklahoma City to work as a sales merchandiser for a Coca-Cola bottling plant. At last report, he was working for an electronics store in Oklahoma City.

References

External links

* [http://bigbluehistory.net/bb/Statistics/Players/Manuel_Eric.html Stats for Eric Manuel] at BigBlueHistory.net