Senior center wins NCAA eligibility appeal, boosting Louisville basketball's depth for 2025-26

Aly Khalifa won his NCAA eligibility appeal and will be able to play for Louisville basketball during the 2025-26 season.The decision was made public Friday, in a video the Cardinals shared to X, formerly Twitter.On May 15, U of L announced via statement the NCAA denied Khalifa's initial request for an extension of his five-year clock to use his fourth and final season of eligibility.

The 6-foot-11 native of Alexandria, Egypt, sat out of the Cards' 2024-25 campaign to undergo, and recover from, surgery to repair a hole in the cartilage of his left knee.Khalifa retained attorney Darren Heitner for his efforts to regain eligibility.

Heitner has represented Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino.Had a big team meeting today....Stay til the end #GoCardspic.twitter.com/X1q4uTn1s1 Louisville Men's Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) June 27, 2025In total, Khalifa has appeared in 94 games across three seasons two at Charlotte (2021-23), after he redshirted as a freshman in 2020-21, and one at BYU (2023-24).

Division I athletes typically get five years to play four seasons.Khalifa told The Courier Journal in May 2024 the knee injury had been bothering him since his time with the 49ers and got worse when he "tweaked it a little bit" with the Cougars.

He still managed to appear in 29 of BYU's 34 games as a junior under now-Kentucky coach Mark Pope and led all DI big men with a 3.6 assist-to-turnover ratio to go along with 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds across 19.4 minutes per contest."I was doing conditioning only on the bike," Khalifa said.

"I didn't really practice as much; I would only do half-court stuff; I didn't run in practice.

I didn't even run in (pregame) warmups.""When I came to Louisville on the visit, we saw the doctors; and they told me, 'Yeah, you need the surgery,'" he later added.

"I appreciate the coaching staff for believing in me and telling me, 'We're going to do the surgery for you; we need you for next year; we're going to get you in the best shape of your life.'"For his career, Khalifa is averaging 8.5 points on 47% shooting (35.3% from 3-point range) with 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists against 1.5 turnovers across 24.3 minutes per contest.In mid-January, Louisville coach Pat Kelsey told reporters that Khalifa and senior guard Kobe Rodgers, who was also sidelined due to a knee injury, had been cleared to practice and were getting back into the swing of things on the scout team.

He told reporters they would not be available to play in a game during the 2024-25 season."Being cleared to play and being able to play at a high level (are different)," Kelsey said.

"They can give you a possession or two at a time, but it's going to take time for them to get stronger."In February, strength coach Eli Foy shared an update on Khalifa's recovery process to Instagram, noting he dropped 49 pounds.

"The accountability, effort and commitment to a healthy lifestyle has been inspiring to watch," he wrote.Getting Khalifa eligible is a big win for Kelsey, whose frontcourt would have been thin without him.

Other notable bigs on the Cards' 2025-26 roster include Kasean Pryor, who had his 2024-25 season cut short by a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, and Sananda Fru, a 21-year-old who is joining the team from the professional ranks in Germany.Last year's go-to center after Pryor's injury, rising junior James Scott, entered the NCAA transfer portal in late April and signed with Ole Miss.

This story will be updated.Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton..oembed-frame {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;}This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball: Aly Khalifa wins NCAA eligibility appeal.

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