The Kansas Jayhawks have filed an appeal to the NCAA regarding suspended forward Silvio De Sousa, per Matt Tait of KUsports.com. 

Kansas Athletics issued a statement on the matter, via Tait: "The University of Kansas today submitted its formal appeal on behalf of men's basketball student-athlete Silvio De Sousa, challenging the two-season penalty De Sousa received from the NCAA for alleged violations that he was unaware of and from which he did not benefit."

Kansas held De Sousa out at the beginning of the 2018-19 season after former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola testified that he paid $2,500 to De Sousa's guardian, Fenny Falmagne. The NCAA followed that up by ruling the sophomore ineligible through the 2019-20 season in February.

That ban came less than one month after De Sousa's attorney, Scott Tompsett, demanded the NCAA reinstate his client as the player had cooperated with the investigation and did not commit any wrongdoing himself.

Jayhawks coach Bill Self criticized the lengthy suspension in a statement back in February, per ESPN:

"In my 30-plus years of coaching college basketball, I have never witnessed such a mean-spirited and vindictive punishment against a young man who did nothing wrong. To take away his opportunity to play college basketball is shameful and a failure of the NCAA.

"Silvio is a tremendous young man who absolutely deserves to be on the court with his teammates in a Jayhawk uniform. This process took way too long to address these issues. We will support Silvio as he considers his options."

The NCAA defended the punishment, saying that student-athletes are held responsible for any improper benefits received during the recruiting process whether they are aware of the violations or not, per ESPN: "Membership guidelines state the starting point for these violations is permanent ineligibility, but the NCAA staff recognized mitigation based on the specific circumstances of this case when making its decision."

De Sousa did not play in any games this past season, which saw Kansas go 26-10 and make it to the second round of the 2019 NCAA tournament.

According to Tait, Self said on Tuesday night that he is "still holding out for hope" that De Sousa will ultimately be cleared to play for the Jayhawks again at some point.

A 4-star recruit in the class of 2017, De Sousa averaged 4.0 points and 3.7 rebounds in 8.8 minutes per game as a freshman in 2017-18. He was not able to debut until January 2018 as he waited for the NCAA to certify his amateur status. He played in 20 games in his first season on campus.

Self let it be known in a recent interview with Tait that he would encourage De Sousa to consider entering the 2019 NBA draft rather than wait for a ruling from the NCAA. The deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft is April 22.