3 ex-Eastern Michigan men's basketball players did not cooperate with gambling investigation, NCAA says

Three former Eastern Michigan University men's basketball players did not cooperate with an investigation into potential sports betting violations, the NCAA said Friday.

Jalin Billingsley, Da'Sean Nelson and Jalen Terry were members of EMU's basketball team during the 2024-25 season but are no longer with the team. 

In January 2025, the NCAA says it was flagged by several integrity monitoring services regarding alleged suspicious first-half betting activity on EMU's Jan. 14 game against rival Central Michigan University. The Chippewas won that game, 82-63. Those monitoring services also found that abnormal betting activity had taken place on two previous games during that season. 

A short time later, the NCAA reached out to EMU in an effort to establish a collaborative investigation. 

On Jan. 29, two days after consulting with legal counsel, the NCAA says Billingsley, Nelson and Terry had their cellphones imaged by an enforcement vendor. NCAA enforcement staff also made attempts to interview the three players through their counsel.

On March 10, 10 days after the conclusion of EMU's season, the NCAA said the players' counsel informed the NCAA that the three players would not participate in the investigation and told the vendor to destroy the images. 

By failing to cooperate with the NCAA investigation, the athletes violated NCAA rules, which the organization said can trigger permanent ineligibility; however, the three no longer have collegiate eligibility remaining.

"When individuals choose not to cooperate — particularly when cases involve potential integrity issues — those choices can and will be met with serious consequences including prohibitions on athletically related activities, the loss of eligibility and/or being publicly named in an infractions decision," the committee said in its decision.

EMU finished the 2025-26 season with a 16-16 overall record and went 9-9 in MAC play.