Why Theairra Taylor was denied

Iowa women's basketball freshman Theairra Taylor was denied a medical redshirt by the NCAA on Monday.

Here's why:

Taylor tore her ACL in the Hawkeyes' 10th game. Iowa played in 34 games, meaning that Taylor played in 29.4 percent. The NCAA says that a player must play in less than 30 percent of his/her team's games. So at first glance, Taylor appeared to be safely under the limit.

However, NCAA rules stipulate that postseason games count for a total of one game. So Iowa's three Big Ten tournament games and two NCAA tournament games count for one event instead of five.

With that caveat in place, Taylor played in 10 of 30 games, for 33.3 percent, which makes her ineligible for an additional year.

"This is very unfortunate news for Theairra," said Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder.  "We had originally thought that playing more games would help Theairra get her redshirt, but that wasn't the case.  We are confident that Theairra will bounce back from this news and are still very excited to have her in a Hawkeye uniform for three more seasons."

Taylor averaged 8.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.