BuckeyeXtra: LaQuinton Ross and Ohio State received official word from the NCAA tonight that Ross has been granted initial eligibility to compete as a freshman for the Buckeyes, his former high school coach told The Dispatch.

The 6-foot-8 guard from Jackson, Miss., can rejoin the No.2-ranked Buckeyes on Dec. 9, the day after the end of the fall quarter, and would be eligible to play the next day at Kansas in their first road game of the season.

Ross, who enrolled at Ohio State in June and took summer classes, was denied initial eligibility in September after the NCAA ruled that his combined SAT score and core-course grade-point average did not meet the minimum requirement on the "sliding scale" the NCAA uses to determine initial eligibility.

His scholarship voided, he returned home, took online courses to make up for two classes in which he received D grades as a freshman and sophomore in high school, and took the SAT again on Nov.5. His new SAT score, combined with his original GPA, was good enough to qualify on the sliding scale, said Wilson Arroyo, his former coach at Life Center Academy in Burlington, N.J.

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