The Bubu Palo appeals case took another turn Jan. 23, one day after the Iowa Board of Regents appealed last week’s temporary stay to the Iowa Supreme Court.

While Palo said he wasn’t given an opportunity to transfer to another institution after ISU President Steven Leath removed him from the ISU men’s basketball team Aug. 30, ISU athletic department said Jan. 23 that wasn’t the situation.

In the district court’s ruling last week which allowed Palo to be reinstated to the basketball team, Judge Thomas Bice wrote that Leath issued his decision five days after the deadline for Palo to be able to transfer.

In a statement Jan. 23, the ISU athletics department said Leath notified Palo and his lawyer Matthew Boles on Aug. 21 that his decision would come within 10 days. The statement said, “Boles acknowledged receipt of the notice and did not raise any concerns with respect to the decision timeline.”

After Leath’s decision Aug. 30, Iowa State said Boles contacted ISU Athletics Director Jamie Pollard to ask if he or Leath would support a waiver to transfer. According to Iowa State, Pollard told him that both he and Leath would support it.

“After that point, neither Palo nor his attorneys ever provided Iowa State University with an official transfer request,” the statement read.

Boles, in an email to the Daily on Jan. 23, had no comment. Palo said in an interview Jan. 19 he would have moved on had Iowa State notified him.

“If they had said, ‘Now we reviewed it and we don’t want you to represent the university,’ I would have been disappointed, but at least I would have had the opportunity to continue my basketball career, considering I missed most of last year and I wasn’t really ready to play,” Palo said.

After Leath removed Palo from the basketball team Aug. 30, Palo appealed to the regents, who affirmed Leath’s decision Dec. 5. Palo had no other option but to appeal that decision to a district court, which granted Palo the temporary stay Jan. 16 that allowed him to return to the team while the appeal played out.

Palo returned to the basketball team Jan. 20 at practice and said he would initially be on the scout team. On Jan. 22, the Iowa attorney general’s office, on behalf of the regents, appealed the district court’s stay to the Iowa Supreme Court asking for “emergency relief” and an immediate stay to keep Palo from playing.

Leath had no statement, but John McCarroll, executive director of university relations, said Iowa State agrees with the regents’ appeal.

“The arguments made in the filings [Jan. 22] with the Iowa Supreme Court [by the Board of Regents] certainly reflect our positions [regarding] the district court ruling,” McCarroll wrote in an email Jan. 23.

ISU men’s basketball returns to the court 12:45 p.m. Jan. 25 at Hilton Coliseum against Kansas State. Palo is eligible to dress for the Cyclones pending a decision by the Iowa Supreme Court.