Andy Van Vliet didn’t suit up for the Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s exhibition game Wednesday night against UW-River Falls due to eligibility issues.

The situation arose because Van Vliet, a 6-foot-11 freshman from Belgium, played last year in Europe as a freshman. The NCAA prohibits players from being eligible if they don’t enroll in a college within one year of their high school graduation.

Before the game, UW announced the university’s waiver to make Van Vliet eligible for this season had been denied. The school filed the original waiver, citing factors beyond Van Vliet’s control, according to a statement. Wisconsin said it will immediately appeal the decision.

UW head coach Bo Ryan said the appeals process shouldn’t take too long.

“His is an unusual circumstance, but that didn’t stop all the other teams in the U.S. from trying to get him,” Ryan said after the exhibition Wednesday night.

The coaching staff brought Van Vliet on late in the recruiting process. They knew the process of getting any foreign player eligible in a short time period would be difficult, but expected him to be cleared by the season’s start.

Ryan said the staff has been aware that Van Vliet’s situation could be problematic all along, but it didn’t worry them.

“It’s a long story. We’ll see how the appeal goes,” Ryan said.

At media day two weeks ago, Van Vliet said the only problems he ran into during his recruiting process was standardized testing.

“[Assistant coach Gary] Close, the coaching staff, they just helped me through it all,” Van Vliet said.

Nick Brazzoni contributed reporting to this article.