Freshman basketball player Emmanuel Negedu, who came to the United States from his native Nigeria in 2005 and did not play organized basketball until he was 15, was a popular and extremely promising player. On September 28, 2009, following a group weightlifting session, he was participating in an impromptu race with a teammate on the indoor practice field at Neyland-Thompson Sports Center. Suddenly, he was on the ground, having suffered sudden cardiac arrest (ventricular fibrillation). UT trainer Chad Newman revived him with CPR and by using an automatic external defibrillator, and Negedu was rushed to UT Medical Center. He was discharged from the hospital October 1, wearing an external defibrillator vest, and on October 6 he had a subpectoral implantable cardiac defibrillator implanted in his chest. He remained on the team and on scholarship but did not play or practice during 2009–10.
UT refused to clear him to play for the 2010–11 season. He sought to transfer to Indiana but failed to obtain medical clearance. He was cleared by the University of New Mexico to play for 2010–11 and in the summer of 2010 received a waiver from the NCAA allowing him to play immediately rather than having to wait out a year.
He returned to the court, playing around 14 minutes per game for the Lobos, but in December 2010 his internal defibrillator gave a reading that prompted the training staff to pull him from the game. He did not play again, and the University of New Mexico announced in April that he would be kept on scholarship and allowed to complete his degree but would not play or practice basketball.