Clemson basketball guard Jaeden Zackery addresses his future, possible JUCO ruling
Clemson basketball’s season is over. Jaeden Zackery’s career might not be.
Zackery, who started every game for Clemson this year while averaging 11.7 points per game, has played four seasons of NCAA basketball between the Tigers and Boston College, and five total including his year in junior college.
But the veteran guard and ACC All-Defensive Team honoree could benefit from recent developments surrounding NCAA eligibility for former junior college athletes. Clemson’s staff has been looking into the possibility on his behalf, he said.
“It’s definitely up in the air,” Zackery told The State on Wednesday, one day before Clemson’s first-round NCAA Tournament loss. “I don’t know too much about it. I’ve heard it both ways to where I might have another year and I might not.”
But if he ends up earning another year of eligibility for 2025-26?
“I would definitely love to come back here for another year,” he said.
Zackery’s potential case for another year of his eligibility — which would be his fifth at the NCAA level — stems from recent rulings regarding the status of Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who sued the NCAA in the federal court in an attempt to get back a final year of eligibility.
Pavia had spent two years at a junior college in New Mexico before playing at New Mexico State and Vanderbilt and argued that the NCAA’s eligibility bylaws, which count JUCO years against eligibility, unfairly limited his ability to earn NIL money. A federal judge agreed and issued a temporary injunction allowing Pavia to play.
After the Pavia ruling, the NCAA issued a temporary blanket waiver granting an extra year of eligibility in 2025-26 to any athlete who previously “competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years” and otherwise would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility after 2024-25.
Zackery appears to fit that criteria. He played one year of junior college basketball at Chipola College in Florida in 2020-21 before playing three years at Boston College from 2021-24 and one year at Clemson as a transfer in 2024-25.
Zackery’s eligibility was expected to be up after this season. But following the Pavia news, Clemson coach Brad Brownell said during a February radio appearance that the program was looking into Zackery’s eligibility case and was “optimistic.”
What new JUCO guidance means
A recent NCAA memo has cast some doubt on Zackery’s situation. According to NCAA Division I Board of Directors memo obtained by On3 Sports, athletes who played in JUCO during their “COVID year” won’t be eligible for the waiver.
The NCAA memo says that if “the only season a student-athlete used at a non-NCAA institution was the year for which the student-athlete received relief … due to the impacts of COVID-19,” then that athlete “would not qualify” for the new waiver.
The reasoning, per the NCAA, is that such athletes have “already received relief” and an additional year of eligibility because of that “COVID year” extension. Athletes who received an extra year because of, say, an injury waiver, wouldn’t qualify either.
Zackery appears to fall into that category, too, since he played JUCO in 2020-21 (the year when all NCAA and JUCO athletes received a blanket year of eligibility).
That extra year, prompted by the pandemic, allowed Zackery to play what was widely assumed to be his fifth and final season of college eligibility at Clemson.
“I saw they released a JUCO year (update), and they said that you don’t get a year back,” Zackery said. “It was the year that I was there. But I don’t 100% know how everything’s going. … People are looking into that for me so I can figure it out.”
Zackery had a career-high 24 points in No. 5 Clemson’s NCAA Tournament loss to No. 12 McNeese in Providence, Rhode Island. He finished the season as Clemson’s third leading scorer and led the team in assists (3.1) and steals (1.4) per game.
Regardless of his eligibility situation, Zackery said he intends to put his name into the 2025 NBA Draft pool this offseason and weigh his options after playing five years of college basketball. He’s receptive to starting his pro career overseas, too.
“Once the year ends, I’ll talk with my family and everybody and just figure out what I feel like I want to do and what’s best, and other than that figure it out” Zackery said. “But if I have the other year, I’d love to come back here.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Clemson basketball guard Jaeden Zackery addresses his future, possible JUCO ruling."
