URI’s Carey eligible in 2020
The University of Rhode Island’s prospects for the 2020-21 basketball season are getting better by the day.
Syracuse transfer Jalen Carey received a waiver from the NCAA on Wednesday and will be eligible for the upcoming campaign. The news comes just 48 hours after Maryland transfers Makhel and Makhi Mitchell were granted the same approval.
At one time this off-season, when NCAA waivers were up in the air, the Rams had only seven players eligible for 2020-21. The late signing of Ileri Ayo-Faleye made eight, but that group included three freshmen and two players who sat out last season.
Any success in the waiver process would have helped URI’s depth. That Carey and the Mitchells received approval means a potential major impact, on top of the numbers boost. They are all former highly-touted recruits, with high-major pedigree.
URI saved the best for last in pulling in Carey to cap its five-man transfer class. The 6-foot-3 guard was a four-star recruit out of high school who ranked as high as 38th nationally in the class of 2018. He will have three years of eligibility in Kingston.
“As was the case with the Mitchells earlier in the week, getting Jalen immediately eligible is a significant development for the program,”
URI coach David Cox said in a statement. “Jalen is a highly talented player who improves us on both ends of the floor. We are going to be a dangerous team with the versatility to attack the game in a variety of ways.”
Thumb surgery kept Carey out of all but two games this past season, his sophomore year with the Orange. Before that he was a consensus top-80 recruit who picked Syracuse over the likes of Villanova, Kansas, UConn and Miami. ESPN rated him as the fifth-best shooting guard in the country.
As a freshman at Syracuse, Carey played in 25 games, starting two. He averaged 3.5 points in 12.2 minutes per game, with a few tantalizing performances mixed in. Three games into his career, in a game at Madison Square Garden, Carey poured in 26 points. He added 14 points the next night against Oregon.
Carey started the season opener last November but played only one additional game before opting for surgery to fix a thumb injury that he had suffered in the summer.
The waiver news means Carey won’t have to stay sidelined again, and he figures to play a major role in URI’s backcourt. First-team all-conference pick Fatts Russell and former junior-college standout Jeremy Sheppard are now joined by Carey, giving URI a guard unit that projects to be one of the best in the A-10.
URI is awaiting word on the waiver for Charlotte transfer Malik Martin. Towson transfer Allen Betrand will sit out this season.