A mid-summer detour left Jordan Mickey in limbo. Now it appears that the highly touted basketball recruit has a clear path to claiming his roster spot at LSU.
Mickey's father, James Wright, confirmed Saturday morning that his son has been certified as eligible through the NCAA Clearinghouse.?
The 6-foot-7, 195-pound Mickey is now set to enroll at LSU after the NCAA refused to certify him as eligible earlier this month.
Wright said he got a call from LSU officials this week with the news that Mickey's eligibility has been cleared.
"They told me they had their ruling, that the boys are eligible and everything looked fine and is good to go," Wright said.
"I wasn't worried. I didn't want to fuel any fire or misconception, but we felt all along that this would turn out in Jordan's favor. Jordan is an excellent student and never had a problem in a school he's been in. Worrying about his grades was never something we had to do."
ESPN.com writer Jeff Goodman reported on Friday that, like former prep teammate Karviar Shepherd, Mickey's status took a major turn for the better this week after an appeal was considered by the NCAA. ?
Former LSU coach Trent Johnson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Shepherd has been cleared by the NCAA.
Both Mickey and Shepherd had been previously ruled as non-qualifiers by the NCAA for not meeting academic requirements in place for all incoming freshmen. At the heart of the problem were the players' core classes from their senior year at Prime Prep Academy in the Dallas area -- a first-year prep school founded by a group headlined by former NFL star Deion Sanders.
The school's Website declared last January that its curriculum met NCAA guidelines. The NCAA disagreed and summarily deemed all students-athletes from the school ineligible.
Both Mickey and Shepherd transferred to Prime Prep from Arlington Grace Prep after leading that team to a state championship in 2012.
"This has just been one big misunderstanding," Wright said. "At the end of the day, I believe Prime Prep will eventually get all this stuff cleared up.
"Jordan's and Karvier's names were thrown up front, but this thing affected the whole school. Those are the names you heard."
Mickey is a consensus 4-star selection and was ranked as high as No. 41 nationally from the Class of 2013 by Rivals.com. He and Baton Rouge native Jarell Martin are the cornerstones of a six-man class that could vault LSU into the national spotlight in the second year of Johnny Jones' tenure.Following the spring signing period, when Scotlandville star Brian Bridgewater signed with LSU to complete a class ranked 9th in the county by Scout.com and No. 10 by Rivals, Mickey didn't hide his enthusiasm about joining the Tigers.
"I'm excited about being in this class because when we get there, we'll have some experience and some talented new guys," Mickey said. "We have a chance to be a good team really quick.
"I love going into a competitive situation. It helps you figure out who you are and how you need to get better. I think every practice is going to be a battle and that's going to make us better as a team."
While Mickey will apparently be ready to enroll in classes next month, Bridgewater's status remains up in the air. The 6-6, 230-pound forward is not enrolled at LSU yet, although he -- like Mickey -- has played pickup games with the four other newcomers, who have been in class.
**************Randy Rosetta can be reached at rrosetta@nola.com or 225.610.5507.?
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Source: http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2013/07/lsu_basketbal_recruit_jordan_m.html
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