Syracuse Basketball: Next landing spot for Jalen Carey is almost here

Syracuse basketball transfer Jalen Carey will reveal his future collegiate home later this week.

Jalen Carey, who is transferring from Syracuse basketball, has neared the end of his recruiting process.

Carey, a 6-foot-3 combo guard who hails from Harlem, N.Y., plans to unveil this Friday where he will next play hoops, according to his Instagram account as well as articles from Mike Waters of Syracuse.com, Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog, and others.

A top-100 prospect nationally in the 2018 recruiting cycle, Carey attended Immaculate Conception High School in Montclair, N.J., and ultimately picked the Orange over former Big East Conference rival Connecticut.

Which direction Carey is leaning as it pertains to his new collegiate program is a total mystery. To my knowledge, he hasn’t publicly come out with any sort of list detailing his finalists, which oftentimes high-school prospects and transfers will do.

Previous media reports have indicated that Carey has received interest from Marquette, Creighton, UConn, Georgetown, Alabama, BYU and Rhode Island. These are all strong teams, and Carey would make all of them better.

Syracuse basketball transfer Jalen Carey is expected to ask the NCAA for a waiver regarding his eligibility.

Besides the mystery about where Carey is leaving Central New York for, it’s also unclear when he will officially suit up, and for how long.

In the 2019-20 campaign, his sophomore stint, Carey missed virtually the entire stanza due to an unfortunate thumb injury. He is likely to apply with the NCAA for a waiver to have three years of eligibility left, rather than two.

Also, the NCAA currently requires traditional transfers in men’s basketball and several other sports to sit out one term before getting on the court, which is totally unfair.

However, it’s certainly possible that Carey could apply with the NCAA for a waiver to have the ability to compete in the upcoming 2020-21 season.

Therefore, it’s feasible that at some point soon we’ll know where Carey will play, what campaign he officially starts in, and how many years of eligibility he will have remaining.

ESPN.com recently slotted Carey at No. 36 in its rankings of spring sit-out transfers eligible for 2021-22. He didn’t appear in the top-30 ratings of traditional transfers by 247Sports.

It will prove interesting to see where Carey has elected to don a uniform moving forward, and we’ll of course keep you posted on his big announcement this Friday.