College basketball practices start around the country in a little over two weeks, but the wait continues for former Hawkeye Jake Kelly.

The NCAA has yet to rule on whether it will grant Kelly a hardship waiver that would allow him to compete at Indiana State this season. Indiana State officials were hopeful to have the matter cleared up by now but twice the NCAA has requested additional information from the Missouri Valley Conference school about a situation it considers precedent setting.

Kelly left Iowa following an honorable mention all-Big Ten season last year, one of four players to leave the Hawkeye program in late March. He cited his mother’s death in June, 2008, and a desire to move to closer to his father’s Terre Haute, Ind., home as reasons for leaving.

That reasoning remains at the center of Kelly’s request to the NCAA to allow him to forego the standard that forces transfers to sit out one year after transferring from institution to another.

Joel McMullen, an assistant athletic director for compliance at Indiana State, told the Terre Haute Tribune-Star that the NCAA is proceding with caution as it reviews the Kelly case.

“The facts in this case are unique. With the timing of things, it is a precedent setter. They want all the points clear before they make a precedent-setting ruling,” McMullen told the publication.

One of the things the NCAA is weighing is if too much time had passed between the time of the death of Kelly’s mother and his decision to transfer.

If the NCAA does not rule in Kelly’s favor, he has a redshirt year available that would allow him to retain two years of eligibility for the Sycamores.

Kelly averaged 11.6 points and 3.1 assists last season for the Hawkeyes.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Hawkeyes Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.