Jaelin Llewellyn breaks down process of receiving NCAA waiver for 2023-24 season

Jaelin Llewellyn’s first season at Michigan did not go as planned. After transferring to Ann Arbor last offseason, he appeared in just eight games with the Wolverines before tearing his ACL during a matchup with Kentucky in London.

However, now that the NCAA granted him the ability to return through a medical hardship waiver, Llewellyn is ecstatic to return for a sixth season. It wasn’t always certain that such a waiver would be given. Since it did, though, he says it has taken a massive weight off his shoulders.

“I think, like, the math of it worked out. So I was pretty confident that I would be able to get it. But (there) were definitely some worries when there’s no, like, official statement,” Llewellyn said in an interview on the ‘Defend The Block’ Podcast. “But I’m glad I have it now because now I can focus on the future and it’s more definite.”

Llewellyn spent the first four seasons of his college career at Princeton. In 76 games with the Tigers, he averaged 13.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.5 assists. Then, after becoming an All-Ivy League talent, he entered the transfer portal and committed to Juwan Howard.

Over his eight games as a starter with Michigan, Llewellyn averaged seven points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in just over 26 minutes per game. Even so, that all came to a screeching halt after his injury against the Wildcats inside the O2 Arena.

Now, after a couple of months worth of rehab, Llewellyn added that he is more than ready to get back out onto the court.

“I definitely think I am on my way to getting back out there,” Llewellyn said. “I’ve just started again back on the court in the past couple of weeks and doing stuff. More and more athletic things like leg raises and doing stuff the past couple of months since surgery. But it feels good to be moving more and it’s not that fast yet but I will get there.”

With the backcourt fairly empty for Michigan, Llewellyn’s return could be big for the Wolverines next season. Considering it wasn’t promised either, he fully plans to take full advantage of this extra chance too.

Llewellyn reveals the toughest part of his injury recovery

There were high expectations for Jaelin Llewellyn heading into 2022 as the three-year starter at Princeton took his talents to the University of Michigan. But after starting the first eight games of the seasons, Llewellyn suffered a torn ACL that would put an early end to his inaugural season with the Wolverines.

Llewellyn has been on the road to recovery ever since. He recently spoke on the ‘Defend the Block‘ podcast with Jon Jensen about the biggest challenge in that process.

“I think it was probably the fact that it’s been my second major injury. And it’s hard to go through this stuff mentally as well as physically,” Llewellyn said. “And going through it the first time? (It) was kind of like I’m not even sure I can do this again. And, when it happens again, it’s hard to deal with mentally.”

“But you get through those harder days. And you have really good ones too where you see a lot of improvement. And just with our season not ending the way we wanted to? I wanted to be able to put myself in a position to help the team in any way achieve the goals that we set out,” Llewellyn said.