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Okla St.'s J.P. Olukemi granted a full-year of eligibility by the NCAA

SMU v Oklahoma State

DALLAS, TX - DECEMBER 28: Jean-Paul Olukemi #0 of the Oklahoma State Cowboys takes a shot against the Southern Methodist Mustangs at American Airlines Center on December 28, 2011 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

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J.P. Olukemi was embroiled in one of the weirder eligibility appeals I’ve come across.

The high school that Olukemi was attending got shut down in the middle of a school year, so the coaches at the program sent him off to a Junior College to finish up that academic year. He never played basketball at the first JuCo he went to, transferring to a different JuCo where he began playing basketball.

But the way the NCAA rules work, his five-year clock -- you have five years to use up four seasons of eligibility -- started ticking when he enrolled at the first JuCo. Fast forward five years to this season, and Olukemi’s eligibility was scheduled to run out at the end of the first semester.

Luckily, it appears as if he got a waiver:

This is huge news for the Pokes.

Marcus Smart and Le’Bryan Nash are a great 1-2 punch, but without a strong supporting cast, this team won’t go far. With Brian Williams already out for the year with a wrist injury, Oklahoma State couldn’t afford not having Olukemi the second half of the season.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.