CHARLOTTE — Dillon Hunter’s future at Clemson remains unknown at this point.

When last season ended, it was widely believed that Hunter’s collegiate career was over. While the NCAA has instituted a new five-for-five rule, granting all current and future student-athletes five seasons of eligibility, members of the 2022 signing class, whose eligibility was exhausted after last season, were not grandfathered in. Hunter contemplated entering his name in the transfer portal just in case something changed.

When the summer months hit, nothing had changed and Hunter elected to sign a professional contract with a German team. Not long after that, a group of athletes, including Hunter, were granted an injunction by a Georgia judge, giving them a fifth season of eligibility.

Hunter then found a way out of the professional contract he’d signed in favor of returning to Clemson. Then in September, the NCAA was granted a stay in the case, and suddenly Hunter was again ineligible. The stay does not overturn the injunction that originally gave the veteran guard a fifth season, but it pauses things while the appeal proceeds through the legal process.

At the ACC Tipoff on Wednesday, Brad Brownell was asked where things now stand with Hunter.

“He can practice every day, and he is doing it,” the head coach said. “He is going to school. He is doing all those things, but as of right now, he is still not eligible by the NCAA because of the judicial process. He is working on that, he and his lawyers. It is crazy… It is crazy what we are dealing with.”

On one side, Brownell did not bring Hunter back to be a starter. The plan has been for the veteran to serve as a mentor to younger guards Ace Buckner, Zac Foster and freshman Harris Reynolds, while playing in a backup role. On the other side, Foster’s recovery from a torn ACL suffered early last season has been slower than expected, and having Hunter would give Brownell some peace of mind if for some reason Foster wasn’t ready to start the season.

Either way it plays out, Brownell said he was very clear with Hunter about what his role would be, assuming Foster is healthy and ready to go.

“Zac and Ace were re-recruited from last year’s team to like, this is where we think you are going to be,” Brownell said. “We think you guys are going to be our starting backcourt, really happy about it, and we are going to pay you accordingly. Then things change. Dillon became an option for us, and because of Zac’s injury and knowing it was going to take a little longer than we hoped, the idea was to get Dillon, but he needed to understand that, hey, this is the way it looks right now. But if Zac’s not ready and if Zac can not practice well and Dillon is eligible and Dillon plays great, then he will be the starting guard.”

“In terms of the financial situation and the expectation, I needed to spell it out clearly, and Dillon understood. And I think he trusted me that would be what it was, and he has been great. It is not easy for him either. He got out of a contract overseas and still has no certainty. And that is hard. But his attitude is such and he is the kind of player I knew could handle it.”

Last season, Hunter started all 35 games, averaging 7.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steals per game, all career-highs. He shot 41.1 percent from the field, 34.7 percent from 3-point range and 78.6 percent from the free-throw line, all career-highs as well.

With the start of the season less than a month away and Foster getting closer to being ready to roll, Brownell knows he will soon have a decision to make, assuming, of course, things play out that way.

With scrimmages and exhibitions on the docket soon, Brownell has to decide whether to give Hunter reps over some of the other guys, knowing there’s a chance he won’t be eligible to play. And it’s a decision the head coach isn’t looking forward to.

“I don’t know yet. I try not to go there,” Brownell said. “We are going to have some hard decisions to make a little bit here over the next couple of weeks. Do we have him play in exhibitions and scrimmages and those kinds of things? Or do we not use reps because he is an experienced player, and maybe we don’t do that. I don’t know. I got to look at that.

“Certainly, we are anxious to know, one way or the other.”

– Photo courtesy of Bart Boatwright/The Clemson Insider