Prideful, ambitious and cunning.
“I’m a Slytherin,” graduate guard Jaelin Llewellyn told The Michigan Daily.
A self-proclaimed “Harry Potter” superfan, Llewellyn embodies the values of the emerald green and serpent bearing Slytherin house.
Every time Llewellyn steps on the court, he’s proud to be there. Because the Ivy league graduate with a fittingly cunning game has earned the right to step onto the Crisler Center floor. Through ambitious injury recoveries, his career has persisted to this moment.
From Mississauga, Ontario to Lynchburg, Virginia, then Princeton, New Jersey and finally Ann Arbor, Michigan, Llewellyn’s basketball journey, on and off the court, has been epitomized by his ever-growing perspective and appreciation for basketball.
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Llewellyn didn’t enter high school with the prototypical makings of a future Power Six starter. His potential hid behind a pass-first approach to the position. And the makings of a leader were masked by his quiet demeanor.
“Both off and on the court, he was very unassuming, quiet,” Father Michael Goetz coach Norm St. Louis told The Daily. “Always came with a good attitude. … He was the starting point guard on a pretty good basketball team. And he didn’t have a leadership role on our team, but he definitely contributed and he listened and he contributed both verbally and in practice. … He’s going to be going places.”
At Father Michael Goetz, Llewellyn was young, driven and eager to grow in the basketball world. His ambition sprouted alongside his game, and after just two seasons he was hungry for heightened competition and exposure.
Transferring to Virginia Episcopal School for his final two seasons of prep basketball, Llewellyn — who has since inked the region’s 434 area code on himself — arrived at a landmark of his career in Lynchburg. There, he was tasked with learning to be a rising star, navigating high-level prep basketball and the mayhem of recruitment that came with it.
“I knew he was a good basketball player, but I didn’t really realize how good he actually was,” VES coach Darko Sedlar told The Daily. “He is a unique kid who has a really cool perspective on life. Even though he’s a really good basketball player, you would never kind of think of that. Sometimes, when you’re really good and have a really big spotlight on you, it can kind of get into your head. But he’s one of the most humble kids I’ve ever been around.”
Llewellyn was discovering how to shine under the spotlight, understanding his role but never letting his ego outweigh his appreciation. He sang in glee club to grow closer with his teammates and volunteered his time with special needs basketball programs. Basketball was at his core, but Llewellyn was beginning to see it from multiple angles.
He was the star player, easy to connect with and grateful to be coached. There was just one thing that the introverted Llewellyn hadn’t become yet: a natural leader.
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At Princeton, his on-court trajectory continued as scheduled. Becoming a starter and double-digit scorer as a freshman, his importance was grand from the beginning. Building off that, Llewellyn averaged 15.3 points per game as a sophomore.
If everything went according to plan, the path was clear. Multiple years starring at a Division I program is a successful career.
In 2020, however, for the first time in his career, Llewellyn was pushed off course, taken away from the court due to COVID-19. The Ivy League initially canceled the 2020-21 season outright. And when restriction lightened to allow Llewellyn back into the practice gym, he tore his Achilles tendon on the first day.
And just like that, he was forced to take a detour.
“I don’t know exactly how it happened,” Sedlar said. “I always tell him, ‘Hey, you can always come back to VES and work here.’ And I really don’t know exactly what happened. He was staying here for the summer a little bit and he was rehabbing. … It just worked out.”
Sedlar wanted Llewellyn on his staff, his quiet demeanor didn’t matter. He knew his former player had the ability to connect with an array of people and understood the X’s and O’s of the game. Sedlar saw Llewellyn’s leadership potential, and he had the system to let him blossom.
Sedlar was admittedly intense and demanding of his players, allowing Llewellyn to ease into his new role by doing what he does best: provide an understanding presence.
“I was only a couple years older than them,” Llewellyn said. “I was at the school when some of the guys on the team were there as well. So when they get hard coaching and they’re a little combative to it, I would kind of step in and kind of be like a listening ear and try and get them to understand the place that the coaching was coming from.”
Llewellyn taught with the perspective of success at the next level and actively demonstrated the fortitude to recover from a major injury. But he was still learning, too.
Llewellyn was seeing the other side, discovering how to lead with the expectation to do so. Having commanded respect through his ability to empathize, he developed his voice. Sharing his experiences as a player, he gained insight from a coaching perspective.
“It just gave me purpose and meaning during that difficult time,” Llewellyn said. “Especially not being able to see my Princeton teammates for 18 months, it gave me a reason to just keep going and working with those guys. It was a transformative experience. And I think I learned a bit about coaching, it can be challenging. And I can appreciate all the effort that my coaches put in now, because I saw a little bit of what it takes.”
After Llewellyn recovered from the injury and returned to the court the following year, he wasn’t the same. His role hadn’t changed, his scoring nearly identical to before the injury, but Llewellyn wasn’t. His leadership had developed, his perspective had widened and above all, he was thankful.
After 18 months, he was proud to be back on the floor, physically and mentally.
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Everything got back on track. Llewellyn joined the 1,000-career-point club at Princeton, then transferred to Michigan to become the Wolverines’ starting point guard.
But just eight games into his Michigan tenure, Llewellyn was derailed once again when he tore his ACL — the second major injury of his collegiate career.
“It was definitely challenging,” Llewellyn said. “There were some dark days and some good days … But I just had the goal in mind of wanting to be back on that court with my teammates and just for the love, my love of the game in the first place.”
While Llewellyn had endured the recovery process before, that didn’t make it any less difficult. And this time there was a season to miss. He had to watch from the bench, his impact reduced to rediscovering his voice with new teammates and coaches.
He had led with an official coaching title before. But on the sidelines, Llewellyn role was undefined — left for him to craft it.
“I’ve gotten more comfortable in voicing my opinion and my knowledge of basketball,” Llewellyn said. “It can be challenging, like over the last year when I was hurt, when you’re not out there playing and practicing with the guys every day. But my teammates have just assured me that I’ve been through a lot, I’ve seen a lot of basketball and I have a lot of knowledge to share, and am just continuing to grow my confidence in sharing that knowledge and perspective.”
He had a lot to share by his fifth season of college basketball, Llewellyn had been the talented youngster, the veteran leader and even a formal coach. He had the perspective to contribute behind the scenes and on the sidelines for his teammates.
For himself, he also knew what it would take to get back on the court. From the early stages of rehab to full-contact practices, Llewellyn’s focus remained on the light at the end of the tunnel.
And almost exactly a year after the injury, Llewellyn reached that point and made his return.
“It was very special for me,” Llewellyn said. “I look at pictures of myself just back on the court and then I think back to where I was a year and some change ago, not even traveling with the team, just sitting at home and icing. I think about the difference between those two mental images and, and it just reminds me of how far I’ve come.”
Twice, the game was taken away from Llewellyn. Both times, he worked his way back, finding ways to share his experiences and broaden his own perspective too.
And with how far he’s come, it’s a perspective on the game of basketball that’s epitomized by his appreciation and signified by his pride.