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Plea deal reached in Zay Jackson case

NCAA Basketball Tournament - Murray State v Marquette

LOUISVILLE, KY - MARCH 17: Zay Jackson #10 of the Murray State Racers goes up for a shot in front of Jae Crowder #32 of the Marquette Golden Eagles in the first half during the third round of the 2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at KFC YUM! Center on March 15, 2012 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

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Murray State guard Zay Jackson and his attorney have reached a plea deal that will have him serve 60 days in jail on a charge of wanton endangerment stringing from an incident in which he assaulted a person in a Murray Wal-Mart last summer, according to CBSSports.com’s Jeff Goodman.

Jackson got into an argument in the parking lot of the store on Sept. 10, leading to Jackson hitting the patron with his car. The individual rode on the hood of the car for several feet before falling off.

The plea deal means Jackson, who was suspended for the season by coach Steve Prohm, will serve 49 days in jail in addition to the already-served 11 days he has logged. He’ll also be required to pay the man he assaulted, Jason Clements, for his medical bills and Jackson will be required to attend counseling.

This is all on Jackson and he’s lucky for two reasons. The first being that the sentence wasn’t worse. And the second being that he didn’t do more damage to Clements. If you’ve seen the video, you know this looked really bad.

Jackson was a key reserve as a freshman on last season’s Racer squad that made it to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

Unless he screws up some other way, this should clear the way for Jackson to return to the team next season. He probably has some personal guidelines Prohm and the staff have set for him and as long as he abides by them, he can repent for his actions. Hope the dude learned his lesson.

What’s a shame is that he was going to be a vital part of this team this season. Now with Ed Daniel and Isaiah Canaan exhausting their eligibility after this year, we’ll never know what he could’ve brought to the table.

David Harten is the founder of The Backboard Chronicles. You can follow him on Twitter at @David_Harten.