Memphis lands missing piece in Alabama transfer Jahvon Quinerly

By ADAM ZAGORIA

Alabama transfer Jahvon Quinerly committed to Memphis on Thursday, giving coach Penny Hardaway a veteran point guard for a potential Top-20 team.

The 6-foot-1 Hackensack, N.J. native is a veteran who turns 25 in November and will bring leadership and experience to a team that returns only Jayden Hardaway and is awaiting an NCAA waiver decision on DeAndre Williams.

Williams, 26, played the past three seasons for at Memphis, averaging 17.7 points and 8.2 rebounds a game in 2022-23.

JAHVON QUINERLY will play his final college season at MEMPHIS 🔥 @RealJahvonQ pic.twitter.com/inWjQbql2C

— Overtime (@overtime) July 14, 2023

Quinerly averaged 8.7 points and 3.6 assists last year on an Alabama team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation for part of the season.

In four seasons of college basketball — three at Alabama and one at Villanova — he averaged 10.0 points and 3.1 assists.

He initially committed to Arizona but was tangentially caught up in the NCAA investigation into bribery in college basketball, and then opted in February 2018 to commit to Villanova, where he was not a great fit for Jay Wright’s system. After one season, he transferred to Alabama and then sat out the 2019-20 season.

“He brings about as talented a guard as you’ll find in the country,” the late great Tom Konchalski said when he committed. “He’s great playing off the bounce. More shakes than Tom Carvel, more spin cycles than Maytag. He’s not a consistent three-point shooter, but he has games where he really shoots the three-point shot well. It’s feast or famine. He’s got to get more consistent and he’s got to get stronger, but he will.

“He’s a guy who has great quickness. He’s unusually quick off the dribble. He has very quick feet, but few people have the ball skills that he has. He’s an exciting guard….Right now he’s combination guard because he scores so well, but he can certainly handle the ball. But you certainly don’t want to take away his scoring.”

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