Jahvon Quinerly has had a roller coaster ride over the past 4-5 years to get to where he is today, but the journey has made him stronger and a better player as time went on. Quinerly is a former McDonald’s All-American and five-star prospect according to Rivals in the class of 2018, and he was committed to The University of Arizona for a while and he had planned on enrolling there, but an FBI probe quickly changed that. An FBI investigation was sparked due to Arizona assistant Emanuel Richardson supposedly bribing college athletes to go to school in Arizona, and Quinerly’s name was rumored to be one of them. While his name was never mentioned in the FBI document as receiving money, he decommitted from Arizona on October 19th and later committed to Villanova on February 14th of the following year.
When Quinerly arrived at Villanova, he had all the confidence and swagger in the world with him as well. One thing that might have been a culture shock to him, was he didn’t play a lot during his freshman year. It just didn’t seem like a good schematic fit for JQ and Villanova as time went on. Coach Wright runs a very structured 4-out motion offense that isn’t very free-flowing. Quinerly is at his best when he can move around and play freely with the ball in his hand, but that wouldn’t happen with Jay Wright. To go along with that, the FBI investigation still cast a dark cloud over him and had to be a distraction for him. That would be a distraction for any grown adult trying to do their job, much less an 18-year-old kid trying to play basketball.
After a drama-filled freshman season, Quinerly decided to enter the transfer portal on April 3, 2019. It was best for him to try and have a fresh start with a team that runs a system that will let him play his game. On June 2nd, 2019, Quinerly announced that he was transferring to The University of Alabama. For first-year head coach Nate Oats and staff, they had to be thrilled to get a point guard with his pedigree and toughness to run the show in their wide-open offensive style. Quinerly has finally found a home where he can play his game freely. Unfortunately, after filing for a waiver to be immediately eligible after transferring, Quinerly was denied and would have to sit out his sophomore season. What has been a bumpy road for the now 20-year-old has become even bumpier.
After sitting out the entire 2019-20 season, Quinerly was ready to run the show for the Tide. In his first game, he scored 18 points in a win over Jacksonville State. He started 6 of the first 7 games, but struggled with efficiency and turnovers as it seemed like he was pressing a bit. Coach Oats decided to switch things up and bring him off the bench in SEC play, and that lit a spark for the Tide as they started 6-0 in the conference. He still struggled with turnovers throughout the season, but his efficiency grew and so did his confidence. By the final month of the season, Quinerly was playing around 30 minutes a game off the bench and Alabama won the SEC Regular Season Championship. Alabama didn’t stop there, as they won the SEC Tournament as well, and Quinerly won Most Outstanding Player. He was terrific down the stretch and really made the team so much better around him. Alabama ended up advancing to the Sweet 16 before being eliminated by UCLA in OT.
Coming off an incredible season, Quinerly became the starting PG for the majority of the season in 2021-22. With that came a lot of inefficient scoring nights and turnovers. Over the course of the season, he shot nearly 40% from the field and 28% from 3-point range. The previous season, he shot 48% from the field and 43% from 3-point range, so you can see there was a huge dip there. Last year’s Alabama team just didn’t have good chemistry and could never really get going and it affected everyone. They still made the NCAA Tournament as a 6 seed, but lost in the first round to 11 seed Notre Dame. What made matters worse, Quinerly tore his ACL early in that game. Quinerly is no stranger to challenges and overcoming adversity, as he has his whole career. This will arguably be the toughest hurdle to clear, but he is expected back around December or January. You know he has been itching to get back out on the court and show he can overcome this and nobody should doubt him doing so.
