Last year's adversity helped fuel Jahvon Quinerly for a March Madness run
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Some of Jahvon Quinerly's best highlights came in March, but the month also represents one of the toughest obstacles he's had to overcome.
Last season, Quinelry suffered a season-ending ACL injury just three minutes into Alabama's first-round loss to Notre Dame. After finishing as the Crimson Tide's second-highest scorer, the star point guard could only watch his team crumble in San Diego.
The injury ended up thrusting Quinerly onto a new path. Instead of electing to pursue a professional career as originally planned, he decided to return for a third season at Alabama. Quinelry needed the extra time to get his knee right, but it also allowed him to soak in his new role with the Crimson Tide.
Fast forward 362 days and Quinerly is once again heading into a first-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament as top-seeded Alabama takes on No. 16 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday at 1:45 p.m. CT inside Birmingham's Legacy Arena.
"It's a really good feeling to be back," Quinerly said. "I try to forget about what happened last year, but I'm just happy to be back."
After starting 27 games last season, Quinerly came off the bench until Alabama's run in the SEC Tournament last week. The reserve role suited him well as he went on to earn SEC Co-Sixth Man of the Year.
But before all of that, Quinely's biggest focus was just getting back out on the floor. An injury that could have ended his college career didn't hold the Hackensack, New Jersey native down long as he was able to fully recover in six months.
His fast recovery was met with a slow start on the court as he tallied one rebound and two turnovers just four minutes in Alabama's 65-55 road win over South Alabama in his first game back. That was followed by a string of less-than-stellar appearances as he scored a combined 19 points over his next three games.
The wait was well worth it as Quinerly finally returned to his previous form during a four-overtime thriller against North Carolina. The five-star point guard put up 21 points, eight assists and six rebounds while helping the Crimson Tide beat the then-No. 1 Tar Heels 103-101.
He's been an important part of Alabama's historic run ever since.
"You see how well he's playing now -- I don't know if he's playing as well now as he is if we didn't get him started when we did," Oats said. "He went through some slumps. In your mind, if you're coming back from an injury, you have to be able to fight through the fact that it's going to take a little bit to get more comfortable. So he went up, came down. He's on an upward trajectory right now with this play. And it's needed. Because we need it."
Heading into last week's SEC Tournament, Quinerly was given back his starting role as freshman Jaden Bradley suggested the lineup change to Oats prior to the team's opening-round matchup against Mississippi State.
A 10-point and four-assist performance warranted two more starts for Quinerly leading the team to its second SEC title in three seasons.
When Alabama needed a big basket, it called on Quinerly which is no surprise as he is synonymous with production in March.
The senior has averaged 13.8 points per game since the beginning of the month which included two games where he scored 20 points or more. That saw him named to the SEC All-Tournament team for the second time in his career.
It was the culmination of hours of extra work just to get him back onto the floor, an aspect Oats touched on when he spoke to the media in Birmingham on Wednesday.
"(The) most important thing is Jahvon's will to recover himself," Oats said. "He worked his tail off. I saw him on the side. He worked hard. And then he was willing to come back when maybe his game wasn't "perfect." Some guys would have continued to sit out until they felt -- no, he came back and wanted to jump back in with this group."
Now as one of the senior leaders of the team, Quinerly has his sights sets on Houston as Alabama looks to become the first team in program history to reach the Final Four.
"I told all of our guys, 'You don’t want to have any regrets,'" Quinerly said. "Some guys are getting ready to go to the next level, and I told them I still talk to guys like Herb Jones, Eric Paschall, Phil Booth, a bunch of pro guys that I used to play with. They just talk about NCAA Tournament memories and the SEC Tournament, just postseason moments and memories that they always bring up to me. That’s just something I try to bring to the table, not to have any regrets."