Jahvon Quinerly has found happiness at Memphis. Now, he's ready to live up to the hype

Jahvon Quinerly paused and looked around the room.

He already had thought about the expectations. Not just those that would inevitably accompany him after transferring from Alabama — they seem to follow him wherever he goes, anyway.

Rather, they were the very distinct expectations associated with being the starting point guard for Memphis basketball. The kind that come with playing for such a tradition-rich program, playing for a coach like Penny Hardaway and playing the same position as Tigers greats such as Hardaway, Elliot Perry, Andre Turner, Derrick Rose and, most recently, Kendric Davis.

None of that is lost on Quinerly. The magnitude of his role became apparent to him last month at AAC media day in Dallas, only hours after he learned the league’s coaches made him a preseason first-team all-conference selection.

“I got a little sense of that this morning,” Quinerly said, smiling and looking over his shoulder around the Americas Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt DFW.

Almost in the same breath, the spunky, self-assured, soon-to-be 25-year-old from Hackensack, New Jersey, looked a reporter right in the eye and made a bold, yet believable, proclamation.

“I think I’m gonna live up to those expectations,” Quinerly said.

Memphis has high aspirations this season, which begins Monday (7 p.m., ESPN+) when Jackson State visits FedExForum. The Tigers expect to win their first AAC regular-season title and repeat as AAC Tournament champions. They have not advanced past the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 since 2009, but they are eyeing the Sweet 16 and beyond.

If Hardaway’s team is to achieve its goals, it might be Quinerly — the former five-star recruit, McDonald’s All American, SEC Tournament MVP and SEC co-Sixth Man of the Year — orchestrating it all.

When basketball wasn’t fun for Jahvon Quinerly

Quinerly has been there before. Very recently, in fact.

Alabama was dominant last season, becoming the No. 1 team in the country for the first time in 20 years. It went on to win the SEC Tournament and earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. With Quinerly running the show in the backcourt, Alabama advanced to the Sweet 16, where it was stopped in its tracks by eventual national runner-up San Diego State.

“That was a good feeling for me,” he said. “That was fun.”

There was a time, though, when he wasn’t having much fun.

“If you know my journey, you know it’s been a lot."

A decorated prep prospect out of Hudson Catholic, Quinerly committed to Arizona in 2017. But his recruitment became the focus of intense scrutiny when a highly publicized FBI investigation into college basketball made him the subject of alleged illegal payouts. He shifted gears and headed to Villanova. But the fit wasn’t right, and he transferred to Alabama.

In his first season under coach Nate Oats, Quinerly blossomed, leading the Crimson Tide to its first SEC Tournament title in three decades. His second season: more of the same. As he prepared for what many believed was a surefire deep NCAA Tournament run, Quinerly already had decided he would enter the 2022 NBA Draft.

Three minutes into the team’s first-round game against Notre Dame, he tore the ACL in his left knee.

“He was on schedule to get to the league,” said Nick Mariniello, Quinerly’s high school coach. “Then, it was just like, he has to start over again.”

That was Quinerly’s breaking point.

“I was like, ‘This is crazy,’ ” he said. “First the Arizona-Villanova thing. And now, as I’m getting ready to move on to the next level, an unfortunate situation. That was probably when I kinda fell out of love with it.”

A more suitable role

Quinerly spent five months rehabbing the injury and was back on the court at Alabama last season. Even though he didn’t win his starting job back until the postseason, the team’s success rekindled his love for the game.

But it wasn’t enough to keep him there. He felt like he was being asked to conform to an analytically driven system that devalued the midrange game — an area he believed was one of his strengths. So Quinerly began shopping for a new place to close out his college career. A place that would allow him to be the player that made him a five-star McDonald’s All American.

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He found it at Memphis. He found a coaching staff that has supreme confidence in him. He found a system that gives him more freedom. The freedom to be patient and creative. The freedom to incorporate the midrange game back into his repertoire. The freedom to be himself. All things that were not encouraged at Alabama, he said.

“It feels really good having that aspect back to my game,” said Quinerly, who has been nursing a hyperextended knee in recent weeks. “That’s also helping me fall back in love with the game.”

The Tigers’ tone-setter

Memphis has assembled a deep roster of players who have transferred in with hopes of achieving March Madness glory. Players like Jordan Brown, who is the only teammate to have played with Quinerly on a basketball court.

The pair was part of the same McDonald’s All American team in 2018. Since reuniting at Memphis in early August, Brown can’t help but think back to the time they spent together.

“I can see his growth, and it’s dope,” Brown said. “I told him when I got here, I said, ‘This sounds about right. This is how it’s supposed to go, so let’s make the best of it.’ ”

Quinerly might be succeeding Davis, but his approach and playing style are vastly different, according to Jayden Hardaway. The super senior has played against, and now with, both.

“KD was an assassin,” he said. “I just feel like JQ is more of a playmaking point guard. Kendric was really good for us last year. And I believe (Quinerly) is going to be super effective for us. He’s gonna be really good.”

“I’m in a good mental space right now,” Quinerly said. “I’m just excited for what’s to come. Super excited.”

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis basketball's Jahvon Quinerly is embracing great expectations