Alabama Basketball: Redemption Factor for Jahvon Quinerly

Alabama Basketball senior guard Jahvon Quinerly is the lone contributing holdover from the Tide’s 2020-21 conference championship team. Against all odds, the current Bama team has outperformed the squad from Quinerly’s sophomore year, putting together arguably the best season in school history.

The 2020-21 season was nothing to sneeze at; it was Alabama’s highest win total in almost 20 years, and its highest finish in the AP Poll in 65 years. Still, as sweet as it was, the campaign ended on a bitter note.

The 2021 NCAA Tournament saw the no. 2 seed Crimson Tide fall in the Sweet 16 to the 11th-seeded UCLA Bruins. UCLA was in the midst of a memorable run from the First Four play-in games to the Final Four, but it needed overtime to escape Alabama. Still, it was a sour way to end the season for one of the best Alabama Basketball teams of the 21st century.

Quinerly hasn’t hesitated to point out similarities between the 2021 and 2023 SEC championship teams. Both squads opened their respective seasons flying under the radar before dominating the SEC regular season schedule. Both had bizarre losses to Oklahoma in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge before bouncing back and finishing strong to win the conference tournament.

With all the similarities between the two, there is no doubt that Quinerly wants his senior year to end on a higher note. He surely remembers that loss to UCLA, which saw him go for team-highs of 20 points and three assists, only to fall short in the end.

Jahvon Quinerly has come alive towards the end of his senior season. He has scored in double figures in seven of the last eight games, shooting over 38 percent from the three-point line. Outside of a rough game against Missouri that saw him miss all his shots from the field, he has hit on over 42 percent of his triples during this stretch.

Quinerly’s explosive scoring ability has given Alabama a new gear. He entered the month of March with just one 20-point game all season, and that came in a quadruple-overtime win over North Carolina. In seven games this month, Quinerly has already hit the 20-point mark three times. In addition to his scoring, Quinerly leads Alabama Basketball with 3.6 assists per game despite coming off the bench for most of the season.

Jahvon Quinerly is peaking at the right time as he tries to lead Bama hoops even deeper into the postseason. He has reached the point where former All-SEC teammates John Petty and Herb Jones’ careers ended two years ago in Indianapolis.

Now, two years older, Quinerly heads to Louisville this weekend with redemption on his mind.