Jahvon Quinerly comes to a decision on Alabama, NBA future

Jahvon Quinerly is returning to Alabama for his senior season after pulling his name out of the NBA Draft, he announced Saturday. Quinerly tore his ACL in the first half of Alabama‘s first round NCAA Tournament game against Notre Dame last month. Without Quinerly, the Crimson Tide were sent packing thanks to a 78-64 loss.

I’ll keep it short and simple,” he tweeted. “I’m coming back.”

Quinerly is coming off the best year of his three-year college career in 2021-22. He averaged 13.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game for Alabama to help the Crimson Tide to the NCAA Tournament. He only played three minutes in that first-round game against Notre Dame, a 78-64 Fighting Irish victory thanks to his injury. He was shown during the broadcast later in the game with a brace on his leg and crutches under his arms.

With Quinerly not on many expert’s boards for the 2022 NBA Draft, the injury to his knee seems to have made him second guess what is best for his immediate future. Alabama head coach Nate Oats said last month that Quinerly’s intention was to “test the draft process” and turn professional, but the injury will “put a kink in his plans.”

Coming out of high school, Quinerly was a consensus five-star recruit out of New Jersey as 2018’s No. 1 overall point guard. A 2018 McDonald’s All-American and two-time New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year, Quinerly would commit to Villanova for his freshman season in a limited role before having a breakout year for the Crimson Tide in 2020-21 where he would bump his scoring totals up from 3.2 points to 12.9 pointers per game between his first and second college seasons.

After improving his game even more this past season, Quinerly was poised to enter the NBA Draft, but his knee injury seems to have thrown a wrench into his plans and will rejoin the Alabama squad for at least one of his two remaining seasons of eligibility.