Afure Jemerigbe is one of the gems of the 2010 class. She's a 5-foot-11 two-guard with an incredible upside and desire to be better. Her athleticism is the first thing that sets her apart. She has tremendous quickness and leaping ability as well as a body that is strong and should take weight lifting in stride when she's older. Her height is good for a high D-1 off-guard and if she grows it will be that much more icing on the cake. Her leaping ability and explosiveness far exceed her competition in high school. She has a great first step and a hesitation move to get by almost any defender, at will. When help comes too late she has the ability to elevate quickly and so high that she can finish over the help.
Her ball handling is very strong and she has a quick crossover to go with her hesitation move. She protects the ball in traffic but needs to learn to keep the ball lower for the next level. Right now she's so much faster than the competition it hasn't been an issue but in college where the gap in athleticism will be much smaller it will be important, but again she's just going in to her sophomore year.
Jemerigbe attends St. Mary's High School in Stockton, Calif., where shooting the three is demanded of just about every player on the team. Because of this green light policy she has a lot of confidence on the floor to raise up from three. Defenders eventually back off of her on the wing and top of the key because they can't keep in front of her.
Afure Jemerigbe Elevates
She does a good job of deceiving them into thinking she's coming at them still and then raising up for three. She makes quite a few threes and can get into a zone but also takes some a little off balance that miss. This is probably just a part of her make up and the culture of that team to let it fly. Her form is sound, she elevates, extends and follows through. The shot looks consistent.
She showed a mid-range jumper this weekend although she spent most of her time getting to the rack or shooting the three. Her mid-range jumper just needs more practice and repetition. There is nothing fundamentally wrong in her approach or shot, it just doesn't drop as often as she'd like. She makes so many plays with her natural ability. She made a 45-foot baseball pass with her left hand off the dribble to hit a streaking Chelsea Gray in transition and through two defenders that was right on the money. She knows how to get open and play off of Gray too. If you could describe her as just one thing it would be a play maker. Even defensively she's a play maker, shooting gaps in full court pressure or tipping passes in traps. Her team plays a lot of full court pressure so there wasn't a consistent opportunity to show help side defensive awareness in that setting. She could be more disciplined on the ball but their style of play is to attack-attack-attack. She's got a lot of upside as she harnesses her ability and continues to learn the game. For her age she's way ahead of the game.
Discuss This on Our Message Board:
Click Here [1]
Chris Hansen is the National Director of Scouting for Women’s Basketball at HoopGurlz.com. He leads the panel that evaluates and ranks girl's basketball prospects nationally for HoopGurlz. Chris has been involved in the women’s basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at chris@hoopgurlz.com [2].
[3]