David Jenkins Jr. - The Old Guard, The Gamer, and The Expiring Clock CBartleyRivals with more:
The dichotomy of college basketball is what creates both compelling narratives and complex battles of style. In college, teams are given identities based off their program's history and their current coach's tendencies. Last night, two examples tipped off inside of Mackey Arena. Two teams defined by their head coaches, similar in offensive efficiency, but also antithesis to each other.
Iowa forced Purdue to play their game in the second half. Iowa scored 52 points in the second half. But something happened through all that chaos and picked up pace, Purdue kept up. Through all the pressing, the three-point shooting, and the scoreless drought, Purdue hit back and then hit harder and won, convincingly, again.
Purdue is the #1 team in the country, 23-2, and their starting point guard is a true freshman, Braden Smith. He's the rising star, the freshman. Some high school coaches deemed him a basketball savant, but others hadn't even seen him play. He was barely inside Rivals top-200 players in the country. He's all of 6'0, maybe, barely 180 lbs., and 19 years old.
If Jenkins freshman year was impressive, his sophomore year looked to be a dream. He was playing even more minutes, scoring 19.7 points a game, and knocking down three and a half threes a game on 45% three-point shooting."We were playing North Dakota State to win the regular season championship. It was funny. There was a kid at the line for North Dakota State, and at that time, it was in February. There was a kid who hasn't missed a free throw since like November. 3.
Then his heart broke in a different way. He found out his coach, T.J. Otzelberger, would be taking the job at UNLV. So following Otzelberger to UNLV seemed like another story book ending. Jenkins would have to sit out a year under the old transfer rules. He'd take a redshirt. Add in the year of prep school before South Dakota State and his third year of playing was his fifth year out of high school.
Despite starting the season hot, scoring in double-digits five of the first seven games of the season, Jenkins' minutes started dropping. "You know, man, my years at UNLV I loved. I think that was more of a better [fit] for me off the court. But when I got to Utah - it was better for me as far as learning how to handle adversity."
Jenkins Jr. brings a lot of joy to the Purdue basketball team. He's natural light and brevity for a program that's got some weight on their shoulders and a long history to talk about. "When you can walk on and be able to go toe to toe with some of those guys and you know, compete, like it's second to none."
"When you're coming in and you're battling with a freshman, I think you kinda think 'oh I deserve it.' But not him," Smith told me last week."He helps me with everything." "He's been through the up and downs of college basketball... He's been rock solid consistent with his attitude. We're so happy that he's producing and playing well now. That really helps our team and he deserves it. He's totally bought in and that's hard for a fifth-year guy sometimes. And we need him. We really need him to be a good player."
He found his shot. He's 13 of 33 now in Big Ten play after shooting just 5 of 22 in non-conference games."It's very rare. It speaks to how he was raised and kind of guy he is... He's been great. He's an adult. He understands college basketball. He understands the ups and downs of life. He's been very mature. Just always upbeat and positive energy and that's hard when you're not getting the minutes sometimes.
"But the real big reason why I committed here is because when I came and took my visit I remember being in a car with Brandon Newman. You know, his freshman year or whatever he averaged ten points a game and then he sat[last year]." "There was a kid that I had with me at South Dakota State, his name was Tevin King. All credit to him, I owe my career to him. He always looked out for me, kept me on track. Whether that's being on time. Whether it's going to class. Whether that's advice on the court, you know, and he was even taking a backseat to me at times. He couldn't shoot as much because you know, I was coming in shooting. And that never once distorted him or anything.
It's certainly a metaphor, one that we're circling towards quickly. I asked Jenkins about this ability of his to make shots without any time left on the clock weeks before he's left me speechless about his completing the circle of his career. He's engaging, charismatic, funny - his dad describes it with a familiar and suiting cliche, David doesn't find the camera, the camera finds him.
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