TicketsBy Bill Koch
oBearcats.com
Long before he reached high school, University of Cincinnati point guard Justin Jenifer was considered a basketball prodigy.
He played on youth teams against players who were a year or two older than he was. According to a story in the Baltimore Sun, he made a brief appearance in a sneaker commercial with Carmelo Anthony and was featured in the Washington Post while playing for the 10-and-under Bentalou Bombers. He was considered one of the top point guard prospects in the country.
Go online and you can find numerous highlight videos of Jenifer – in the eighth grade and younger – making pinpoint, no-look bounce passes, dribbling behind his back, and making devastating moves to blow past defenders to score over bigger players.
"Looking back on it, I think it was a little overwhelming," Jenifer said. "It was a lot at the age of 10 having that glamour and everybody knows you, that famous mentality and stuff, with cameras following me everywhere and all the town people know me, people saying stuff about me. It was a great part of my life."
When he signed with UC in November 2014, his potential seemed limitless. Then he proceeded to spend most of his first two years on the bench while the steady hand of Troy Caupain drove the point position for the Bearcats. For Jenifer, the same flashy play that was so entertaining in grade school and high school got him into trouble in college. He played an average of 8.6 minutes as a freshman, 12.7 minutes as a sophomore, and entered his junior season this fall averaging 2.6 career points.
"In high school, he was so much the best player that he basically just did whatever he wanted," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "He had to learn two things. One is that turnovers count. There's a risk-reward with passing and taking care of the ball. And two, you can't go to the rim and finish over bigger people every play. You've got to work hard on your jump shot and you've got to stay on the ground and pick your spots as far as using your speed to get to the rim."
The 5-foot-10, Jenifer, from Baltimore, is finally coming into his own this season. He started four of UC's seven games in November, averaging 20.8 minutes per game while scoring an average of 8.3 points with 2.7 assists per game. He shot 43.9 percent from the field, 45.8 percent from 3-point range. Most importantly, he turned the ball over only four times.
"I've had to adapt my game to the level that I'm playing at," Jenifer said. "Sometimes it's not there all the time as it would be back in high school. In college, it's a whole different level, more people play defense, so I had to go ahead and adjust. It was silly shots. It would work in high school, but now people really lock in and play defense and it doesn't work."
Jenifer worked hard during the off-season to get his weight down and to improve his shot. He ran every day – up steps, on the treadmill and in the gym. When he arrived at UC in 2015, he weighed 196. Now he's down to 175. He can feel the difference. He's quicker and has more endurance.
But that was only part of his transformation. He also had to learn when to shoot and when to pass, when to try to get to the basket, and when to pull out a little of his old flash, which fans still see entertaining glimpses of occasionally.
"It was always fun playing like that," Jenifer said.
He became the top high school point guard in Maryland and led Milford Mill Academy to the state championship as a sophomore, scoring 17 points with seven rebounds and seven assists in the championship game. But when he arrived at UC, he had to start over.
Cronin said in a recent postgame press conference that he told Jenifer he wouldn't play significant minutes this year if he continued to perform as he had during his first two years. Jenifer says Cronin wasn't quite that blunt, but he got his message across nonetheless.
"I had to think about it as being a positive," Jenifer said, "that I had to get better to play more minutes, for Coach to trust me out there. Instead of me looking from the inside out, I'm looking from the outside in, making sure I'm doing everything I can do."
When he wasn't playing the last two years, Jenifer watched former UC guards Troy Caupain and Kevin Johnson to see how they approached the game, and he watched NBA players on TV to see "how they run the team, how they communicate, how they're a leader on the court to let their teammates know what they're doing. I had to make sure my mind is on the college level instead of me being on the high school level."
Through it all, he said, he never seriously considered transferring to another school.
"When coach Cronin and I had this conversation, I told him that I had a commitment to the school, I have a commitment to myself and I want to stay here," Jenifer said. "This is where I want to be. This is my home. With the type of family I come from, I just made a commitment to myself to make sure I go ahead and stick through this.
"I worked so hard to get to this point. Everything is just falling into place. This isn't the end. I have more to prove and I have more to bring to the table."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.
oBearcats.com
Long before he reached high school, University of Cincinnati point guard Justin Jenifer was considered a basketball prodigy.
He played on youth teams against players who were a year or two older than he was. According to a story in the Baltimore Sun, he made a brief appearance in a sneaker commercial with Carmelo Anthony and was featured in the Washington Post while playing for the 10-and-under Bentalou Bombers. He was considered one of the top point guard prospects in the country.
Go online and you can find numerous highlight videos of Jenifer – in the eighth grade and younger – making pinpoint, no-look bounce passes, dribbling behind his back, and making devastating moves to blow past defenders to score over bigger players.
"Looking back on it, I think it was a little overwhelming," Jenifer said. "It was a lot at the age of 10 having that glamour and everybody knows you, that famous mentality and stuff, with cameras following me everywhere and all the town people know me, people saying stuff about me. It was a great part of my life."
When he signed with UC in November 2014, his potential seemed limitless. Then he proceeded to spend most of his first two years on the bench while the steady hand of Troy Caupain drove the point position for the Bearcats. For Jenifer, the same flashy play that was so entertaining in grade school and high school got him into trouble in college. He played an average of 8.6 minutes as a freshman, 12.7 minutes as a sophomore, and entered his junior season this fall averaging 2.6 career points.
"In high school, he was so much the best player that he basically just did whatever he wanted," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "He had to learn two things. One is that turnovers count. There's a risk-reward with passing and taking care of the ball. And two, you can't go to the rim and finish over bigger people every play. You've got to work hard on your jump shot and you've got to stay on the ground and pick your spots as far as using your speed to get to the rim."
The 5-foot-10, Jenifer, from Baltimore, is finally coming into his own this season. He started four of UC's seven games in November, averaging 20.8 minutes per game while scoring an average of 8.3 points with 2.7 assists per game. He shot 43.9 percent from the field, 45.8 percent from 3-point range. Most importantly, he turned the ball over only four times.
"I've had to adapt my game to the level that I'm playing at," Jenifer said. "Sometimes it's not there all the time as it would be back in high school. In college, it's a whole different level, more people play defense, so I had to go ahead and adjust. It was silly shots. It would work in high school, but now people really lock in and play defense and it doesn't work."
Jenifer worked hard during the off-season to get his weight down and to improve his shot. He ran every day – up steps, on the treadmill and in the gym. When he arrived at UC in 2015, he weighed 196. Now he's down to 175. He can feel the difference. He's quicker and has more endurance.
But that was only part of his transformation. He also had to learn when to shoot and when to pass, when to try to get to the basket, and when to pull out a little of his old flash, which fans still see entertaining glimpses of occasionally.
"It was always fun playing like that," Jenifer said.
He became the top high school point guard in Maryland and led Milford Mill Academy to the state championship as a sophomore, scoring 17 points with seven rebounds and seven assists in the championship game. But when he arrived at UC, he had to start over.
Cronin said in a recent postgame press conference that he told Jenifer he wouldn't play significant minutes this year if he continued to perform as he had during his first two years. Jenifer says Cronin wasn't quite that blunt, but he got his message across nonetheless.
"I had to think about it as being a positive," Jenifer said, "that I had to get better to play more minutes, for Coach to trust me out there. Instead of me looking from the inside out, I'm looking from the outside in, making sure I'm doing everything I can do."
When he wasn't playing the last two years, Jenifer watched former UC guards Troy Caupain and Kevin Johnson to see how they approached the game, and he watched NBA players on TV to see "how they run the team, how they communicate, how they're a leader on the court to let their teammates know what they're doing. I had to make sure my mind is on the college level instead of me being on the high school level."
Through it all, he said, he never seriously considered transferring to another school.
"When coach Cronin and I had this conversation, I told him that I had a commitment to the school, I have a commitment to myself and I want to stay here," Jenifer said. "This is where I want to be. This is my home. With the type of family I come from, I just made a commitment to myself to make sure I go ahead and stick through this.
"I worked so hard to get to this point. Everything is just falling into place. This isn't the end. I have more to prove and I have more to bring to the table."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.