Jahvon Quinerly was supposed to be Jalen Brunson’s replacement at Villanova this season. He was supposed to be the type of five-star recruit that proved ‘Nova could keep it rolling, even after losing four first round draft picks from last season’s national champs. He was supposed to be evidence that Villanova didn’t just win with redshirts; it could recruit blue chip players, too.
This is the bizarre story of Jahvon Quinerly not playing at Villanova and faking his own Instagram hack
Villanova’s freshman point guard has had a difficult week.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
None of this has gone according to plan for the player or the program during Villanova’s disappointing 8-3 start.one So far in the early stages of the 2018-19 season, the Wildcats have already been blown out by Michigan, lost in overtime to Furman, and ended its 25-game win streak against the “Big 5” with a loss to Penn.
Penn’s 78-75 win over Villanova is the first time the Wildcats have lost to a Philly school in the city series since 2012. Quinerly only played one minute in that game. He’s been completely absent from the rotation for the majority of the season as Jay Wright has opted to go with sophomore Collin Gillespie as his point guard.
Following the loss to Penn, Quinerly posted an update on his Instagram story. He deleted it within a minute, but not before fans could take a screengrab of it:
Anyone who followed Quinerly’s recruitment knows exactly what he’s referring to.
Quinerly was committed to Arizona before the FBI investigation
Quinerly committed to Arizona on Aug. 8, 2018. Everything changed in early October, when the FBI revealed its investigation into corruption throughout college basketball that put a spotlight on Arizona.
Wildcats assistant Book Richardson was arrested in the probe and all signs pointed to Quinerly as being one of the players involved in the scandal.
How do we know it’s Quinerly? The document reported that Richardson took a total of $20,000 in bribes and gave most of it to a “top point guard” who committed “around three days” before Aug. 11. Quinerly, a five-star point guard, announced on ESPNU on Aug. 8 that he would play for to Arizona.
Quinerly hired a lawyer, decommitted, and ultimately picked Villanova in February.
At that point, it was clear Brunson was going to turn pro, seemingly opening up the point guard spot for a McDonald’s All-American like Quinerly. It felt like a great fit at the time. Through the first month of the season, it just hasn’t worked out as planned.
Quinerly has been visibly frustrated with the lack of playing time (just 8.6 minutes per game through the first 11 games), which led to the Instagram update he immediately regretted. Making this story even stranger, Quinerly then appeared to fake hack himself, posting strange pictures on his account before eventually deleting his Instagram.
Quinerly has now issued an apology
Props to him for fessing up to it.
Some takeaways here:
- I feel blessed every day that social media didn’t exist when I was a teenager, because attempting to fake hack my own account to get out of trouble seems like something I would do.
- Quinerly’s quick apology shows he handled it the right away. It is decidedly human to get upset and say things you regret in the heat of the moment. Hopefully, Quinerly and Villanova can put this all behind them now.
This season has been a rude awakening for Quinerly, but it’s important to remember that good things come to those who wait at Villanova. The Wildcats could certainly use an injection of ball handling, offensive creativity, and shooting right now. That’s Quinerly’s game.
The Wildcats have a huge opportunity on the horizon as they head into Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday at noon to take on the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks. After a rough start to the season, both Villanova and Quinerly could use the boost.
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