Ty Jerome: Ready To Do What It Takes To Win

By Scott Ratcliffe

Entering his third year, Virginia point guard Ty Jerome is approaching the upcoming season just like he would any other.

Last season certainly had its ups and downs — going from unranked to top dog, breezing through ACC competition all the way to celebrating a tournament title in Brooklyn, and then the abrupt heartbreak of March Madness.

But for Jerome, the Cavaliers could have won it all and he’d still be just as hungry to get back on the floor. We asked the 6-foot-5, 195-pounder if ending last season the way the team did added to his desire to get back on the floor for a new year.

“In a way, yes,” Jerome responded, adding that it’s human nature to feel that way. “But then again, every time I step on the court I’m just so happy to play basketball, so happy to compete. And I always look forward to playing a game, whether if we won the national championship last year or we ended how we did, I would be almost as excited.”

Taking over as the main floor general following the departure of London Perrantes, Jerome’s sophomore campaign had its own peaks and valleys. His minutes nearly tripled, and with that came tons more responsibility as the guy at the 1-spot after coming off the bench in 30 of 34 games as a freshman behind Perrantes.

He struggled a bit with his shot — as well as in the assist category — in the early going, until a career breakout performance in the ACC opener against Boston College on Dec. 30 when he went off for 31 points and hit six triples against the Eagles.

From that point on, Jerome established himself as one of the conference’s most consistent point guards, averaging 11.2 points and 4.7 assists over the final 21 games and earning All-ACC third-team honors, in addition to making the All-ACC Tournament second team.

After making a name for himself nationally with help from “the shot” that ended the decades-long drought against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the next step for Jerome is working on improving his game and his leadership skills as a junior. A sign of Jerome’s progress was evident when he was one of just 20 guards named to the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year watch list a few weeks back.

He was also invited to Chris Paul’s Elite Point Guard camp this summer, where he opened more eyes with his skill set against some of the top ball-handlers in the country. Jerome said he was most impressed with how focused Paul was in his preparation, and that he was a sponge around Paul and the other current pros at the camp who were instructors.

“Any time that I have the opportunity to play against other great guards, other great players, and be around people like Chris Paul or all the other NBA guards that were there, it’s just such a great opportunity because you get to learn and you get to go at those guys, and that’s what I love so much about basketball — you get to really compete,” said Jerome. “So that was an amazing opportunity for me, I learned a lot and I got to show what I can do in front of a lot of people.”

When asked if the camp was a sort of measuring stick for Jerome, he couldn’t help but show how confident he is in his abilities.

“Not so much for me, but I think for a lot of other people that were watching because I know what I’m capable of, but I think a lot of people didn’t at that point I guess,” he admitted.

That kind of confidence is one of the reasons UVa coach Tony Bennett wanted Jerome on his side.

“He’s very competitive,” Bennett said of Jerome’s drive. “That is one of the things that I loved about Ty when I first recruited him and you can see that, and I think that the players, his teammates, respect his game. And leadership is also about not just on the court, it’s off-court, so a lot of things like that, I think he really wants to be one of the leaders of this team and growing that, and I think he’s done a really good job so far in practice.

“He’s got a good voice, a loud voice, and he talks all the time — I don’t know if that’s the New York in him or not — but it’s a good thing.”

Jerome, who hopes to not only play professionally but also be a coach when his playing days are over, is figuring out ways to motivate his teammates individually, adding that the closeness of the team was the reason for last year’s success.

“I’m gonna do whatever it takes to help this team win,” Jerome said, “so I think that’s probably the biggest challenge for me right now — figuring out how I can talk to each guy on the team and how to keep my patience throughout the course of a game, because that’s when I have to completely take myself out of the equation. I can’t worry about how I’m playing, I have to worry about how my teammate’s feeling or how my teammate’s playing, how I can get other guys involved more.”

Bennett raves about Jerome’s natural leadership abilities, but says it’s still a bit of a work in progress replacing what Isaiah WIlkins and Devon Hall brought a year ago. Bennett says Jerome is being asked to fill both roles in a way.

“I’ve even encouraged him and challenged him, ‘Hey sometimes, some guys you’ve got to figure out what guys need. This guy might need a pat on the back, this guy might need to be pushed a little harder,’” said the coach, “and it’s a delicate balance being a leader.”

Jerome knows the ‘Hoos, who finished with 30-plus wins for the third time in five years, are capable of another strong season, especially with the addition of Alabama transfer Braxton Key. Regardless, Bennett said during ACC Operation Basketball in Charlotte last week that the team’s defense isn’t quite what it has been, and he’s holding the Cavaliers to a high standard in practice, according to Jerome.

“It’s a matter of us working hard every day and keeping that mindset that he set in Charlotte, that we’re not where we need to be yet, no matter how good we are at the moment,” Jerome said. “We’ll never be perfect at anything. I think we have to keep working on our defense, keep working on forming our identity — we have a few new pieces — and we’re never as good as we think we are.”

As for being picked in the preseason to finish second to another freshman-laden Duke squad by the members of the ACC media, Jerome and the Wahoos plan to settle it on the court when the time comes.

“I guess it’s a little disrespectful,” said Jerome, “but at the end of the day we’re going to play [the Blue Devils]. We’re going to play them twice this year, so we’ll see.”