Texas Tech basketball: Jahmi’us Ramsey’s best games of 2019-20
With Jahmi’us Ramsey declaring for the NBA Draft this past weekend, let’s take a look at his five best games as a Red Raider.
Saturday evening, Jahmi’us Ramsey did what we all had been expecting him to do for some time as he announced his intention to leave Texas Tech for the NBA after just one year. However, he’s not hiring an agent thus keeping open the possibility of returning to school.
That seems unlikely though, given that from the moment he signed with Tech, he was believed to be a one-and-done player. After all, that’s what most players of his pedigree plan to do these days.
In the class of 2019, Ramsey was rated the No. 32 player in the nation and No. 5 player in Texas by 247Sports making him the highest-rated recruit to ever sign with the Texas Tech basketball program. Of course, he’s since been surpassed in that regard by 2020 signee Nimari Burnett, the No. 26 player in his class.
In addition to Tech, Ramsey had offers from the likes of Indiana, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Florida, Baylor, Maryland, Oklahoma, Oregon, Virginia, and many others. Some recruiting services even had him rated as a 5-star prospect, making him the first such player to ever join the Red Raiders out of high school.
But when looking back at the scouting report on his 247Sports bio page, we see that it reads almost exactly opposite of the player he proved to be as a true freshman.
"According to Brian Snow: “At 6-4 and 195 pounds has the size to play any perimeter position. Is a scoring combo guard with the ability to make others better. Ball handling allows him to play on or off the ball. Has to continue to improve as an outside jump shooter, but the tools are there for him to be a high-level scorer at the college level. In order to go from good college player to NBA prospect, will need to become a more consistent shooter. If he does that, he should get a great shot to make a roster.”"
What stands out from the above blurb are the nuggets about his ball-handling and his inconsistent outside jumper. While those may have been accurate assessments of his game as a high schooler, the opposite of each is what we saw this past season.
When it came to ball-handling, that was Ramsey’s biggest flaw during his freshman season. In fact, he was second on the team in most turnovers per game at 2.0. And often, he was unable to make plays when asked to put the ball on the deck. Of course, there were also times when he found the ball in his hands late in games and he couldn’t make anything happen (as was the case for the entire roster).
But while he didn’t exhibit much of an ability to beat people off the dribble, he did prove to be Tech’s best 3-point shooter. That was one of the season’s greatest surprises.
As part of his 15 point-per-game average, which led the team, 8.7 came from behind the arc. That was an average of 2.9 made shots from deep per game.
Shooting 42.6% from the year from 3-point range, he was second in the Big 12 to TCU’s Desmond Bane (44.2%). It was a development that no one expected from Ramsey given what all of the scouting reports said about his game when he came out of Duncanville.
Though he wasn’t perfect and may not have been as much of an alpha dog as Tech fans wanted, Jahmi’us Ramsey was excellent this past season, which will likely be his only season with the Red Raiders. So let’s take a look back at his five best games because they are likely going to be our most enduring memories of Ramsey’s Red Raider career.