Jeremy Hemsley Has an Interesting Connection to Ollie

“My dad has known coach Ollie since high school,” Hemsley mentioned when I asked him about his relationship with Kevin Ollie and his staff. He also said that his relationship with the staff has been, “Pretty good so far.” With Jeremy being apart of the class of 2015 his relationship is definitely still growing with the staff. Hemsley also said that he wants his college coach to, “Help my teammates and I take our game to the next level.” Ollie has been there and done that with regards to college and NBA basketball. He is certainly one of the best coaches that can help anybody develop to the point so they can play in the NBA.

As I mentioned Jeremy Hemsley is part of the class of 2015. He’s a 6’3″ 175lbs. shooting guard out of La Verne, California. As for what his strengths are on the court he had this to say, “I think I do a good job of keeping my composure, finding the open guy, driving, and shooting.”  His abilities have gotten him to this point in his life but he admits that he has to work on his, “Jump shot and rebounding,” so he can become a better player.

Hemsley and I also talked about what makes UConn an attractive school to him. The main points were, “Their style of play, they way Coach Ollie coaches and their fan base is amazing.” A couple examples of that crowd he’s talking about from this past season are the reaction to when coach Ollie walked out onto the court at the XL Center before the Washington game after receiving his long-term contract earlier in the day, and the electric atmosphere at Gampel Pavilion in the overtime win against Providence to cap off what was a great season filled with memories. I went on to ask him what he liked about UConn’s style of play and he liked that, “They’re fast paced and still stay under control.”

We then talked about his recruitment. He said that he is being recruited by, “UNLV, UConn, San Diego St., Colorado, Arizona St., Northern Arizona, Washington, Washington St., USC, Stanford, and New Mexico.” Out of the twelve schools he mentioned he pointed that, “UNLV, Colorado, Arizona St., Washington, USC, and UConn,” are after him the hardest. As for what he was going to take in consideration for his commitment Hemsley mentioned, “Playing time is a big factor and I want my team to feel like a family.” When he said that he wants his team to feel like a family the first thing that came to my head was Daniel Hamilton. Hamilton told me that one of the biggest reasons that he committed to UConn was that it felt like a family and he loved Ollie’s brotherhood aspect. Jeremy also added in, “I haven’t done or planned any visits yet.”

I then ended the conversation with a question that had nothing to do with him directly. The question was, what is the perception of Ollie out west right now? That question was sparked by husky99 from the Boneyard and I thought that it was a great question. It is a great question because out west is where it looks like most of Ollie’s current connections are for recruiting and he was raised out there. Hemsley answered the question perfectly. He answered by saying, “He has a lot of respect out here. Anyone would be lucky to play for him.”

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