Bill Courtney Highlights Miami Freshman Jalil Bethea's Growth This Season
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CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The expectations of being a five-star recruit and the highest recruit in program history have weighted on Jalil Bethea all year.
Throw in a head coach he wanted to play for retiring halfway through the season does not help with his progress but now, the budding star freshman is growing more confident each game.
Interim head coach Bill Courtney knows that you have to live with some of the things the uber-talented player does, but his improvement each game allows him to stay on the floor.
"He's gonna throw the ball all over the place at times," Courtney said. "You gotta live with some of that, especially since he's doing way more good things than bad things. He's gotten so much better defensively, so you can leave him up there on the floor a little bit more now because he's not making those key defense mistakes. He can tell the kid, wonderful, wonderful kid. So we just you know, keep sticking with him and he delivered on him tonight."
Coming out of high school Bethea was known for his scoring ability. However, the learning curve for college-level play threw him for a loop. He never had to play defense in high school because he scored every point. Now, if he can't he won't see the floor.
Courtney highlighted that his young star had to adjust to the size and physicality of the collegiate level and learn how to be locked in.
"Being locked in," Courtney said. You're a freshman. No matter who are it is a huge adjustment on that end of the floor. First, when you're someone like Jalil, you didn't have to play defense in high school. He's a scorer you know. He shoots most of the basketballs, but he had to learn."
Defensively, Bethea is getting better. That is the only thing you can ask for compared to where he was to start the season. He is staying in front of his man now and battling with them on the physical side of the ball.
Some expected him to play at this level coming out. Again, those expectations for a star player can weigh anyone down but now he is starting to find his grove and needs to build on this performance.
"It's unfortunate a lot of times with him because there's so much expectation on him, and if he was just able to learn grow and at a natural pace, you know, people would understand it better," Courtney said. "It's just so much pressure on the kid, but he's made strides, we're very happy with him and hope he builds when this, you know, has the key for him to build on this."
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University and is the site lead for Miami Hurricanes on SI. He can be reached at justice.sandle111@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@Justice_News5.
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.