Future Cat Jamari Phillips revealing abilities that might deserve 5-star status

A couple of days later on, it ended up being clear the Wildcats already may have landed another one, too.

Guard Jamari Phillips, a friend and club-ball colleague of Bryant’s who devoted to the Wildcats last December, placed on the sort of program at the Mesa EYBL session last weekend that recommends he might quickly go up from his No. 33 composite ranking in the class of 2024 and into luxury status — which typically equates into a McDonald’s invite.

While assisting Paul George Elite 17U to a 3-1 record last weekend, the 6-3 guard balanced 28.7 points while shooting 62.5% general and 62.9% from 3-point variety over 3 video games. He remained his group’s last weekend video game, stating he had an aching back.

Phillips’ weekend scoring average happened regardless of having “only” 23 points while playing simply 16 minutes in one video game that PG Elite won by 42.

“I feel like I’m at a high level confidence-wise,” Phillips said Saturday after scoring 33 points in PG Elite’s 79-71 loss to Expressions. “I mean, this is my team. I’ve been on this team since eighth grade. I haven’t left. I’ve been rocking them for a minute, man. I mean, I just feel good with this team.”

That much appeared quite obvious.

“Arizona-bound Jamari Phillips goes off,” checked out a heading from 247 Sports, in which expert Eric Bossi kept in mind that Phillips was “sizzling hot” from 3, and when protectors attempted to stop his shooting by playing him securely, utilized his speed to his benefit. Phillps made it to the line 10 times over 3 video games, striking 9 totally free tosses.

“If there were other players in the gym as unguardable as Phillips — who is currently ranked No. 33 but made a pretty convincing case for a bump up the rankings — they were few and far between,” Bossi composed.

For Phillips, after a rough shift in schools throughout his junior season of high school ball, it had to do with time.

“I feel like I should blow up to something even more and people should start recognizing my game, getting more familiar with me because I feel like people aren’t as familiar with my game as I think they are,” Phillips said. “I can do a lot of stuff people don’t know about. There’s a lot of shooting and they’re gonna go in. Every shot that I take I feel like it’s gonna go in. And I feel like I’m a facilitator. I can get my players going as well.”

Phillips didn’t have a possibility to show it much of last season. While he’s a fourth-year veteran at PG Elite, Phillips was a novice of sorts at AZ Compass Prep last season after moving in December from Modesto (California) Christian High School while likewise handling a foot injury.

Phillips’ daddy, James, said Jamari attempted to play through the discomfort early in the season however that, after an MRI, a physician informed him to shut it down for a while. It was then that Phillips chose to accept an invite from AZ Compass Prep director Pete Kaffey to deal with his foot and his video game.

“Pete was just kind of like, `OK, fine, he doesn’t play much for his junior year,’ James Phillips said, adding that Kaffey said, “but if I get him here locked in with me, we’ll have him for senior year. I just want him. Whenever I can get him here, I just want him.”

As it ended up, Phillips had an effect late in his junior season, working his method into the AZ Compass rotation.

“Like I told his parents, he’s a kid who should help us right now, which he did,” Kaffey said. “But whenever you’re coming to that really, really good team, you’ve got other good players, and Jamari is a kid who requires shots … you’ve got to give him the ball to do his thing.

“From a chemistry standpoint, we had it going. We were a top-five team in the country. So he kind of struggled a little bit out of the gate. But he got it going and had some really big games for us.”

Then there were the people Phillips needed to handle on the other side of the court. While Modesto Christian is a seasonal power in California’s Central Valley area, AZ Compass Prep plays a nationwide prep-school schedule, typically dealing with groups packed with future top-level college gamers.

“The biggest change from those two schools is the development piece as a player and the competition that you’re gonna play against every night,” Phillips said. “I mean, you’re just playing against the top dogs every night. Either you’re gonna play a ranked player or a bunch of role players that are really, really good.

“So you have to really develop your game just to even play on that court. I feel like just being at AZ Compass really helped me help my game and helped my body as well. I feel like more in shape. I feel way stronger. I feel like I’m bumping people off easier and my shots are falling.”

Still, Kaffey said Phillips wasn’t able to make the sort of volume shots and general effect at Compass last season as a junior that he has throughout the very first 2 sessions this spring of EYBL, where Phillips, Bryant and four-star Las Vegas guard Jase Richardson have actually been PG Elite’s centerpieces.

Also, calling Phillips a “really, really good defender” while seeing him play in Mesa last weekend, Kaffey said he now is anticipating having Phillips as a senior next season.

“I’m expecting big things for him,” Kaffey said. “He’s gonna be given the opportunity to do his thing, to be who he is.”

Maybe likewise with the sort of point of view that may help Phillips when he lastly does get to Arizona for the 2024-25 season. The shots and minutes may not exist all the time, a minimum of immediately.

“In his focus and approach, I think Compass has helped him more than anything,” James Phillips said of his boy. Last season “was a little adversity, the first time he’s ever had to sit.

“I think it’s all great preparation. I mean, you get to Arizona and maybe you don’t play. Maybe you have to sit for a while. Who knows what the landscape is gonna be like when you show up? But now you’re used to it.”