NEW ORLEANS — Brian Boyer has always thought Jasmine Hunt could provide an interesting business opportunity.
“I used to always tell people, if I was doing a post clinic, I could sell DVDs of Jasmine Hunt’s post moves,” Boyer, Arkansas State’s women’s basketball coach, said of his senior forward. “Every post move you could come up with, she can do it.”
The problem has always been getting Hunt to utilize them correctly.
“She’d get in the game and do them all at the wrong times,” Boyer said.
But as Hunt’s career nears its end, the 6-2 forward from Houston seems to have finally figured things out. Utilizing a simple drop step rather than a full repertoire of moves in the paint, Hunt has turned into the type of consistent player Boyer said his team needed to be successful.
ASU already had quality guards with reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year Aundrea Gamble and three-year starter Hanna Qedan, but it needed post players.
Hunt has filled that hole, averaging 11 points and 6.1 rebounds in 26.9 minutes per game heading into No. 2 ASU’s game against No. 7 Appalachian State at 5 p.m. today in the Sun Belt Tournament at Lakefront Arena.
“I really just had to believe in myself,” Hunt said. “That was the biggest thing.”
No doubt Appalachian State (14-15) will be concerned about Gamble, who averages 19.1 points per game, but Coach Angel Elderkin said she also has spent ample time discussing Hunt’s ability.
Hunt is ASU’s leading rebounder and is fourth in minutes played after averaging 3.3 points and 1.5 rebounds while averaging 8 minutes a game last year. She’s been even better in conference games, averaging 12.9 points and 7.3 rebounds in 28.8 minutes. Hunt had 20 points and 11 rebounds in a victory over South Alabama. On Saturday, she had 21 points and 7 rebounds in a victory over Louisiana-Lafayette.
“She is a very dominant post player in our league,” Elderkin said.
Hunt hasn’t always been that way. She played behind Jane Morrill and Jalen O’Bannon last year, and this year she knew she’d be asked to do more. Hunt scored 10 or more points in 4 of 10 nonconference games, and by the time ASU (21-9) played Georgia State on Jan. 19, she had done so three times in seven conference games.
Hunt said her progress has been gradual, but she had 11 points and seven rebounds in ASU’s victory over Georgia State and has shown the consistency she’s wanted ever since. She has scored 10 or more points 10 times in the past 12 games, and six times in that span she’s had 14 points or more. She hit her peak last week when she combined for 41 points and 18 rebounds in two games.
“I’ve been working hard to be that player all my life,” Hunt said. “I’m just glad I’m finally getting a glimpse of what I could do.”
It came a bit later than she or Boyer would have liked, but not too late to help ASU make a run at its first Sun Belt tournament title.
“I think there’s still been some ups and downs, I think, with her,” Boyer said. “But, man, the ups have sure been up and the downs haven’t been as down as they might have been [before].”