The Unique Artistry of Jelly Walker
Appreciating a masterpiece
Oxford English Dictionary
“auteur”
a filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie.
Recently, I had a conversation with someone about the meaning of art. That’s a pretentious-ass start to an article on a sports blog, but hear me out. We talked about the ability of exceptional talents to turn their specialties, whether in the athletic, academic, or professional arenas, into something that transcends themselves and becomes art.
I think it’s an interesting thought exercise to apply this concept to various fields. Can chess masters be considered artists? Can doctors or teachers be considered artists? Can basketball players be considered artists? The answer to the final question, at least from my perspective, is unequivocally yes.
As someone who thinks about UAB basketball as a default, this got my wheels turning. I asked myself: are there any Blazer basketball players I’d regard as artists?
If you posed me that question three years ago, I think I’d say no. Robert Vaden, Cameron Moore, Chris Cokley, Aaron Johnson, and Robert Brown are my favorite pre-2020 Blazers. All of them were absolutely exceptional basketball players, but I thought of them as just that: basketball players. Despite their various skillsets, none of their games transcended the sport, although a good old-fashioned Cokley post-up came close.
On June 11th, 2021, UAB officially added Tulane transfer Jordan “Jelly” Walker to the roster. He changed my answer in about four months.
I’ve never seen anyone like Jelly put on a UAB uniform. I wouldn’t even give him the generic “artist” label - he’s an auteur. I don’t think Walker is simply an athlete when he plays basketball - he has such a gravitational presence that he shapes the action around him. The games he participates in have a distinct, unique style, and you can spot a Jordan Walker game from a mile away the same way you can spot a Quentin Tarantino movie from a mile away.
I think of Jelly’s performances as individual expressions of said style, and to me, there’s no singular example that encapsulates it more than the one I’ll be discussing today. It has all his trademarks - steadfast confidence, pinpoint shooting in the clutch, and a dogged refusal to let UAB lose.
Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Jordan Walker’s 2022 Conference USA semifinals game against Middle Tennessee.
Act I: What Have We Gotten Ourselves Into
The 2021-2022 UAB men’s basketball team was helmed, of course, by the incomparable Walker, who was in the midst of an offensive season unmatched by any Blazer in history. The supporting cast was comically strong: fearsome shooter Michael Ertel patrolled the backcourt, future NBA player Trey Jemison manned the paint, defensive prodigy Quan Jackson roamed the wings, physical forward KJ Buffen crashed the boards, and crafty veteran Tavin Lovan provided invaluable depth.
Andy Kennedy was in his second season as the head coach in Birmingham and the first with his own recruits - so far, the results had been scintillating. The Blazers had won 24 games during the regular season and reached their highest KenPom ranking since 2004. UAB was one of the favorites to take home the conference title, along with North Texas, Louisiana Tech, and the MTSU team they would clash with in the semifinal.
As a UAB fan, I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of this. What you might not remember, however, is how interesting Middle Tennessee’s story was.
Entering their showdown with UAB, the Blue Raiders stood as the Conference USA tournament’s top-seeded team. The regular season had brought overwhelming success to Murfreesboro - MTSU finished 23-9 and 13-5 in conference play and stood as KenPom’s 100th-ranked team at the end of the season. Just a year prior, hearing these numbers wouldn’t have been improbable - it would’ve been unthinkable.
When Jemison and DeAndre Dishman jumped for the tipoff on March 11th, 2022, the Raider Death Star of years past had long been dismantled. The ghosts that used to haunt UAB were scattered across the globe - Giddy Potts was playing professionally in New Zealand, Reggie Upshaw was in Germany, and JaCorey Williams was in France. This iteration of the Blue Raiders was unrecognizable from the teams that shocked Michigan State and Minnesota in the NCAA Tournament.
Former head coach Kermit Davis left Murfreesboro in 2018, taking the soul of the program with him. For most of new coach Nick McDevitt’s tenure, MTSU had been wandering through the wilderness, entering a dark age their program hadn’t bore witness to since the early 2000s. They finished 246th in KenPom, then 295th. In 2021, the Blue Raiders finally bottomed out, going 5-18 in the shortened season and bearing a horrifying 306 KenPom ranking just 11 months before the beginning of our story.
So what happened? How did Middle jump 205 KenPom spots in a year?
It was veteran point guard Donovan Sims, who was there for the last great Raider season and had stuck through years of turmoil.
It was the center Dishman, a post machine who raised his eFG% and TS% over 10 points each from the prior season.
It was journeyman Josh Jefferson, out for the UAB game, who went from a shot-chucker in Green Bay to a hyper-efficient scorer in Murfreesboro.
It was newcomers Camryn Weston and Teafale Lenard, who were, respectively, offensive and defensive anchors of the team.
All of these players gelled in a genuinely historic way - by KenPom, MTSU’s single-season turnaround was one of the most dramatic of any college basketball team of all time. They had cast away their regular season demons, but this tournament was the climax of their comeback story.
To grasp the entire backdrop of this game and the significance of Jelly Walker’s actions, it’s essential to understand how massive a win would be in Middle Tennessee’s claw back to relevancy.
I’ll cite “win probability” throughout this article to put some of these moments into perspective. When I refer to that statistic, I use Ken Pomeroy’s win probability graphs, not ESPN’s.
Our story begins with around four minutes remaining in regulation.
UAB, once in complete control of the game, has more or less fallen apart. The Blue Raiders have consistently taken advantage of a collapsing Blazer interior defense, and MTSU now holds a 58-54 lead. Jemison, UAB’s towering center, is still working back from an injury suffered late in the season and looks to be a little limited. Jelly Walker is in double digits, but he’s been inefficient and has struggled to find his three-point stroke all night: 36 minutes into the game, he’s only made one triple.
The final media timeout of regulation ends, and the Blazers come out with some fight. Ertel and Walker get hacked one after the other and drain two free throws each. The score is briefly evened, but MTSU’s Eli Lawrence finds a mismatch against Walker, backs him down, and draws a foul.
Lawrence nails both free throws and the Raiders again take a two-point lead. Three minutes remain. On the other end of the floor, a miscommunication between Walker and Jemison results in a UAB turnover. MTSU slowly brings the ball up the court and runs their money play: a DeAndre Dishman post-up.
However, Trey Jemison stands strong, immobile as an oak tree. Dishman misses a tough shot and flails about, looking for a foul that will never come. UAB can’t make anything happen on the offensive end, but Jemison rises and swats Middle’s Justin Bufford, once again coming through with a crucial defensive play. Jelly collects the rebound, sprints up the court, and fires the ball to Quan Jackson, who is fouled in transition by Donovan Sims.
1:42 remains in the game. The Blazers are down by two with a chance to tie it. Quan makes the first free throw, but the second rattles out. Camryn Weston grabs the rebound and takes his time marching up the floor.
Excellent Blazer defense forces a Raider turnover, and Walker brings the ball up the court with the clock running. The timer has ticked under one minute, and UAB faces a one-point deficit. The Blue Raiders do all they can to harass Jelly; it seems he’ll shoot, but as he rises, Walker spots an open Jemison streaking towards the rim. He delivers a perfect pass, and Trey makes a motion towards the basket…
Charge. Blue Raider ball. 43 seconds remaining.
Not only does this foul give away possession at a crucial time, it is Jemison’s fifth and final. The injured big man strides to the bench with his uniform over his face, having given everything he could muster. In an almost mocking way, the camera keeps panning to Jemison, mouth wide open, staring in stark disbelief. The announcers openly question the referee’s judgment as the replay shows one of Justin Bufford’s feet lingering in the restricted area. The call is wrong, and it doesn’t matter - one way or another, Trey Jemison is out of the game.
The Blazers’ win probability has ticked under 30%, and that’s without factoring in the absence of their anchor. UAB’s interior depth is now entirely shot. For the remainder of the game, some combination of KJ Buffen and reserve Rongie Gordon will have to contain the electric Dishman.
But remember: this film isn’t going to end without a tour de force performance from our star.
Ironically, the following Raider possession also ends in an offensive foul, and I genuinely don’t believe it was a makeup call. Quan Jackson sets his feet, stays out of the restricted area, and takes a clean charge. Basketball is a funny game.
MTSU is able to drain roughly 25 seconds from the timer, but they don’t come away with any points.
The Green and Gold get possession on the baseline underneath their basket, the clock reading 16.2 seconds, needing to travel the length of the court. This is for the game: if they don’t score, they lose.
As UAB inbounds the ball, the announcers speculate on who the Blazers will have take this crucial shot. They logically settle on Jelly and discuss how they’d defend the final possession. Avery Johnson suggests a course of action for the Blue Raiders:
“If I’m Middle Tennessee, I’m not going to make it easy. I’m going to make someone else make a shot. I - ”
Easier said than done, Avery.
Before the color commentator finishes his thought, Walker has sprinted up to the three-point line and given UAB the lead with a pull-up triple over Weston. A Jelly trademark. Blazers 62, Blue Raiders 60. 7.9 seconds remaining.
If I wanted to introduce Jordan Walker in one play, I would choose this one. I cannot think of a better showcase of the player he is. Jelly’s shooting 20% from three on the night. Ok, so what? He’s not going to hesitate to fire again. The thing about Walker is that his confidence never wavers, and his form never falters - he always seems to be in control of the game.
But for this show to end here would be a travesty, a disservice to the performers. Besides, up to this point, Jelly has only had one signature moment - what kind of movie ends before the climax? Weston, obviously sharing that sentiment, takes the inbounds pass and streaks down the floor with tunnel vision, barely registering the presence of his teammates. The Raider guard avoids three Blazers and makes a move toward the basket. UAB, the absence of their seven-foot center painfully obvious, can only watch as Weston spins the ball off the backboard, tying the game.
We head to the first overtime.
The opening minutes of the first extra period were typical of the rest of the game: the Raiders exploiting UAB’s weakened interior, the Blazers hanging tight with shooting and willpower. With two minutes to go in OT, UAB trails 64-66. After a KJ Buffen foul, Weston heads to the charity stripe for the Blue Raiders, nailing both shots and extending the MTSU lead to four points.
Jelly, ever the dramatist, responds in turn.
UAB is down by just a single point again. With 1:20 to play, Weston drives directly into Walker and Quan Jackson, attempting to split the gap between the two. That is his first mistake.
Jackson throws it down to the delight of the Blazer bench, giving UAB a one-point advantage. Both teams proceed to miss shots, and the Raiders get the ball back with twenty seconds remaining. Donovan Sims drives toward the baseline and fires it to Eli Lawrence, but UAB’s Jackson picks up a ticky-tack foul, rendering the play dead.
Middle Tennessee is in the double bonus, so Sims is guaranteed two free throws. This is a potentially disastrous situation for the Blazers. As the announcers are keen to point out, Sims is an absolute sniper from the line. There’s an 81% chance Sims will make both shots, securing the lead and perhaps the victory. A large graphic shouts that the MTSU point guard is 90.2% accurate from the charity stripe.
His first attempt rattles off the rim. Buffen, standing on the block, grins.
Sims makes the second, tying the game and leaving the Blazers with a few seconds to make something happen. UAB’s final play is a designed iso three for Walker, but Jelly’s last-second heave clanks off the heel of the rim, and we head to the second overtime.
Act II: We Should Be Dead
Annoying metaphor incoming, but have you ever seen Pulp Fiction? Specifically, the apartment scene where Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta are shot at from point-blank range. After miraculously avoiding death, their characters pause and look at one another. Jackson examines the bullet holes on the wall behind them and incredulously says, “We should be fuckin’ dead, man.” For about three weeks, that’s the only commentary I could muster on this second overtime. We should be fuckin’ dead, man.
If you have somehow forgotten the events of these next five minutes, let this graph jog your brain.
The second overtime begins innocently enough, betraying nothing to come. Eli Lawrence and Mike Ertel both make a pair of free throws, keeping the score even. As the clock ticks closer to 4:00, Lawrence drives into the paint and misses a layup high off the glass. DeAndre Dishman, taking advantage of Trey Jemison’s continued sabbatical, grabs the rebound and tips it in, drawing a foul on KJ Buffen in the process.
The big man makes the free throw, and the Raiders find themselves up three. The next minute is competitive - MTSU stays in the lead, but UAB hangs on their tail. Things really start to go downhill around the 3:00 mark. Amid a monstrous performance, Dishman makes a layup to increase his team’s advantage to four. Jelly brings the ball down the court and fires a pass to Rongie Gordon underneath the basket, where, pardon my language, Teafale Lenard blocks the shit out of him.
The Blazers get a stop on Middle’s subsequent possession, but Walker can’t connect on a three. MTSU gets the ball back, Sims finds Lenard on a beautiful baseline alley-oop, and the Blue Raider lead has suddenly grown to six.
Ninety seconds remain in the game. At this point, KenPom estimates UAB’s winning chances to be around 7%, and they’re about to drop further.
Quan Jackson responds to Lenard’s dunk by making two free throws, keeping a glimmer of hope alive. The Blazers get another stop, but Jackson misses an open three.
As time ticks down, Donovan Sims takes the ball up the court. After briefly trying for a steal, Mike Ertel grabs his waist, sending the Raider point guard to the charity stripe. With 39 seconds remaining in the game, he swishes both free throws, stretching the MTSU lead back to six. The Blue Raider benchwarmers begin embracing one another. This is a catastrophe.
2.8 percent.
Throughout UAB’s six-year NCAA Tournament drought, there were moments at the end of every season when it was clear it was over, that the Blazers would have to watch March from afar once again. Some were acute instances - think Makhtar Gueye fumbling Zack Bryant’s late pass in the 2019 conference semifinals against Old Dominion - while some were slow burns - think the top seeded Blazers’ continued inability to cover WKU’s Frederick Edmond in the opening round of the 2016 conference tournament. Sims’ late free throws seem to fit into the “acute instances” category. We’d all seen this movie before.
But how many times do I have to remind you - today, Jordan Walker is the director.
The Blazers have to move. There are 39 seconds on the game clock, and they have a six-point deficit to make up. Wasted possessions will spell doom.
Jelly storms up the court, swerving through traffic and drawing a foul. He makes both free throws. 32.4 seconds remaining. Still four points down.
Camryn Weston takes the inbounds pass and is immediately swarmed in the corner by Ertel and Jackson. Jackson gets a hand on the ball, and in Weston’s haste to retrieve it, the Raider guard accidentally knocks it out of bounds.
28.7 seconds remaining. Blazer ball.
Tavin Lovan inbounds the ball to Jelly, who hands it back to Lovan. Tavin takes a few dribbles on the logo before firing a pass to a whirling Walker, speeding around an off-ball screen. Jelly catches it a few feet behind the line and launches a deep, off-balance triple - no good. But Teafale Lenard inexplicably bats the rebound right into the hands of Ertel, who retreats a few steps and rattles home a three.
To this day, I cannot wrap my head around why Lenard smacks the ball so hard. I think it’s just obliviousness to his surroundings; Justin Bufford is standing right before him. If only Lenard had the wherewithal to find him, it’s Blue Raider ball and the game likely ends.
Either way, there are now 17.5 seconds remaining. The Blazers face a one-point deficit. UAB is going to have to foul. Andy Kennedy puts little-used freshman Tony Toney in, unwilling to risk saddling Walker, Jackson, or Ertel with the task. The Raiders are able to evade Toney for a few moments, sapping a precious six seconds off the game clock. The freshman finally hacks Donovan Sims, again sending MTSU’s best free-throw shooter to the line. Once again, the season hangs in the balance.
As if taunting him, CBS again puts up a graphic boasting Sims’ impressive free-throw percentage. Color commentator Avery Johnson makes sure to mention that Donovan Sims is “who Middle Tennessee wants at the line.”
Just like in the first overtime, the first one rolls around the rim and falls out.
Sims instantly looks at the ceiling as if cursing the announcers. The camera pans to the Blue Raider bench, and for the first time, there are slight grimaces on their faces.
Sims collects himself and nails the second shot. Middle calls a timeout. UAB now stares down a two-point deficit with 11.7 seconds remaining; they have to go the length of the floor. Everyone knows where the ball is going, but who can stop it?
Jelly takes Lovan’s inbound pass and turns towards the Raider basket. As Walker darts forward, Eli Lawrence picks him up, but Jelly blows by him; he careens into the paint, euro-steps around DeAndre Dishman, and smashes into Teafale Lenard. Two shots. Walker will have to make both to keep UAB alive.
The first rolls in. 81-82.
The camera once again shows the Raider sideline, and at this point the benchwarmer progression of emotions has reached its nadir. There is no more laughing, or hugging, or jumping around. Only dread.
I’ve always thought there’s something poetic about the way this overtime ends: Sims and Walker, the two veteran point guards, shooting free throws mano a mano, both men nearing the end of their long journeys.
Donovan Sims has grown up in the Middle Tennessee program, going from an underutilized freshman to an unquestioned anchor, all the while watching his team go from the top to the bottom. In what might be his final game as a Raider, he’s leading MTSU to the culmination of a years-long reclamation project, trying to restore memories of former glory.
Jordan Walker, on the other hand, transferred from school to school, looking for a program to call his own. He went from a Seton Hall reserve to a Tulane starter before finally blossoming into a superstar in Birmingham. Here Jelly is, at last, the conference player of the year, the vanguard of a team looking to uphold an old standard of excellence.
Both ambitions can’t win out.
Walker makes another. 3.1 seconds remaining. Tie game. In less than 30 seconds, UAB has erased a six-point deficit - a miracle.
Justin Bufford tosses the inbound pass to Sims, who dashes along the sideline. In one of the most horrifying moments of my life, the Raider point guard runs into Jelly, loses the ball, seems to travel, recovers the ball, and throws up a three. Miraculously, the officials blow no whistles. If you’ve ever seen the famous Devin Harris buzzer beater, it looks exactly like that: only Sims’ heave hits the heel of the basket, sending the game into triple overtime.
We should be fuckin’ dead, man.
Act III: Dénouement
The final chapter of this epic is, thankfully, mercifully, free of drama. At first, that doesn’t seem like it will be the case: the third overtime opens with a missed Walker three. Weston takes the rebound coast-to-coast, drawing a foul and making both free throws.
However, the Raiders have gallivanted in the face of danger for too long. It’s time for this story to come to a close.
UAB is awake at last. Eli Lawrence tries to respond to Walker’s four-point play but can’t knock down a three. Quan Jackson grabs the rebound and finds Mike Ertel in the right corner.
It’s over. The tenacity and shotmaking that have buoyed the Blue Raiders through the last 50 minutes have abandoned them. Jelly hits another three. On the next possession, Quan throws down a dunk.
Tavin Lovan knocks down a free throw. Walker makes two more free throws. Middle Tennessee simply doesn’t have a response; their six-man rotation is clearly exhausted. By the time the clock ticks down to the 15-second mark, UAB’s lead has ballooned to 98-89. The Raiders half-heartedly attempt to foul Jelly, who races down the court and lays the ball in, his last bucket of the game. Walker has completely taken over the third overtime, scoring 11 of UAB’s 20 points over the final five minutes.
The final score, 102-98, appears closer than it is. Walker and Rongie Gordon get called for late technicals, gifting Middle Tennessee four free throws. Justin Bufford tosses in a three at the buzzer to the fury of bettors. But make no mistake - UAB held an 11-point lead with 15 seconds to go.
The heroes are numerous. Michael Ertel is flawless. The senior plays an unthinkable 54 minutes, finishing with 26 points on 50% shooting. He nails a clutch three at the end of the second overtime and manages the ball like a professional, turning it over just once.
Quan Jackson does precisely what Quan Jackson does. The defensive stalwart records four steals, by far a game-high. That’s not even mentioning his double-double; Jackson racks up 16 points on 55% shooting while pulling down ten boards.
Tavin Lovan, KJ Buffen, and Trey Jemison play a combined 104 minutes. Lovan, always the steady presence, is calm and collected throughout the game. He scores eight points with a rebound and a steal. Buffen, who fouls out in the second overtime, rips down ten boards and blocks a shot. Despite battling a nagging injury and fouling out before the end of regulation, Jemison blocks three shots and records a steal.
However, no one shines brighter than Jordan “Jelly” Walker. The superstar finishes the game with 40 points, six rebounds, and three assists. He’d hit the shot(s) that kept UAB alive in all periods but the first overtime. Time and time again, he refused to let the Blazers go under.
UAB does, in fact, have to play in another game. On the other side of the bracket, Louisiana Tech and Kenny Lofton have just beaten North Texas 42-36, a disgrace to James Naismith. In less than 18 hours, the Blazers will have to meet their longtime rivals in the conference championship.
On paper, Tech has plenty of advantages. They are well-rested and feisty, having played 15 fewer minutes of basketball than UAB. A still-injured Trey Jemison will have to guard the NBA-bound Lofton. Tech’s Keaston Willis is on a tear, shooting 46% from three during the conference tournament.
It didn’t matter. The Blazers had already slayed the demon; they had conquered the concept of “probability.” The title game is less of a contest than a coronation. Despite a monstrous performance from their star, the Bulldogs are rarely within double-digits of the Blazers. UAB coasts to an 82-73 victory, punching their ticket to March and breaking the tournament drought at long last.
Jelly Walker played dozens of games in a UAB uniform, most of which were spectacular. Ask anyone around the last two years to choose their favorite Jelly moment; the answers will vary wildly. Some will say the scoring record he set in Bartow, others will say his game-winning three against Western Kentucky, and still others will say his semifinal domination of Tylor Perry. For me, this game is the cream of the crop, and it’s not particularly close. It took me a long time to pinpoint exactly why.
As stated throughout the article, I think it’s a wonderful encapsulation of Jelly’s artistry, of how he influences basketball games and turns them into his own expression. But there’s something more than that calls me to this performance. After deep soul-searching and self-reflection, I came to the following conclusion: I am a massive hater.
In my decades as a UAB basketball fan, many demons have haunted the halls of Bartow. UTSA’s Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace dropped 20+ points on us a combined 13 times. Old Dominion’s Ahmad Caver once made my 14-year-old self cry. Auburn’s Jared Harper singlehandedly won the Tigers three straight games over UAB. I took myself out to dinner the day Tech’s Kenny Lofton entered the NBA Draft. Remember Randy Culpepper?
However, it was rare we got to reciprocate this feeling. UAB had plenty of formidable players in the mid-to-late 2010s. Still, it was uncommon to see an individual Blazer torment a specific opposing fanbase as gruesomely as we were tormented. To my knowledge, no Ruston or Bowling Green schoolchildren were cursing the names of Nick Norton and Chris Cokley. Tavin Lovan was consistently solid against Western Kentucky, and William Lee always brought his A-game against Old Dominion, but it was never quite the same.
But eventually, UAB acquired their own superweapon, and Murfreesboro was the unfortunate city it was turned on.
As I’m sure many of you remember, this tournament performance wasn’t even Jelly’s magnum opus against MTSU. On February 5th, just four weeks earlier, Walker had set Bartow on fire. He dropped 42 points on the visiting Raiders, going 8/16 from deep and breaking UAB’s single-game scoring record. At the time, it was only the third 40-point game in the history of Blazer basketball.
For him to follow that up with 40 more points against the same team, this time in an elimination game, was unthinkable. He was less efficient, sure, attempting a whopping 29 field goals and making only 31% of his threes. But Jelly’s postseason performance wasn’t an exercise in methodical brutality, as the February 5th game had been. It was a soul-crushing display of clutch shooting. It was a bold statement, the cherry on top of a shocking run of dominance. It was repatriation for the years of opposing stars breaking our hearts. It was the destruction of Middle Tennessee’s redemption arc. It was villainous.
It was a hater’s dream.
