City of Basketball Love

By Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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Jahmare Memphis’s journey to La Salle started during his sophomore year.

The Explorers were slated to play Wagner in their annual homecoming game to tip off the season and Westtown assistant coach Tyler Martin decided to take a few players, including Memphis. La Salle secured the victory during that Saturday afternoon contest and Memphis came away impressed, especially with La Salle’s playing style under the direction of longtime Big 5 head coach Fran Dunphy.

“Watching La Salle play, specifically Khalil Brantley and Jhamir Brickus, and seeing them dominate the game appealed to me,” Memphis said. “When I saw that, then two years later when they offered me, I had made up my mind.”

Memphis first got on La Salle’s radar as a sophomore then fast forward during the live period in July during the Mid-Atlantic Independent School Team Camp at The Hun School (N.J.), the offer and opportunity he had longed for finally came calling.

The 6-foot, 180-pound senior guard officially committed to Dunphy and La Salle on July 21, taking his lone Division I offer and turning it into his next opportunity. Furthermore, La Salle sees an opportunity in developing Memphis and turning him into an electric guard in the same mold as Brantley and Brickus.

“Coach Fran told me he had been watching my games for a while,” Memphis said. “They were at some games last year, including when we played [Academy of the New Church]. Another assistant was there when we played in the PAISAA semifinals. They came to see me this summer then offered me.”

Westtown head coach Seth Berger has known Dunphy for years and having been the coach of the Moose for close to two decades, he has been interacting with the former Pennsylvania and Temple head man dating back to the early 2000s. Dunphy sat courtside during a Westtown practice and observed Memphis, and Berger noted that Dunphy was fixated on the young floor general after that.

“Fran identified him as a player much earlier than other coaches, probably the beginning of his junior year,” Berger said. “He said to me, ‘He’s really good. He could play at a lot of levels.’”

La Salle assistant coach Mark Hueber put Memphis on Dunphy’s radar and initiated conversations between both sides early on then Dunphy became heavily involved in the recruitment. Despite interest from Cornell, Maine, and Central Connecticut as well as locally from East Stroudsburg, Memphis was fixated on La Salle in the same way Dunphy and his staff were with him. A trademark of Dunphy’s successful run as a head coach in Philadelphia has been his innate ability to connect with players and give them autonomy out on the court.

Memphis is the latest prospect to immediately identify and gravitate to that.

“Talking to Coach Fran, watching his practices, seeing how he coaches guys by letting them play freely and allowing them to make mistakes while holding them accountable with the wisdom that he has, it solidified it for me,” Memphis said. “This is where I can get better and grow as a player and a person.”

He has been able to take in a few of La Salle’s practices and recalled a recent practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) where Dunphy told him to watch Eric Acker, Corey McKeithan and Michael “Deuce” Jones. Acker (Long Island University) and McKeithan (Rider) are transfers while Jones is one of the more heralded recruits in the Explorers’ 2024 class. Dunphy said, “Just their speed and how they operate as players, he mentioned them to me as players to emulate. Our games don't necessarily match but something Coach Dunphy brought up was speed and that they’re fast. This is what I’m going to have to deal with coming in next year is guarding fast guards,” according to Memphis.

Memphis came to Westtown as a 5-8 guard; originally from Somerset County (N.J.), he went to middle school in Toronto, and currently lives in Delaware. He was trying to find his way on a team featuring Dallas Mavericks forward Dereck Lively II and Temple guard Jameel Brown. That group ultimately went on to win an eighth straight Friends Schools League (FSL) title for Westtown followed by the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) crown.

Memphis saw minimal time as a freshman but broke into the rotation as a sophomore solely on his defensive prowess. Berger loved the tenacity he brought defensively and has needed Memphis to display that at key moments throughout his rising career.

“His on-ball pressure gave him an opportunity to get minutes,” Berger said. “He was not as good of an offensive player at that time as he turned out to be. He was a sophomore, but his ball pressure helped him get some minutes on the court and now it’s a hallmark of his game.”

Dunphy has always recruited with defense in mind and some names that have thrived in that area from the start include Nate Pierre-Louis, Will Cummings, Ryan Brooks, and Anthony Lee. Memphis excels in face-guarding the opposition’s best player and picking up his man full court. He has a model to follow and a skill set that could translate to immediate minutes next season.

“My defensive presence is my best attribute because I’m always trying to be the most annoying guy on the court,” Memphis said. “Not necessarily talking too much but I don’t want anyone to be comfortable or even think about passing near me. I want to go get the ball, stop you and make you turn it over. Whatever I can do to make you uncomfortable, that’s what I’m going to do.”

While Memphis has been known for his defense, his offensive game took a bit longer to develop and now has blossomed into a player who can not only get into the lane but convert and make the right decisions when the defense collapses. He averaged 6.5 ppg as a junior and had moments where he could score in bunches like his 16-point game against Friends Select in the regular season then a 12-point outing against Penn Charter in the PAISAA quarterfinals. Skill development has been an essential element to Berger’s template at Westtown and as Memphis began to piece things together, the offensive repertoire evolved.

“His ability to get into the paint and make plays is something he naturally possessed but his ability to finish plays and make great decisions is something we had to try and work with him to get better at,” Berger said. “He’s really taken to learning that and it’s a testament to how hard he’s worked.”

Berger stressed Memphis also possesses “serious range to his three-point shot” and as the starting point guard on the Moose this year, he will lead an explosive group that consists of four Division I commits with Cam Wallace (Temple), Jayden Kelsey (Binghamton) and Jayden Forsythe (Xavier). Meanwhile, La Salle is coming off a 16-17 season (6-12 Atlantic 10) and will have to replace three players who have avg. at least nine points per game in Brantley (Oklahoma State), Brickus (Villanova) and Anwar Gill (Howard). Acker, McKeithan and Jones will be called upon to contribute significantly this season as will Archbishop Wood alum Daeshon Shepherd but looking further down the road, Memphis is hoping to be in the mix once he arrives on campus next year.

Memphis’s game has officially taken shape and as a result, Dunphy and the Explorers took note. He’s ready to continue his ascension as a Division I commit and the allure of playing for Dunphy provides him with an optimal chance at success from the start.

“It’s a blessing to be playing for such a great person and someone who has been around like him,” Memphis said. “He likes my IQ and says I have a bunch of things that translate really well. He wants me to come in and take command of the team because as a point guard, he wants me to be an extension of the coach.”