In his last outing, Jamal Bey scored 14 points on 3-for-4 shooting from the field and 6-for-6 on free throws in the second half at Stanford, which was more points than he’s had in all but two games this season.
Shortly after the break, Bey snared an offensive rebound under the rim, drove his shoulder into Cardinal forward Maxime Raynaud to create a little room before powering up a contested layup in traffic.
Minutes later, Bey received a pass on the wing and in the blink of an eye buried a three-pointer over Spencer Jones that splashed through the net.
Sunday’s 21-point performance was Bey’s best outing since scoring a career-high 28 points on Jan. 24, 2021 and begs the question: “Where has that guy been this season?”
“It’s probably a lot of different things,” Bey said sheepishly. “I don’t know. I stay in my head a lot. I’m very hard on myself. So, when a few things go bad for me, I get in my head.
“It might sound funny, but that’s something I try to teach the young guys. I tell them, when a few things go bad, you just got to keep going and keep playing. … But I’m working on it.”
In many ways, Bey’s collegiate career has been a work in progress that’s coming to end just as things are finally starting to click for the fifth-year senior.
Before Thursday’s 8 p.m. game against cross-state rival Washington State (15-15, 10-9 Pac-12) at Alaska Airlines Arena, Washington (16-14, 8-11) will honor seven seniors Cole Bajema, Keion Brooks Jr., PJ Fuller II, Anthony Iglesia, Noah Williams, Langston Wilson and Bey.
Among the group, Bey is the only member who began his career at UW and it’s fair to wonder if he ever truly reached his potential considering he arrived on Montlake in 2017 with a glowing resume.
The four-star recruit was the Gatorade Player of the Year for the State of Nevada who averaged 22.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.7 steals while leading Bishop Gorman High to a 29-4 season as a senior and the school’s seventh consecutive state title. Bey was 99th nationally on ESPN’s top 100 list and the second best player in Nevada behind standout center Bol Bol.
“For sure maybe a few games in my career I played to my potential, but no not fully,” said Bey, who averaged 6.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.0 steals while shooting 37.9% during his UW career. “I don’t know what the answer to that is because I never stopped going to the gym. I never stopped working out. That’s never been me.
“I think I’m starting to find the confidence at the end of the year knowing that it’s about to be over. I’m giving a little bit more on certain plays. Not like I didn’t give 100%, but time is running out.”
At 23, Bey is UW’s resident ‘Old Man’ who mentors 18-year-old freshmen guards Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson. Bey is also the longest-tenured Husky and the only holdover to the heydays of the Mike Hopkins era when Washington won the 2018-19 Pac-12 regular-season title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“That’s one I can never forget,” Bey said. “Definitely the high of my career, for sure.”
When asked for the low point of his career, he said: “That COVID year. That was a bad year for us.”
Certainly, the 2020-21 season was an abject failure for Washington, which finished 5-21.
However, Bey put up his some of his best numbers that season while averaging 10.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and shooting 50.1% on three-pointers (38 of 75).
“It was so weird after looking back on the season,” Bey said. “It didn’t feel like I shot that much, but I made a lot of shots, which was weird.”
The Huskies urged Bey to shoot it more and he obliged, but his accuracy dipped. Last season, he made 45 of 143 three-point attempts (31.5%) and this year he’s connected on 27 of 97 shots behind the arc (27.8%).
“There’s been countless people in my life telling me to shoot the ball and keep shooting,” said Bey who has two more 3-pointers in a game just six times this season.
Bey started the first 13 games before losing his starting job to Menifield. During nine games as a reserve, his scoring average dipped to 4.0 and he was largely ineffective while tallying double digits just once.
“At first, it for sure rattled me a little bit just being a 2-3 year starter,” Bey said. “I just tried to stay present as much as I could. I didn’t want my starting job to be taken away and then get all mopey on the bench or bring energy down. That’s not what I’m about. I came back to win. And if that change meant winning, then I was happy for it and I wasn’t going to change my face or my body language.”
Bey has started five of the past six games, while averaging 10.3 points, which is nearly four more than his season average.
Seemingly, his roller-coaster season — and career — is on an upswing considering he’s had two of his highest scoring outings in the past three games, including a 15-point performance against Oregon State that included three 3-pointers.
With UW’s season coming to an end, Bey’s legacy isn’t easily determined by statistics or wins and losses. He’s been a role model student-athlete with a degree in medical anthropology and enrolled in the Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership master’s program.
And in the age of the transfer portal and underclassmen declaring for the NBA draft, Bey is the rare throwback who spent five years at Washington.
“He’s had a really good career,” Hopkins said. “I think he would say his expectations were probably a little bit higher. He’s going to be one of those guys you’re going to say was affected by two years of COVID. Tough times.
“In his defense, the last couple of years we brought in new guys and the continuity was disrupted. He’s been a part of lot of teams and that’s just the new modern-day college basketball with NIL and transfers. He had a new point guard almost every year. But he’s been very loyal. He’s been a great leader. He’s been great representative of our university. You know he’s going to be successful in life because he works hard.”
Bey’s legacy is perhaps best defined by his durability that’s allowed him to play more games (148 and counting) than anyone in Husky history. He’s also 46 points away from 1,000 at UW, which is a plateau reached by 42 Huskies — most recently Jaylen Nowell and Matisse Thybulle in 2019.
“I’m going to be emotional for sure,” Bey said when asked about Thursday’s game. “Just putting on that jersey one last time at home. I can’t wait. I get to play one more time and to end it with a win would be even better.”