Interview with Jermaine Marrow- The star’s career at Hampton

Over the Fourth of July weekend I had the great pleasure to be able to reach out to Hampton guard, Jermaine Marrow. Jermaine placed third in the country in points per game for the 2019-20 season. Marrow clocked in at 24.8 points per game and that was only behind Markus Howard of Marquette and Jhivvan Jackson of UTSA.

Season stats

His sophomore season he played even better. Jermaine saw increases in minutes, points, field goal percentage and 3 point percentage. A star was in the making on the east coast.

Then came his junior season. At this point in Jermaine’s career he was looked at as nothing but a leader for the Hampton Pirates. His junior season stats were the best overall in his college career. He averaged 24.4 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game in 2018-19. His field goal percentage was the highest in his four years at 42.2%. Jermaine also shot at a 37% clip from outside.

And finally the senior season. The final ride. Looking back at the 2019-20 season is definitely heartbreaking for the seniors with what unfolded in March. But, that did not stop Jermaine from balling out one final time. His senior season was another great one, averaging 24.8 points, 3 rebounds and 6.5 assists a game.

When talking to Jermaine I was able to expand the questions to get answers about his whole career. Him and I were able to touch on his thoughts about his time at Hampton, some of the things he looked at improving over his career, some of the things he taught other players as he grew into an upperclassman role and much more.

Jermaine talks about his thoughts on his career

I wanted to start out like all of my other interviews so I asked Jermaine about his thoughts on how he played in his four years with Coach Joyner. He told me that “When I look back at my college career, I look at a guy that got better every year, won more every year, and just a guy who grew into being a leader every year”

Jermaine never talked like he was better than everyone, and just ended this question with saying “It’s just the hard work I put in” Talking about hard work, it definitely showed with him.

Improvements over four years

The next question I wanted to ask was about what he was able to work on the most. Marrow told me that he was really aiming to improve on his offensive game. “I really worked on shooting and creating space away from my defender”

He also expanded on that point by saying “With me being so small I have to be a knock down kind of guy. I have to be able to make shots in small spaces.”

Being a teacher on and off of the basketball court

Next, I wanted to get inside of the leadership part of Jermaine so I asked him about as he blossomed from being a freshman to a senior what did he teach some of the underclassman.

He told me that he did a lot of that kind of stuff and he said “I remember teaching one of my teammates Austin how to communicate with different types of people on the court.” He told me that he was doing that as a freshman, so he was seen as a leader right when he stepped onto campus.

The coach leadership

One of the biggest things that makes a player who he is, is hard work. But one of the biggest things for Jermaine was his head coach, Edward Joyner. I asked Jermaine what kind of things Joyner told him starting out and also as he grew into a senior.

He told me that his coach was a great person. “Coach always gave me the confidence to be the person I am. “He never held me back, he always wanted me to be great.” Jermaine gave me this quote that his coach told him, “Jermaine go be great!”

Under pressure?

This was a question I was really curious about. I was able to ask Jermaine if there was any sort of pressure that he feels during a game with the amount of times he scores the ball, and how easily he was able to do it. He says “It wasn’t pressure to me because this is what I love to do.” He also ended up telling me that those games are times to show off all of the hours that he put in at the gym.

Covid-19 impacting basketball

This is the question I did in the end since Jermaine was a senior. Covid-19 took a toll on many college basketball conferences. The Big South was one of the lucky conferences to be able to finish their tournament. So I asked Jermaine if he was in another seniors shoes and was not able to finish out their season, what would it feel like?

He gave me an answer straight from the heart. “It’s a lot of guys that don’t get to go to the NCAA tournament. So to have it taken away is a terrible feeling.”

This was by far one of the biggest interviews I was able to conduct. Jermaine is not only a great basketball player, but a great human as well. He is very humble and not once did he ever give me the vibe that he was better than anyone else. He believes that hard work is the key to success.

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