JeQuan Lewis has everything to gain and nothing to lose

Alonzo Small
Sports Editor

Treveon Graham, Briante Weber and Melvin Johnson are some of the names garnering attention before the season starts to take shape but the one name that is often absent may indeed be the wildcard moving forward: JeQuan Lewis. The flashy 6-foot-1 sophomore guard possesses a high motor on both sides of the ball and his ability to score fits perfectly into the Rams’ identity. Now, after a season of being in head coach Shaka Smart’s HAVOC system, the question is how good can JeQuan Lewis be this year and beyond? Look no further than the closing moments of last year’s second round exit as his response.

Highly debatable. That was the general consensus for VCU fans concerning Lewis’s  foul on Stephen F. Austin’s Desmond Haymond with 3.6 seconds in regulation. The foul was the bookend of an 8-2 run for the Lumberjacks that sent the game into overtime. Then, Lewis would find himself with the ball on the game’s final play. Lewis’s three-point shot was denied entry and the Rams fell 77-75 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

It’s a shot Lewis said he felt could have gone either way.

“Last shot, it could have went 50-50,” Lewis said. “I hesitated before I caught (the ball) and that kind of threw me off. I thought it would go in. It felt like it would go in.”

After the game, head coach Shaka Smart said that Lewis was inconsolable. It was one of the many growing pains that a young player of any sport will have to endure. This is a sentiment that Lewis understood and it helped him move on from the loss.

“It took me a few days to get over it, but it was no need to dwell on it,” Lewis said.

Fast-forward to the start of this season. Lewis said he spent the off-season trying to improve his overall game. He spent the time off to improve his shooting and work on becoming more of a vocal leader for the team.

Those were some of the intangibles Lewis said he took away from his high school playing days at Dickson County High School,  doubling as the school’s quarterback and star basketball player: being a vocal leader and having the ability to control your own game.

A staple at the point guard position with the ability to play as a two-guard, Lewis maintains he has no preference for either position.

“I like having the ball in my hand and controlling things, but I also like to score too. I like to be able to switch it up,” Lewis said.

As anticipation for the season intensifies, Lewis understands the questions will arise about VCU’s Cinderella run of 2011. However, he’s more intent on building his own legacy instead of being content in the shadows of his predecessors.

“Yeah,” Lewis said when asked if he ever gets tired of hearing about the Final Four run. “I wasn’t a part of that, but it gets annoying sometimes. But I understand we wouldn’t be in this situation without it.”

“That’s what they (the 2010-11 team) did,” Lewis added. “I haven’t won anything but some games.”

That attitude is why Lewis is sure to bounce back after a devastating end to the season.

Having drawn comparison to senior guard Briante Weber, both are great examples of how Smart’s “HAVOC” style can benefit a player with incredible speed and ball control. Lewis was complimentary of Weber, saying that the Chesapeake, Virginia native taught him how to break pressure and better ways to drive to the basket.

Much like his favorite basketball player Kobe Bryant, Lewis will have to show he can improve from the highs and lows of last year. The greatest cure for a loss is winning. For Lewis, the start of the season offers the opportunity to make the public forget about the past.

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