HOLT – Jasiah Jervis swished it from deep. He finished at the rim. He attacked off the dribble.
In short, he demonstrated all of the things Michigan State basketball seemed to be lacking last season from the perimeter beyond Jeremy Fears Jr.
Whether the newcomer will be the Spartans’ starting shooting guard come November remains to be seen. But Jervis flashed his skills and lived up to his four-star pedigree at the Moneyball Pro-Am on Thursday, June 27.
“There was definitely a need for me,” the New York-native Jervis said afterward. “A lot of schools say that they want you, but this school definitely needed me and they need that 2-guard role. And they looked at me to fill it in.”
Jervis showed off his three-level scoring and dropped 44 points – the most individually through two nights of the annual summer league – in an overtime loss Thursday. The incoming freshman now has seven 3-pointers and a league-best 71 points through two games. His roommate and fellow incoming freshman, Julius Avent, sits just behind him at 70 points.
All of which must be taken with a massive pile of salt.
Moneyball rosters are nowhere near as talented as Big Ten opponents’ will be, with players from levels ranging from community college and Division III to Division II and low Division I players. Add to that the minimal amount of defense in free-flowing games that feature plenty of dunks and a DJ spinning tunes and blasting laser sound effects throughout, and the numbers aren’t as important as the minutia of performance, particularly when MSU players are going against each other in one-on-one matchups.
On Thursday, Coen Carr did not play in their game, giving Jervis a lot more room to operate freely with the ball. Not having Carr’s disruptive defensive presence allowed Jervis to get into the paint and pick up three-point plays on contact, after burying four long-distance 3-pointers.
“He can defend somebody – he can guard. He can make plays,” sophomore forward Cam Ward said of Jervis, his Moneyball teammate. “And I just think he has a motor and a skill set that we kind of need. If things get late [in the] shot clock, he can go get a basket. … Jasiah, he’s agile, he knows what he’s doing.”
This is all coming on the heels of a dynamic senior season leading Archbishop Stepniac in White Plains, New York, where Jervis won the New York Gatorade Player of the Year award. Ranked at No. 34 in the 2026 class, per 247Sports’ composite rankings, the McDonald’s All-American also joined fellow incoming freshman Ethan Taylor last month on the U.S. U18 team that took silver at the FIBA AmeriCup 2026 with a loss to Canada on June 7.
“That was one of my goals for the summer, to make the U18 team,” Jervis said. “We came up short, but it was just a great experience. I got to learn from college head coaches. And just being in the USA [Basketball] atmosphere and playing in FIBA was great. … Playing in Colorado and practicing there, the altitude was very high, so I got my stamina better. So now, I can just play for a whole game.”
Despite arriving with that international experience and a college-ready body – at 6 feet 5 and 196 pounds – Jervis said he hopes to get to 205 pounds by the time MSU’s season opens. That is partly, he said, to be able to attack in traffic off the bounce and get to the free-throw line.
“Just to put on more size to help me get to the basket a little better, finishing in transition and stuff like that against bigger guards in the Big Ten,” he said. “I work on that a lot. A lot of people think I can just shoot. But I really get downhill a lot, get to the rim at an efficient rate.”
Jervis said he tries to pattern his play after Grand Rapids native Devin Booker and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, two other bigger lead guards at the NBA level.
“They want the ball in my hands,” he said of MSU’s coaches.
Again, within the context of Moneyball games being minimally structured, Jervis played a lead guard role in bringing the ball up the floor and exhibited good ball-handling, pacing and hesitation moves while driving into the paint. He said he also has been working “a little bit” at point guard during MSU’s summer workouts as a third option behind returning All-American Jeremy Fears Jr. and another fellow touted incoming freshman, Carlos “C.J.” Medlock.
“I get a chance to learn from Jeremy Fears,” Jervis said. “He’s a seasoned point guard, and he’s been through the ups and downs and stuff like that. And there’s other seniors I can learn from. Even the sophomores, they’ve been here, so I can always ask questions to see what I need to do to stay on that court.”
Last year, Tom Izzo had fewer options at both guard spots after the transfer of Tre Holloman and the departure of Jase Richardson to the NBA. Richardson played as a third point guard before settling in at shooting guard and Holloman split his time at both guard spots for MSU’s 2024-25 Big Ten championship team that made it to the Elite Eight.
The since-departed Divine Ugochukwu filled some of the combo guard role Holloman had before a midseason injury ended his time at MSU. (He transferred to LSU.) Even before Ugochukwu’s injury, Jordan Scott had shifted from small forward to shooting guard, and he took over as the starter the rest of the season. But the Spartans never got the anticipated consistent contributions from Kur Teng and Trey Fort at shooting guard.
Jervis averaged 17.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and two steals a game in leading Archbishop Stepniac to New York’s Catholic High School Athletic Association archdiocesan title. Joe Arbitello, the coach at legendary New York powerhouse Christ the King, called Jervis “one of the most unselfish basketball players I have ever watched.”
But that was then in New York; this is now in Michigan. He will have to show defense to take the starting shooting guard spot from 6-7 Scott, who looks stronger and bigger heading into his sophomore season. And making his selflessness and grit translate in his transition to the college level will be Jervis’ biggest key to finding a major role in Izzo’s system.
“All that stuff that’s in high school, that don’t mean nothing now,” Jervis said. “It’s back to square one. So I just gotta prove myself and just show that I’m a winner. … There’s definitely high expectations, but I’m a confident kid.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Can Jasiah Jervis get into Michigan State basketball’s starting group?
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
