Colombia’s Jaret Valencia emerges as multitalented threat for Monmouth
Colombia’s Jaret Valencia emerges as multitalented threat for Monmouth
Valencia scored at least 16 points for the third time in five games as Monmouth beat former conference rival Rider.
WEST LONG BRANCH – Jaret Valencia’s terrific day started with him oversleeping.
It happens to the best of us, but if you have a basketball game later that day, a more old-fashioned coach might take you out of the lineup as a consequence.
“When you oversleep sometimes the coach goes crazy on you,” Monmouth coach King Rice said. “And then sometimes when you oversleep the coach has matured so much he doesn’t put that extra heat on you, and he just lets the day go how it’s supposed to go. The coach understands that you felt so awful about oversleeping, so Jaret and I will handle some of those things.”
No punishment would be doled out right then. Rice needed Valencia against Rider. Valencia returned the favor with one of the best games of his redshirt freshman season.
The Colombia native drilled his first three 3-pointers to help Monmouth establish a lead in the Hawks’ 77-71 win over Rider. And he displayed an evolving all-around game that will give this team another dimension as Coastal Athletic Association play approaches.
Valencia scored 16 points on 4-of-5 3-point shooting (6-of-8 from the floor overall). He added four assists, three blocks, two steals and one alley-oop dunk on a fast break that came moments after his fourth three.
Valencia has been emerging for a while now – this was his third game in the past five with at least 16 points. He ran into foul trouble and eventually fouled out against Seton Hall the other day; at 6-foot-9 and 190 pounds, his frame is unique but a mismatch against a Big East bully. But Valencia’s length allows him to cover guards and forwards alike, to rebound and to stride up and down the floor effortlessly.
Now, future opponents have to be prepared for a 3-point shot on top of all that. Valencia started his college career 1-for-8 from three before Saturday’s explosion from the arc.
“Jaret is incredible, and he hasn’t even started yet, guys,” Rice said. “His potential is probably the highest on our team. … This is Game 11, and this is what he’s doing.”
Valencia came from Quibdó, Colombia, to Texas to play high school basketball at a charter school called “Legacy the School of Sport Sciences.” Rice told me in the preseason that he didn’t know how much Valencia truly played there, that Valencia made his name at camps and the AAU circuit.
So Valencia took a redshirt season in 2022-23, something that’s getting rarer by the year for freshmen to do.
“I was trying to make chemistry with my teammates,” Valencia said Saturday. “I was just trying to shoot the ball more because in high school I couldn’t shoot, they didn’t let me shoot, and I was just working on my body.”
You couldn’t shoot or they didn’t let you shoot? I clarified. “They didn’t let me shoot,” he said with a grin.
Valencia said he was in the gym “every night” with Rice last season as the coach ironed out his jump shot, showing him how to use his legs properly and everything else he needed to learn.
Come Saturday, Valencia brushed off the late start to his day by getting to the arena and putting up some shots. Something was clicking.
“Actually, I knew I was going to hit four threes today,” he said. “I came to the gym early – not for shootaround but before the game I started shooting, it was feeling good. So I was like, ‘Today I’m gonna hit a lot of 3s.’”
So this lanky wing firing it in from long distance truly was not on teams’ scouting reports, especially as he plays alongside shooters like Xander Rice. In fact, nobody outside the program would have guessed Valencia would be starting every game for Monmouth this season. Go back to the Lindy’s Sports College Basketball preview magazine, for one example. Because he didn’t play last year, Valencia isn’t mentioned as a “returning key reserve.”
“When I met him, I watched him and I thought ‘Man, I’m getting a super-athletic kid that’s a 4 man, that’s gonna be great someday,’” Rice said. “Well, if you watch how I’m playing Jaret, Jaret’s a 3 man for us. Because for his life, being a 3 man is what it’s all about. He’s not going to make the NBA being a 4 man.
“… I think I owe it to him to work on his skills so he’s not a guy that just runs to the front of the rim and has to be inside and have them big old guys pound on him. I think the sky’s the limit.”
That said, Valencia has paired well inside with center Nikita Konstantynovskyi, the Ukrainian transfer from Tulsa who posted his second career double-double against Rider with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
“He makes the game easy,” Valencia said. “He pulls the guards, that will open up the court for everybody.”
“I think he’s so athletic,” Konstantynovskyi said of Valencia, “so he covers, like he can block shots, he can do a lot of things that helps not necessarily me, but the group in general. That’s what he brings, it’s very (valuable) and that’s big on him.”
Valencia’s defense shouldn’t go unspoken for in the shadow of his career-best shooting day. He blocked Mervin James, Rider’s MAAC preseason player of the year, twice in a row on the same possession. In the second half, he smothered a shot attempt cleanly with both hands, and it appeared to get under the Broncs’ skin; their resulting inbounds pass from under the basket sailed over the target’s head, and Jakari Spence caught it for an easy breakaway layup.
A few minutes later, Valencia had the offensive rebound of a missed 3-pointer and immediately found the right player to kick it to, as Jack Collins turned it into second-chance points for Monmouth and made it 62-47. Valencia’s fingerprints were all over this win, in which Monmouth led by as many as 17 before Rider made it close at the end.
“This group is fun, and we’re young. That’s the part,” Rice said. “(Valencia’s) first-timing, Abdi (Bashir is) first-timing, (Cornelius Robinson is) first-timing. Gabe (Spinelli’s) a sophomore, Jack Collins is a sophomore. … (Konstantynovskyi) didn’t play last year, so he’s a year removed. We’re still getting better, and that’s a cool thing. They truly are a fun group of kids to be around.”
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Thanks for stopping by this Sunday. After writing about Amaan Sandhu last year and Nikita Konstantynovskyi this preseason, it was a matter of time before I finished the world tour and covered the Monmouth player from South America. But Valencia earned the attention on Saturday, and between him and the rest of this new-look starting five, the Hawks should not go 5-13 in the CAA the way they did last year.
Let’s quickly clean the glass with the other happenings around New Jersey:
Rider fell to a disappointing 2-8 despite improvement from its offense. The Broncs started this game 10-for-16 from the field, that 10th shot giving them their only lead of the game at 29-28. It got away from them at the end of the first half and things got worse before they got closer in the second. Rider’s 40% rate from three, led by Allen Powell and Corey McKeithan, was a season high.
“I thought we got better today,” coach Kevin Baggett told the Trentonian. “I thought we played harder, but we got to play more consistent. We go through too many spurts where we don’t score and we turn the ball over during those times. If we clean those up, I thought we defended better, we can get in the league and compete again.”Injury notes from Monmouth’s side: Gabe Spinelli has an ankle sprain after getting tangled up with Rider’s Powell. Jayden Doyle has a knee issue and only got in for one minute.
Not much to say about Rutgers’ 83-61 win over Long Island, a 1-9 team that ranks No. 341 of 362 on KenPom this morning. If you asked me Saturday morning if Cliff Omoruyi was going to score a new career high against LIU, I probably would have thought about it for two seconds and said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ Omoruyi had his way against an inferior opponent, scoring 25 on 12-of-15 shooting and grabbing 11 rebounds. Aundre Hyatt had 12 and 12, and Jamichael Davis remained in the starting lineup and scored 12 points.
The biggest result of the day was the Seton Hall women ripping No. 23 UNLV to shreds, 84-54. UNLV was 9-0 before Saturday, and most of its wins weren’t close! Yet the Pirates dominated all facets, led by Azana Baines shooting 8-for-11 for 23 points and adding 11 rebounds. They won the rebounding battle 44-25 and had 19 assists on 32 field goals, including eight from Amari Wright. Keep an eye on Seton Hall, now 8-3. The Pirates were No. 42 in the women’s NET ratings before this win, higher than Princeton or any other team in the state. That number will rise whenever the NET is updated again.