Hemsley brings the energy

Whichever side freshman Justin Hemsley is on, whoever his teammates are in today’s Green and White intrasquad scrimmage, count on him to do one thing.

Bring the energy.

The freshman small forward out of Damien (Calif.) High is still picking up the nuances of Division I basketball, something completely normal a few weeks into full practices. Don’t count on him to light up the scoreboard at 1 p.m. in the Stan Sheriff Center today; instead, look for him to make hustle or intangible plays. Those are the means by which he’s had his best practices to this point.

“That’s one thing I’ve always been taught — when you come in, bring the energy,” Hemsley said. “Because if the team is not playing well and one person brings the energy, brings that fire, then they’re bound to feed off of it. If you see someone playing hard, making hard plays, it’s all going to feed off of everybody. That’s one thing I think I’m pretty good at, bringing energy to the team.

“Every time we huddle up, we say ‘it starts with energy.’ Have better energy than them, then everything else will kind of bounce off of that. If they don’t got the energy, that’s just going to put them in a deeper hole.”

The 6-foot-5 Hemsley, of Rancho Cucamonga, is competing with a fellow freshman, Kahuku High grad Samuta Avea (6-6), for playing time at the 3. So far, neither young player has a clear-cut advantage in filling some of the void left by Noah Allen.

Hemsley’s offensive game is a work in progress in part because he’s totally rebuilt his jump shot from his time at Damien High, where he was primarily a 4 who would post up and occasionally venture out to the perimeter. He averaged 17 points and 12 boards as a senior.

Of course, all that resets at the next level. He said he’s developed here faster in multiple areas than he thought he would. His right-handed release looks pretty smooth, but the results aren’t there yet; he clanks his share right now, and he knows it.

“I know I’ll be the one spotting up, finding the open areas to shoot it,” Hemsley said. “I’ve been working on it a lot. I never worked on it too much in high school, but when I got here I knew since I’m going to be playing on the wing, I have to develop that jump shot. … All the coaches have been helping me change it, fix it up. I’m thankful for that. I’m gonna keep working on it and hopefully once I get comfortable, I’ll knock them down.”

Coach Eran Ganot has been pleased with his progress, for the most part.

“He’s had some good days and some bad days, but his attitude hasn’t wavered,” Ganot said. “He’s very coachable. Even if you’re the best player on the team or most experienced, you’re doing to have some bad days. You see a lot of young guys, when they do through that, it stats to affect their mentality a little bit. You start to see the frustration. I don’t think you see that ever with Justin. That’s why he’s made strides and will continue to make strides. He’s got a lot more reps. He’s not where he needs to play, but he’s getting better and that’s what’s important.

Ganot noted the lean Hemsley has put on 10 to 15 pounds since arriving at UH this summer. He’s listed at 185 now, and the team hopes he will continue to fill out as he develops.

In the meantime, Hemsley knows what he has to do to make an impact.

“It’s all about the energy.”