Future Cat Jamari Phillips showing skills that may be worthy of 5-star status

When Carter Bryant committed to Arizona last week, the Wildcats picked up a player who could become their first McDonald’s All-American under coach Tommy Lloyd.

A few days later, it became clear the Wildcats already might have landed another one, too.

Guard Jamari Phillips, a friend and club-ball teammate of Bryant’s who committed to the Wildcats last December, put on the sort of show at the Mesa EYBL session last weekend that suggests he could soon move up from his No. 33 composite ranking in the class of 2024 and into five-star status — which often translates into a McDonald’s invitation.

While helping Paul George Elite 17U to a 3-1 record last weekend, the 6-3 guard averaged 28.7 points while shooting 62.5% overall and 62.9% from 3-point range over three games. He sat out his team’s last weekend game, saying he had a sore back.

Phillips’ weekend scoring average came about despite having “only” 23 points while playing just 16 minutes in one game that PG Elite won by 42.

“I feel like I’m at a high level confidence-wise,” Phillips said Saturday after scoring 33 points in PG Elite’s 79-71 loss to Expressions. “I mean, this is my team. I’ve been on this team since eighth grade. I haven’t left. I’ve been rocking them for a minute, man. I mean, I just feel good with this team.”

That much seemed pretty apparent.

“Arizona-bound Jamari Phillips goes off,” read a headline from 247 Sports, in which analyst Eric Bossi noted that Phillips was “sizzling hot” from 3, and when defenders tried to stop his shooting by playing him tightly, used his quickness to his advantage. Phillps made it to the line 10 times over three games, hitting nine free throws.

“If there were other players in the gym as unguardable as Phillips — who is currently ranked No. 33 but made a pretty convincing case for a bump up the rankings — they were few and far between,” Bossi wrote.

For Phillips, after a bumpy transition in schools during his junior season of high school ball, it was about time.

“I feel like I should blow up to something even more and people should start recognizing my game, getting more familiar with me because I feel like people aren’t as familiar with my game as I think they are,” Phillips said. “I can do a lot of stuff people don’t know about. There’s a lot of shooting and they’re gonna go in. Every shot that I take I feel like it’s gonna go in. And I feel like I’m a facilitator. I can get my players going as well.”

Phillips didn’t have a chance to prove it much of last season. While he’s a fourth-year veteran at PG Elite, Phillips was a rookie of sorts at AZ Compass Prep last season after transferring in December from Modesto (California) Christian High School while also dealing with a foot injury.

Phillips’ dad, James, said Jamari tried to play through the pain early in the season but that, after an MRI, a doctor told him to shut it down for a while. It was then that Phillips decided to accept an invitation from AZ Compass Prep director Pete Kaffey to work on his foot and his game.

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“Pete was just kind of like, `OK, fine, he doesn’t play much for his junior year,’ James Phillips said, adding that Kaffey said, “but if I get him here locked in with me, we’ll have him for senior year. I just want him. Whenever I can get him here, I just want him.”

As it turned out, Phillips had an impact late in his junior season, working his way into the AZ Compass rotation.

“Like I told his parents, he’s a kid who should help us right now, which he did,” Kaffey said. “But whenever you’re coming to that really, really good team, you’ve got other good players, and Jamari is a kid who requires shots … you’ve got to give him the ball to do his thing.

“From a chemistry standpoint, we had it going. We were a top-five team in the country. So he kind of struggled a little bit out of the gate. But he got it going and had some really big games for us.”

Then there were the guys Phillips had to deal with on the other side of the court. While Modesto Christian is a perennial power in California’s Central Valley region, AZ Compass Prep plays a national prep-school schedule, often facing teams loaded with future high-level college players.

“The biggest change from those two schools is the development piece as a player and the competition that you’re gonna play against every night,” Phillips said. “I mean, you’re just playing against the top dogs every night. Either you’re gonna play a ranked player or a bunch of role players that are really, really good.

“So you have to really develop your game just to even play on that court. I feel like just being at AZ Compass really helped me help my game and helped my body as well. I feel like more in shape. I feel way stronger. I feel like I’m bumping people off easier and my shots are falling.”

Still, Kaffey said Phillips wasn’t able to make the sort of volume shots and overall impact at Compass last season as a junior that he has during the first two sessions this spring of EYBL, where Phillips, Bryant and four-star Las Vegas guard Jase Richardson have been PG Elite’s focal points.

Also, calling Phillips a “really, really good defender” while watching him play in Mesa last weekend, Kaffey said he now is looking forward to having Phillips as a senior next season.

“I’m expecting big things for him,” Kaffey said. “He’s gonna be given the opportunity to do his thing, to be who he is.”

Maybe also with the sort of perspective that might help Phillips when he finally does arrive at Arizona for the 2024-25 season. The shots and minutes might not be there all the time, at least right away.

“In his focus and approach, I think Compass has helped him more than anything,” James Phillips said of his son. Last season “was a little adversity, the first time he’s ever had to sit.

“I think it’s all great preparation. I mean, you get to Arizona and maybe you don’t play. Maybe you have to sit for a while. Who knows what the landscape is gonna be like when you show up? But now you’re used to it.”