Your George Mason Patriots got another portal commit; a guard who can boogie, Jermahri “Fatt” Hill.
His background and stats are covered in his visit article, but in short, Hill is a crazy athletic 6’5 guard/wing who played two seasons between two Jucos, and a third season at Ball State, which makes him a senior who has between 1-3 years of eligibility.
We will go straight into the scouting report.
Jermahri Hill Scouting Report (1/25/2025 Northern Illinois Full Game)
This is the Palmer scouting report section.
Athleticism/Intangibles
Jermahri has a very explosive first step, which will be used to draw lots of fouls. He creates advantages often, and if he already has one, he will exploit it.
Hill will make some hustle plays, and seems to be pretty lengthy, although I cannot find any listed wingspan.
Offense
The PG candidate (maybe) is a very willing passer, and generally makes accurate passes with velocity. One big thing is that he was very good at zone entry passes. Hill can get the rebound and run in transition, playing pseudo-PG. He will drive and either get to the rim or get someone an open shot.
The Ball State transfer was very useful in the full-court press, and I imagine he will be used in the same way here.
I need to make it clear that Jermahri is unreal in the fast break. Mason was kind of missing the fast break demon it needed last season, this is it.
The wing/guard hybrid is a good off-ball mover, being especially useful in manipulating zones.
For half-court scoring, Hill got his best results with curling actions. If he gets a full head of steam, nobody is stopping him from getting to the rim.
Some important context for when you look at his offensive workload is that just based on this game, the environment was not too kind. Their offense had a clunky big, who was very bad in the game I watched, in the paint, which would limit the amount of space he can get. This is similar to why Donovan Mitchell struggled at Louisville and fell in the draft, and I do not think it is irresponsible to suggest a similar breakout is possible, proportionate to the level changes.
Defense
The most important thing I noticed was that Jermahri seemed to be a defensive leader for Ball State, doing a lot of pointing/calling on that end.
Mason’s first commit is a very switchable defender, probably going from 1-4 in most cases. I would say at least 2-4. He wasn’t their primary point-of-attack defender, but was very good at keeping his man in front of him 1 on 1 on the perimeter.
Hill was very active in boxing out, which explains his high defensive rebound rate. Activity was a big thing I noticed, as he would also find work off-ball.
Ball State used him as a secondary rim protector, which makes sense with his athleticism and length. He definitely had solid rotations underneath.
With screens, Jermahri was solid at getting around them, getting low and turning the corner fast. He would use his athleticism to get back in front of his man after the screen.
Areas of Improvement
The biggest area of improvement is shooting. If he could become an average shooter (33% from three), he would be unreal. I’m happy if Hill is good enough from three that you have to guard him out there, and close out, so he can attack.
Jermahri sold out to limit drives, and gave shooters more space than you would like. This could be a coaching choice, but I had to put it anyway since it happened to often.
The Ball State transfer’s dribble was a little more loose than you would like, losing the ball on occasion when there was not too much pressure.
Now, onto Joe’s section. We will both be doing scouting sections to get a wider range of opinions. We do not converse about the player until our sections are done.
Jermahri Hill Scouting Report (First Half vs. Eastern Kentucky)
Alright, well hello everybody. Don’t usually see me here on these types of things now do we?
So I watched the first half of Ball State’s game against Eastern Kentucky. It’s very clear from moment one that Hill is the focal point of the Cardinal’s offense (which I feel is important to point out was the significantly better part of Ball State’s team last year), as Hill gets the ball immediately, dribbles a little bit, gets doubled, over dribbles and gets the ball taken from him and then fouls on the fast break. Not a great start.
Then on Ball State’s next possession, he gets the ball immediately again, gets doubled again, but this time makes a nice pass out that leads to a wide open three point attempt for his teammate who missed it. But Hill got his hand on the breakout pass, helped settle down the offense and that led to a bucket. That I liked.
It was a couple of consecutive quiet possessions for Hill after that, and one defensive possession where he made a communication error with a teammate that led to a wide open three. But then finally I saw what Hill could do offensively. Not double teamed for the first time in the game, Hill took advantage of the pick and roll, blazed past a defender, then took a shot from two EKU players to get the foul and then hung in the air enough to get the finish and the and-one. I very very much liked that.
What was very clear to me from this half is that Hall is an excellent finisher at the rim. He’s clearly the best for Ball State there, and he arguably would have been number two behind Haynes on this year’s group. He’s almost like a reverse Maddox. A 2/3 guard who instead of shooting the three ball really well, instead gets to the basket at a crazy level and gets fouled a ton. That’s the type of thing this year’s group was missing and I’m very glad to see Tony focusing on it early in the portal.
I do think he falls asleep on defense a little too much for my liking, but this staff has the wonderful ability to make most players solid on the other side of the ball. Turnovers are also a concern- he ended up with three in the half I watched. But he’ll have better ball handlers around him, and probably better players in general around him in Fairfax to get that pressure off of him.
Overall, I think this is an excellent addition for portal move one of the offseason and I’m very excited to see what Jermahri brings to the team.
Back to Palmer.
Ratings
If you follow baseball, you are probably familiar with the 20-80 scale, with 50 being average, and 40 and 60 being noticeably below or above average. Each 10 is supposed to be a standard deviation. This will be mostly vibes-based rather than stat-based.
For example, for shooting, Gio Emejuru gets a 20. Zach Anderson would have gotten a 75 based on his 2023-24 season. An 80 is absurd, the only 80 I can think of would be Koby Brea in 2023-24 for shooting.
Athleticism: 65 – This would be a 70 if he got slightly better with the ball in his hands. It is still great, but he needs to be able to take 100% advantage of his tools.
Playmaking: 60 – I would really like to see him get PG responsibility, even as an experiment. The possessions where he brought it up the court flowed a lot better and got people open.
Shooting: 35 – This would be a 30 if I didn’t see that 33% season from two years ago.
Driving: 60 – This is a 70 in transition, but a 55 in half-court due to his handle being a bit loose. Skinn’s two Mason teams played pretty slow, so I will weigh the half-court rating mostly. He draws a ton of fouls, which gives a little boost too.
Rebounding: 65 – He is putting up forward type numbers in the rebounding department.
On-ball Defense: 55 – There are some ups and downs. This is a 60 if the backing off shooters thing is something he was told to do.
Off-ball Defense: 55 – Fell asleep a wee bit, but he still got around screens at a great rate.
Fun: 70 – He might have some Fernandez-esque dunks. Look up his highlights.
What Could Jermahri Hill Be For Mason?
In a more refined role, this could be a DUDE for Mason. I could see something of a similar role that Baraka Okojie had at the end of his freshman season. Get to the rim, get to the line, kick it out to open shooters. That would be fun, since although they are probably similar in terms of a quick first step, Jermahri definitely has more verticality, and probably a higher top speed.
Another good outcome could be what Enoch Cheeks was for Dayton in his first season there. They both have similar athletic and previous-school stat profiles.
The dream outcome for Hill would be something like what Sebastian Thomas was for Rhode Island this past season.
Two down, some more to go.
This MIGHT be Patriot Pressure (he is).
