Bearden senior point guard Ques Glover (0) is the 2018-19 Boys Basketball Player of the Year. (Photo: Charles Pulliam)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
Ques Glover arrived at Bearden High School as a freshman and, at some point early in his time there, took a peak upwards at the retired jersey numbers hanging from the rafters in the basketball gym.
He told his friend Nigel Davis that “one day I’m going to be up there.”
“I promised myself,” he recalled April 2 on the 5Star Preps Podcast, “that I was going to do everything in my power to get my jersey hung up.”
His No. 0 jersey can’t get up there soon enough.
Not only is the 6-foot senior point guard the first recipient of the 5Star Preps Boys Basketball Player of the Year award, but he’s also …
- The 2019 Class AAA state tournament MVP.
- A 2019 Class AAA Mr. Basketball finalist.
- The 2019 Region 2-AAA tournament MVP.
- The 2019 District 4-AAA tournament MVP.
- The 2018 Arby’s Classic MVP.
- A 2,000-point career scorer.
- And less than a month after leading Bearden to its first state championship, Glover committed to play for the University of Florida.
To watch Glover play is to watch someone with a point to prove, and he does it every time out. Self aware that he’s undersized, Glover realized long ago he’d have to work doubly hard not just to compete but to outshine his competition.
And he can instantly remember when his mindset was born.
Glover was playing AAU basketball around the time when he was in fifth grade. His team’s opponent that day began to press and trap defensively as soon as he entered the game, and Glover couldn’t handle it.
His coach took him out of the game, and Glover later broke down in tears when he got home.
“I told my dad that I don’t want that feeling anymore, because I can’t play out there and go out there and play with my teammates if I turn the ball over,” said Glover. “So, I feel like after that day — it was a Sunday night — that next Monday morning, me and my dad went out and started working harder than ever. … All the way up through high school, we’ve been pushing.”
The time he and his father invested isn’t hard to notice on the court: the consistency of his 3-point shooting, the vertical leap on his perimeter shots and dunks, the muscular frame to help him finish better against contact at the rim, the free-throw percentage — and, oh yeah, his ball-handling.
He can handle the presses and traps. He had just two turnovers in Bearden’s championship win over Memphis East.
Glover finished his senior season averaging 21 points, 3.5 assists and 3 rebounds.
He also shot 44.3 percent from the 3-point line and 85.3 percent from the foul line.
Had his DNA made him a 6-3 point guard, Glover wasn’t so sure he’d be the player he is today.
“Probably not, because the game would have come easier to me and I wouldn’t have had to do as much stuff because I was bigger. I feel like me being smaller, that really helped me because it made learn how to work hard and to have the work ethic to be a pro,” he said.
“I feel like when I get to Florida, I need to work even harder to get to the level where I want to be.”