Jalen Crutcher (born July 18, 1999) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

Greensboro Swarm The Greensboro Swarm are an American basketball team of the NBA G League based in Greensboro, North Carolina, and are affiliated with the Charlotte Hornets. The Swarm play their home games at the Greensboro Coliseum Fieldhouse. The team became ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Dayton Flyers The Dayton Flyers are the intercollegiate athletic teams of the University of Dayton of Dayton, Ohio. All Flyers intercollegiate sports teams participate at the NCAA Division I level. The football team competes in the Division I FCS non-schola ...

Early life and high school career

Crutcher is the son of Greg and Sheila Crutcher and grew up in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. He attended Ridgeway High School. Crutcher averaged 18 points, four assists, and two steals per game as a senior. He was a three-star

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ranked the 65th best point guard in his class. Crutcher initially committed to

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

but decommitted after coach Matt McCall left to coach

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

. Crutcher signed with

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

after coach Anthony Grant needed a point guard at the last minute. Crutcher was also recruited by

Murray State Murray State University (MSU) is a public university in Murray, Kentucky. In addition to the main campus in Calloway County in southwestern Kentucky, Murray State operates extended campuses offering upper level and graduate courses in Paducah, ...

College career

As a freshman, Crutcher started 22 games and averaged 9.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game on a team that finished 14–17. Crutcher was named to the

Atlantic 10 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

All-Rookie Team. As a sophomore, Crutcher was third on the team in scoring with 13.2 points per game and second in the Atlantic 10 in assists with 5.7 per game, in addition to his four rebounds per game. Crutcher helped the team finish with a 21–12 record and reach the NIT semifinals and he was named team MVP. He was also named to the Third Team All-Atlantic 10. Crutcher hit a three-pointer with seconds left against

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

in the final of the 2019 Maui Invitational Tournament to force overtime. He scored 12 points total in the 90–84 overtime loss. Crutcher missed a game against

Grambling State Grambling State University (GSU, Grambling, or Grambling State) is a public historically black university in Grambling, Louisiana. Grambling State is home of the Eddie G. Robinson Museum and is listed on the Louisiana African American Heritage ...

on December 23 with a concussion. On January 17, 2020, Crutcher scored 21 points and hit the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to defeat Saint Louis 78–76 in overtime. Crutcher scored a career-high 24 points and also had eight rebounds and seven assists on January 25, in a 87–79 win over

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

. He became the first Dayton player to be named Atlantic 10 player of the week on back-to-back weeks on January 27. On January 30, he had 18 points in a 73–69 win against Duquesne and surpassed the 1,000 point threshold. At the end of the regular season Crutcher was named to the First Team All-Atlantic 10. Crutcher led Dayton in minutes per game (33.6), assists per game (4.9) three-pointers (21.4 per game), three-point percentage (.468, 147–314) and free throw percentage (.869, 86–99), and was second to roommate

Obi Toppin Obadiah Richard Toppin Jr. (born March 4, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the New York Knicks of National Basketball Association (NBA). A power forward, he played college basketball for the Dayton Flyers. A native of New ...

in scoring (15.1 points per game). After the season, Crutcher declared for the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecti ...

while maintaining his college eligibility. On August 2, he announced he was withdrawing from the draft and returning to Dayton for his senior season. At the end of the regular season, Crutcher repeated on the First Team All-Atlantic 10. As a senior, Crutcher averaged 17.6 points and 4.8 assists per game. He announced that he was declaring for the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA us ...

and hired an agent, forgoing the extra season of eligibility the NCAA granted basketball players. Crutcher finishing 16th in career scoring with 1,593 points, fourth in made three-pointers with 242, and second in assists with 584.

Professional career

Greensboro Swarm (2021–present)

After going undrafted in the

, Crutcher joined the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

for the

2021 NBA Summer League The 2021 NBA Summer League was an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The summer league cons ...

. On October 8, 2021, he signed with the

Charlotte Hornets The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division, and pla ...

, but was waived six days later. On October 24, he signed with the

as an affiliate player.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 22 , , 31.2 , , .412 , , .338 , , .681 , , 3.1 , , 4.4 , , 1.0 , , .1 , , 9.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 32 , , 36.5 , , .419 , , .363 , , .707 , , 4.0 , , 5.7 , , .9 , , .1 , , 13.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 30 , , 33.6 , , .468 , , .424 , , .869 , , 3.2 , , 4.9 , , .8 , , .1 , , 15.1 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 24 , , 24 , , 38.1 , , .463 , , .372 , , .763 , , 3.5 , , 4.8 , , .8 , , .0 , , 17.6 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 118 , , 108 , , 34.7 , , .441 , , .375 , , .769 , , 3.5 , , 4.9 , , .9 , , .1 , , 13.5

References

External links

Dayton Flyers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crutcher, Jalen 1999 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Memphis, Tennessee Dayton Flyers men's basketball players Greensboro Swarm players Point guards