| Ben Pearce, left, and Jair Knight have been quite the pair for Emory over the past four seasons. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com |
By Riley Zayas
for D3sports.com
The way Jair Knight remembers it, he and Ben Pearce were lined up on opposite teams during a pickup game while working Emory men basketball’s week-long youth camp in the summer of 2022. They had only met for the first time at the beginning of the week, both incoming freshmen entering a program fresh off a 20-win season and second round trip to the NCAA Tournament.
They ended up matched up against each other. And it was then that Knight realized just how dynamic his new teammate from Tuckahoe, just outside New York City, really was with the ball in his hands.
“I pride myself on being a decent defensive player,” Knight, now in his senior year averaging 18.8 points per game for No. 2 Emory, recalls. “He seemed like he was going at a slower pace and was being nonchalant with the ball at times. Then I reached pretty hard [on one play] and he went past me. I touched the ground a little bit on that one.”
Pearce, being interviewed alongside him, just laughs. They have certainly had their share of head-to-head battles over their four years together at Emory in the midst of ascent to becoming perhaps the best backcourt tandem anywhere in Division III, iron sharpening iron in the best possible way.
A week ago, Knight and Pearce became the first Emory duo to garner D3hoops.com All-America honors in the same season, with Pearce named National Player of the Year. And the biggest game of their college careers still awaits, with the Eagles set to play Mary Washington in the April 5 national title game in Indianapolis.
“It’s an analogy to when you’re running the 100-meter dash,” Pearce, who is averaging 24.0 points and 7.1 assists per game, said. “You don’t have time to look to your left or right or try to see how fast you’re going. You just finish the race and look up. That’s what it felt like [to clinch our spot in the title game].”
The race Pearce and Knight have run over the last four years has been done in unison, the duo lifting the Eagles to numerous highs, including the program’s first No. 1 national ranking and back-to-back trips to the national quarterfinals for the first time in Emory history. When they showed up on Emory’s campus for that camp four years ago, neither knew the success that lay ahead. But Pearce certainly came to Atlanta with a good idea of the potential that would soon be on Emory’s roster.
“I was the latest one to commit,” Pearce said. “So I always credit Jair a little bit for my commitment. Because once I saw he was going, I saw the potential that we’d have, knowing how good of a player he is and the class that we had along with the people who were already here.”
“It’s an analogy to when you’re running the 100-meter dash. You don’t have time to look to your left or right or try to see how fast you’re going. You just finish the race and look up.”– Emory senior guard Ben Pearce on the feeling of defeating Christopher Newport in the national semifinals |
They became fast friends. Pearce possessed all the traits required of a top-notch point guard, with a high basketball IQ, scoring prowess, and a pinpoint passing ability. It wasn’t long before Knight became the recipient of a number of his team-leading 117 assists, as the athletic, high-flying guard from Elyria, Ohio worked his way into the starting lineup by midseason of their freshman year.
“It’s really a one-percent thing,” Pearce said of Knight’s athleticism, highlighted by numerous electrifying dunks during his career. “So few guys can jump the way he does.”
Head coach Jason Zimmerman just couldn’t keep the playmaking newcomer off the floor, and by that point, Pearce was well on his way to setting Emory’s freshman single-season scoring record. Since that point, the two have been fixtures in the Eagles’ starting five.
“Our success kind of bounces off one another,” Peace added, reflecting on four years of his rapport with Knight. “That’s also our mindset as a team. Our strengths complement each other. I think that’s what’s made it so fun.”
What also makes it fun is the personalities Pearce and Knight bring to the table, players who seemingly take the preparation and games themselves seriously, but not themselves. Easy-going outside of a game setting, but locked in when the ball is tipped, Emory’s All-American pair exhibits a degree of chemistry that, four years into playing together, has become increasingly difficult for opposing defenses to plan against.
They know each other’s tendencies so well that playing off each other’s moves has become almost second-nature.
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| It’s hard for opponents to keep pace with Emory when Ben Pearce is pushing the ball up the floor. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com |
“I think one of the best things that helped us figure out each other’s games was playing against each other,” Knight said, noting that they’ve tended to be split up in intrasquad scrimmages. “That competitiveness has brought out the best out of each other, and allows you to see the potential, even going back to being freshmen in the summer.”
And what exactly was it that Knight saw from Pearce during those informal 5-on-5 runs heading into their freshman year?
“He sees the game like chess. He can see three moves ahead. We didn’t know he was going to be our point guard at the time, but someone who can handle the ball and make the plays that he does is something you get really excited for.”
That playmaking ability showed itself in Emory’s national quarterfinal win over Illinois Wesleyan in Fort Wayne, as Pearce dribbled the ball down the floor with the score knotted at 78 and less than 20 seconds left in regulation. Knight had knocked down two clutch free throws to briefly give the Eagles a two-point edge on Emory’s previous offensive possession. Now it was Pearce’s turn. With the spotlight on, the senior never wavered. He dribbled hard to his right, then cut back to his left, rising up for a go-ahead 3-point shot with 1.4 seconds left. Nothing but net.
It was the difference in Emory’s 83-78 win, a game that saw Knight put 23 points on the board and Pearce add 21 more. The senior duo accounted for more than half of the Eagles’ point production and one-third of their total rebounding.
“We have great players,” Emory head coach Jason Zimmerman said after that win. “Jair’s an All-American. I think the guy sitting next to me [Pearce] is the best player in the country. I think a lot of people think that. I hadn’t actually told him that today until after the game, because as a coach you always want to hold something back. But, he’s the best player in the country. For me, that is.”
There has really been no need to worry about ego, though. Knight and Pearce have done plenty well in holding each other accountable over their careers, something both agree has only pushed their development into becoming All-American guards.
But that relationship of giving and receiving feedback isn’t something that rests solely on a foundation of going at it in pickup games or hitting game-winners in the NCAA Tournament. The duo shares a close friendship off the court, often hanging out during the little free time they have between an arduous UAA travel schedule and a demanding academic courseload. Of course, as business majors at Emory, they share almost every class together, pursuing academic excellence alongside one another in a similar way that they have chased their basketball success.
“If the roles were different where we only saw each other at practice or pickup, I think it could be an issue of how we approach each other,” Knight said, explaining the accountability aspect of their friendship on the court. “When you get really close with someone and develop a brother-brother relationship, not everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows. A big reason why I’ve developed over the years is because people haven’t been scared to criticize me. That makes a difference.
“Being that close off the court, you know that when someone is coming at you with criticism or critiques, it’s nothing to get angry about. Instead I see it as, ‘This is my brother, and he’s trying to help me out.’”
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| It’s not easily determined how many of Jair Knight’s 1,814 points have come on an assist from Ben Pearce, but it’s probably a lot. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com |
Pearce concurs. The trust between the two stems from their off-court friendship as well. It’s never been about trying to out-do the other, even as both have found their way into the national spotlight through Emory’s back-to-back NCAA Tournament runs the last two years. In fact, the more common outcome sees either Knight or Pearce deliver an initial surge for Emory, and the other soon follows with big plays of his own.
“You build basketball chemistry sometimes by just hanging out,” Pearce said. “That is the truth. You build trust in somebody. Jair is a very genuine person, and knowing what everything he’s doing is rooted in, it’s easy to root for him and not think about personal success. Like I said, it’s not a zero-sum game. Typically, our ‘great games’ are great games for both of us.”
Both share one more similarity as well: each is the second member of his family to play Division III basketball. Knight’s older brother Josiah, preceded him in the UAA, spending five years at the University of Rochester, where he played on two NCAA Tournament teams. Pearce’s older brother, Maxwell, stayed closer to their hometown of Tuckahoe, New York for college, playing at Purchase College. Despite standing at just 6-foot, Pearce was the third-place finisher (and the seventh D3 participant in history) at the 2018 ESPN College Slam Dunk Championship, before moving on to a career as an artist and current member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
He has also been visible as an Emory superfan on social media, amplifying both Ben and the team’s success through this historic season. A scroll through his feed shows plenty of reposts proudly celebrating his younger brother’s historic season. But he has also brought additional attention to Knight, including lobbying for weeks to get Knight into the College Slam Dunk Championship, an opportunity Knight likely would’ve had a chance at had Emory not advanced to the title game.
“The thing that people don’t know is he’s actually really (keeping) to himself,” Pearce said of his older brother. “So the reason that he’s been so vocal and active on Twitter is he knows it supports the team and supports us. He’s willing to put himself a little bit out of his shell to help us out. He’s made every game that he can, whether that’s flying somewhere or driving 10 hours. He’s as invested as anybody is on the team.”
Pearce and Knight recognize that they only have one game left together in an Emory uniform. This won’t be the end of the road — they plan to continue training together afterwards with professional basketball aspirations in mind — but it will be the conclusion of a chapter; a decorated chapter in Emory basketball history. From Knight’s SportsCenter-worthy dunks to Pearce’s incredible assists, few duos around the country have shaped a program’s success like Emory’s star tandem has.
Humble in their approach to the accolades, both are quick to mention fellow seniors John Coppolino IV and Tyson Thomas when the success of Emory’s current senior class is brought up. “We didn’t get here by ourselves,” Knight notes. And that is especially true on a team that is 27-3 with four players averaging in double figures in scoring and five who average more than four rebounds per game.
Still, what they’ve accomplished together remains quite a feat. Close friends off the court and an unstoppable pair on the hardwood, the show that has entertained crowds inside Emory’s Woodruff PE Center Arena and across the UAA for years will get its closing performance on an NBA court surrounded by 18,000 seats. Knight and Pearce are ready for it.
“I’m a capable scorer, of course,” Pearce says, “but I really like to be able to set guys up. And there’s nobody better to set up than Jair.”