SWAC Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)

8. Jamel Waters

An extremely important piece of the puzzle, Waters is a 5’9 point guard from Birmingham who found his own college success at Alabama State. He joined the program in 2012 and it didn’t take long to carve out a major role, spending most of his career as the Hornets’ starting point guard. He took a big step forward as a sophomore and helped Alabama State win a number of games across his four-year career.

In that sophomore season, Waters averaged 14.1 points and 6.1 assists per game, taking the Hornets to a 2nd place finish and a trip to the CIT. He’d put up similar numbers as a junior and get Alabama State to another high finish in the SWAC, though they fell short of the Big Dance. He had a couple of 29-point performances late in his career and would make great offensive strides as a senior, averaging 15.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game while making 41% of his 3-point attempts.

After being named Second Team All-SWAC for that breakthrough sophomore season, Waters was named First Team All-SWAC in his upperclassman seasons. He ended his career as a very solid scorer and shooter in the league while racking up 579 career assists. He was a major part of those productive seasons for the Hornets and did great work on both sides of the ball, racking up at least 54 steals in all four of his season.