Feature: Shaquan Jules

I found Shaquan Jules on Friday in the Student Life office towering above everyone else. Though he stands at a startling 6-feet-7-inches, he is surprisingly down to earth.

For his middle and high school years, Jules lived in Orlando, Florida. He started in basketball when he was 8 years old.

“Competition, I love the competition,” Jules said in regards to playing. He loves it to this day because of the grit it takes and continues to play as the (ironically named) small forward for the USC Aiken Pacers.

When asked how he juggles school, friends and basketball at the same time, he joked, “I don’t.”

“… With academics and basketball, my social life kind of gets pushed out,” he described.

With basketball on top of school, Jules said he doesn’t have much time to go out and in order to hang out with his friends, he has to plan around his crazy schedule.

In his (rare) spare time, he looks through footage of the games to see where he can improve because he wants to be “the best Shaquan” possible.

With lots of off-court training, workouts and looking at past games, he does anything he can to improve his game.

When asked if he gets nervous about games, he said that he always does no matter the opponent.

Jules expressed the excitement of a close game and combatting the anxiety on the court. “When it’s close and you know you got it, and you actually pull out the win, the anxiety goes away. You just feel so good.”

In his time off, he likes to play NBA 2k or Fortnite and watches how-to YouTube videos. As a business major, he plans to one day start a pretzel franchise- though he would like to get as far as he can in basketball first.

Jules mentioned that life at USCA has shaped him and he said that it has helped him get used to life on his own and to be able to do things for himself.

It also has given him the ability to get really close with his teammates which he said are all like brothers to him, which being together so much makes them push each other to be better and gives them the ability to have someone to lean on.

Jules excitedly answered that his biggest motivator was his mom. He said that she was such an inspiration to him also adding in that she could turn a quarter into a dollar, a dollar into 5 and so on.

Basketball players who he also looks up to are Paul George and Terrence Ross.  

After an interview with Pacer Times on Friday, he went on to score an impressive 23 points in the Saturday win against Young Harris.