Elijah Hughes baited his defender on the wing and cut backdoor toward the rim. It was the first day of live practice for John F. Kennedy Catholic (New York) High School in 2013, and during 3-on-3 drills head coach Al Morales was eager to unveil a 16-year-old Hughes. One who could pass like a point guard and score like a shooting guard. Two separate growth spurts led to a near overnight surge.

Hughes received the pass inside and rose up. Nothing fancy: a two-handed dunk. He slammed it hard, though. Too hard. The rim burst off the backboard and sent Hughes crashing to the ground as shards of glass hailed down. 

Hughes felt the glass in his hair. “Am I bleeding? Am I bleeding?” Hughes frantically asked Morales.

“To see it on TV is one thing,” Morales, who informed Hughes he was fine, said. “It was breathtaking.”

Courtesy of Elijah Hughes’ Facebook

For years, Hughes has elevated his reputation through shooting and a strong feel for the game. But the most unheralded aspect of Hughes’ game is the athleticism that unlocks much of his arsenal. As the most experienced Syracuse (14-11, 7-7 Atlantic Coast) player, Hughes has been thrust into a role as its main offensive threat. The new role led to new expectations and new freedoms that allowed his athleticism to flourish on crossovers, quick first steps to the basket and powerful finishes at or around the rim.

“I kind of always had a little boogie,” Hughes quipped in October. “I just really haven’t shown it.”

At Syracuse, Hughes has flashed his athleticism with a rim-rattling dunk against Georgia Tech earlier in the season and quick bursts on drives to the rim against Florida State last Saturday. Over SU’s final stretch of the season, a hobbled Hughes will have to rely on that athleticism to carry a heavy workload for an SU team with dwindling NCAA Tournament chances.

Hughes’ father, Wayne, said his son never had natural “Oh my goodness, this kid can fly” athleticism, so he learned how to dunk like most kids do: by lowering the adjustable hoop in his backyard to eight feet. Wayne and Hughes’ mother, Penny, remembered him jumping around outside every day, cocking his arm back and throwing down tomahawks and windmills. Hughes bumped it to nine feet, then messed around at regulation height.

After Playmaker Academy AAU practices in the eighth grade, Hughes and his teammates stuck around to show off dunks sandwiched between multiple failed attempts. In a game later that year, Hughes’ teammate Justin Mitchell stole the ball and streaked down the court for a left-handed dunk. Hughes and his teammates erupted. No one had ever dunked in a game before. A few plays later, Hughes knocked the ball loose and did the same.

“The whole team was hype,” Hughes’ then-head coach Ken Dawson said.

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From that point, it was “automatic,” Wayne said. Hughes parlayed his athleticism into other aspects of his game. Quick bounces on defensive plays has led him to become one of the top-15 shot-blockers in the ACC this season. He chases high after rebounds and elevates for a high release-point on layup finishes.

“He jumped so high it scared me,” recalls Kelvin Jefferson, Hughes’ former South Kent (Connecticut) High School head coach.

Dunk contest wins became a routine, and on Hughes’ first trip to Syracuse for the Elite Camp the Orange host each summer, he performed dunks in free time and attracted crowds, Beacon High School teacher Scott Timpano said.Kennedy Catholic teacher Brian Bruder and his son, Declan, sat in the stands at Kennedy Catholic as an 11th-grade Hughes broke away from defenders into the open court. The crowd braced for something amazing. “Appointment television,” Bruder said. Hughes unleashed a tomahawk dunk at the rim, and the crowd erupted.

Bruder got home later that night and heard a thumping noise in Declan’s room. He opened the door, and Declan was jumping around, cocking back his arm and throwing down dunks into the plastic Nerf basketball hoop attached to the door.

“What are you doing?” Bruder asked, laughing.

The then-9-year-old Declan continued to jump around his room. He was just being a kid. And learning to dunk like Elijah Hughes.

Published on February 19, 2020 at 11:38 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary