In front of a loud, raucous crowd at Dayton University, Jermahri “Fatt” Hill splits the middle of the defense and drives down the lane as the first half comes to a close.
The clock ticks eight … seven … six … five.
He gathers his dribble.
One, two … Boom.
Hill rises up and over the defense for a SportsCenter Top 10 flush.
“When I take off, I'm trying to dunk everything I can,” he said.
Hill has always been considered a pure athlete, stemming from when he was just four years old.
“We had a little church league. His sister and his brother both were in it, and with Fatt being so tall, he wanted to play. He was tall enough, he just wasn’t old enough, but they let him play because he was big enough and good enough,” his mother Nikkesha Cunningham-Hill said. “Every sport he ever played, he always played up. Even when he started playing football, they’d ask for his birth certificate because every time they saw him, they thought he was older than what he was.”
His big frame at a young age generated a nickname that’d stick with him for life: “Fatt.”
“He would never get full off the bottle. So, [his grandma] started putting a little bit of rice and oatmeal in his bottle. You [would’ve] thought I was a bodybuilder [from carrying him] because that boy was so big,” Cunningham-Hill said.
His grandmother is the primary reason he and his siblings played sports.
“[All of my kids] played year round. I kept them in some type of sport. My mama always tells us ‘idle time is the devil's workshop,’” Cunningham-Hill said. “I believe his grandma [instilled] that into his life when he was a baby … She said he was destined for greatness.”
Basketball, however, wasn’t his first love. Up until his junior year of high school, the Bessemer, Alabama native played football both as a quarterback and wide receiver.
He said the switch between the two sports was easy, and it came down to one simple thing.
“It seemed like I had a chance to be kind of good at it,” Hill said. “I just stayed hungry. It was either play basketball or … I didn't really know what else I was gonna do, so I just had to stay hungry.”
That hunger drove him to the realization that college basketball was a realistic possibility in his near future.
He was athletic and skilled enough to receive offers from Division 1 schools in the Power Five conferences, such as the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia and Virginia Tech.
Unfortunately, he faced an obstacle that was too late to overcome.
“My GPA was just too low,” Hill said. “That's why I push [myself] in the classroom extra hard [now], so I don't have to worry about any problems anymore.”
This did not deter his desire to play at the next level, so he went the next best route: Junior College (JUCO). He ended up at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Mississippi.
It was his first and only season with the Wildcats that the belief in his ability to play basketball at a high level was solidified.
“I faced a lot of adversity my freshman year in JUCO, and being able to overcome it going into my next year made me even more hungry,” Hill said.
At Pearl River, Hill averaged 15.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 25.1 minutes per game while shooting 48.7 percent from the field and 33.7 percent from the perimeter, helping lead the Wildcats to an 18-8 record in the 2022-23 season.
His success at Pearl River led to a few Division I offers, but he still needed to play one more year at the JUCO level.
Pursuing a better opportunity, Hill enrolled at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, for his sophomore season.
There, he’d start all but two games and averaged 14.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, leading the Texans to a 32-3 record in the 2023-24 season. South Plains also found success in the postseason, advancing to the Elite Eight of the NJCAA Division I Tournament.
He credits this stop as a great learning experience, one he has brought with him to Muncie.
“It was a winning environment. I try to bring anything I can from over there, try to place it over here …” Hill said. “It's a mentality that I carry on.”
Ball State men’s basketball head coach Michael Lewis first witnessed Hill in action at a JUCO showcase during the summer of 2023, but he wasn’t eligible for recruitment yet.
It was the following season that Lewis knew he wanted Hill to be a part of his program.
“I was able to go down and see him in person at South Plains, and I saw some very raw athleticism [and a] guy that was able to make plays,” Lewis said. “I thought he had a good energy to him, and I thought he fit the athletic profile that we were looking for here.”
Redshirt senior Mickey Pearson Jr. knew he and Hill would get along from the get-go. The Lincoln, Alabama native said the two can relate on many things, particularly being from the South and dealing with the drastic weather changes of Indiana.
As far as their chemistry on the court, Pearson Jr. expresses his gratitude for the kind of player Hill is and what he gives to the team.
“He brings us energy. He gets a steal and a dunk or something … that just turns us all up man,” Pearson said. “He makes the game easier for people like me. People [who] like to space the floor and shoot the ball. He breaks down the defense so well, gets his wide-open shots.”
Currently, in his first year as a Cardinal, Hill is averaging 16.2 points per game — ranking third in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) — on 44 percent shooting from the field to go with 5 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
Through all his stops, one thing remained constant: his family’s — his mother’s in particular — love and support.
“Words cannot express how I feel about watching my son. If I'm not there, I'm gonna be at work watching his game on my phone. When I was working at the [Pelham Civic Complex], the customers would come up there, they'd hear me hollerin’ and now they’re rooting for my son too and never laid eyes on him,” Cunningham-Hill said. “… I'm always proud of him. I tell him right now, even to this day, ‘win, lose or draw, I'm proud of you because you don't give up.’”
Cunningham-Hill said she and her son talk to each other before and after every game, no matter the time or place.
“I text him and we pray together. I always tell him to let God know what's going on and what you need from him each and every day of your life, not just on game day,” Cunningham-Hill said.
Although Hill has seemingly adjusted to the new level of basketball being played in the MAC, the transition has not been 100 percent smooth.
“He’s been up and down like most guys making that transition. You have some success, and then you get guarded differently,” Lewis said.“You’ve got to adjust to those things. You’ve got to adjust game to game, learning what it takes to show up every day, how important the practice floor is, how important every rep is, how important attention to detail and doing all the things it takes to be a good player.”
Lewis took it even further, saying the transition goes beyond basketball.
“Coming from junior college, we have more resources, so [it’s also learning] how to take care of your body, how to eat from a nutrition standpoint, the right way, how to get the right sleep, how to lift the right way,” Lewis said. “… All the things get thrown at you, and you’ve got to continue to grow, and [Hill]'s up and down, like most guys, but he's obviously getting better, and I think he's got a lot of potential if he'll commit himself to doing all the things it takes to be good.”
Hill said he has embraced the change and all the consequences that come with it, good and bad.
“It's definitely been up and down; I’m really just learning,” he said. “As I learn, I get better, so this is gonna be a long ride.”
Contact Derran Cobb via email at derrancobb@gmail.com or via X @Derran_cobb.
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