By the time Jimmer Fredette earned national player of the year honors at Brigham Young, in 2011, Girard, 11 years younger, was being called the next Jimmer. Girard played one season for Tony Hammel, who had coached Fredette at Glens Falls, before Girard’s uncle took over the program. Girard walks by Fredette’s framed jersey outside the gym nearly every day.

“There was always something just different about Joe,” Jimmer Fredette said in a phone interview from China, where he plays for the Shanghai Sharks and in November scored 75 points in a Chinese Basketball Association game. “He’s just broken every milestone by a long shot. He is a deadeye shooter, but I work with him on his middle game: floaters, runners, shots he can be creative with in college and beyond.”

Girard used to hear chants — “Jimmer’s better!” — when he missed shots, but those faded in recent seasons. Still, as they did with Fredette, college coaches are figuring out where Girard fits moving forward. One of 32 players invited to try out for the United States’ under-18 team in Colorado in June, he did not make the final cut. Playing at Peach Jam, the main event of Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League, in July, he was less of a scorer alongside center Isaiah Stewart, one of the nation’s top-rated recruits. Twice, Girard went scoreless against better competition.

“He’s got to become a little more efficient in being able to maneuver his way into shots,” said Tom Konchalski, a talent evaluator and publisher of High School Basketball Illustrated, a scouting newsletter for coaches. “He’s not a point guard, but he has intergalactic range. If he’s patient, he can have a good career.”