Duke basketball 2014-2015 player review: Tyus Jones

Generic Script

Tyus Jones

• Year: Freshman
• Height: 6-foot-1
• This year’s statline: 11.8 PPG, 5.6 APG, 1.5 SPG
• The Blue Zone’s projected statline: 7.0 PPG, 8.5 APG, 1.0 SPG

Season breakdown: The list of Jones’ clutch moments this season could go on forever. Of course there’s his performance in the national championship, where he drilled late-game threes against Wisconsin to turn a nine-point second half deficit into a five-point win and the program’s fifth national title. But before that, there was his 22-point effort in a hostile road environment against the then-No. 2 Badgers in December. And his dagger trey against a then-undefeated Virginia squad that led the Blue Devils to another road victory against a top opponent. Or the night he forever cemented himself in Cameron lore when he single-handedly rescued Duke from a home loss to the hated Tar Heels and erased a seven-point North Carolina lead with less than two minutes to play in regulation. All moments worthy of the nickname his teammates bestowed on him—“Tyus Stones”.

Crunch-time heroics aside, the Apple Valley, Minn., native facilitated the Blue Devils’ prolific offense with on-court savvy rarely seen in 18-year-old freshmen. Jones posted an assist-to-turnover ratio of just less than 3:1, and never seemed to get rattled by the pressure of the moment or the opposing defense. The freshman guard played the role of a vintage point guard by spreading the ball around generously to Duke’s array of offensive weapons, but also established himself as a legitimate scoring option as well. Jones ranked third on the team in 3-point shooting and his 88.9 percent mark from the free throw line made him nearly an automatic from the charity stripe, where he led the team in made free throws.

If Jones had one flaw this season, it was his lack of stellar defense. At just 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, the freshman lacked the imposing stature to compete with some of the more physical perimeter players the Blue Devils encountered and didn’t quite pester opposing guards the way Duke’s other backcourt defenders did.

Results relative to expectations: Entering as the top-rated point guard and the No. 4 overall player in his class, there were more than a fair bit of expectations heaped upon the shoulders of Jones before he even stepped on campus. But he dealt with all the hype seamlessly, becoming the true floor general head coach Mike Krzyzewski had been missing the past few seasons.

One big question looming over the team’s head before the season began was how Jones and incumbent senior Quinn Cook would coexist in the starting backcourt. That turned out to be a non-issue, with Cook transitioning smoothly to an off-ball two guard while Jones took control of the point. The Blue Devils’ lone senior reached career-highs in scoring and field goal percentage largely due to Jones’ work as a facilitator.