The Emergence of Terrence Jones

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With an all new freshman class coming in for Kentucky and with five outstanding players leaving means a coach has to find everything all over again. A coach has to find a niche in the offense that clicks for everyone. Coaches also have to find what philosophies and motivating techniques will work on the new batch coming in. The most important thing for Kentucky to find is that “go to” player in the clutch, the guy that you give the ball to when you need a basket to take the lead in the closing seconds of a game. Last year every Kentucky fan knew who the ball was going to, John Wall who went number one overall in the NBA draft. Over the course of the first five games for Kentucky they found that go to guy once again…

His name is Terrence Jones. That’s Mr. Jones to you.

The emergence of Terrence Jones should not have come as a surprise to UK fans, but the excitement for Jones becoming a Cat was swallowed up by the Free Enes movement and wondering if Kanter would be eligible to play. After the Maui, Jones has made a statement to the college basketball nation and big blue nation to let them know that the he is for real. If Kentucky had won the Maui he would have gave Kemba Walker a run for his money for the MVP.

Somehow, as crazy as it sounds, Jeff Goodman left Jones off his Top 25 Freshman to Watch list but it was obvious from the first game that Jones came out ready to play for this Kentucky squad and right out of the gate against East Tennessee St. he scored 25 and grabbed 12 boards.

The first real test for Jones came in the Maui and he answered beautifully as he scored 29 points and grabbed 13 rebounds against Oklahoma, 16 points and 17 rebounds against a Washington team that Jones originally committed to, and 24 points and 4 rebounds in a losing effort to UConn. None of these stats are really telling of how good Jones actually is.

He can play the small forward or the power forward. He can bring the ball up the floor, he can block shots, he can pass, he can score, he can shoot and he has a nose for the ball and rebounds well. Did I mention he’s averaging a double double with 20 points and 10 rebounds? Jones has played so well that current 2011 mock drafts both here and here have Jones going as the sixth overall pick. That’s impressive for a guy who was not even an honorable mention in Goodman’s top 25 list, huh?

Understandably it’s still early in the season but against teams such as UConn and Washington the offense just seemed to fall apart with Jones not in the game. At one point during the UConn game Jones had scored 8 to UConn’s 11 points including one monstrous dunk over two defenders.

Jones has emerged as a go to guy on this Kentucky team and their emotional leader on the court on this quiet Kentucky team. When the Wildcats need a big stop or a big basket they now have someone they know they can go to. If Jones can continue to play as well as he is, look for him to not only jump the mock draft to the first three picks but work his way up to some individual awards in the SEC.

He is a freshman and he is most likely to have some bad games but through these last three games everyone should be excited about Jones, excuse me, I mean Mr. Jones.

You can see all of Terrence Jones’ stats this season here.

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