After seeing him almost a dozen times in AAU with Howard Pulley (MN) or with the USA team, here are a few things I have learned about the tremendously talented freshman point guard from Apple Valley.
He is tremendously talented. He has a gift of feel and can turn it on at any given moment. There are times, however, that he waits to turn it on. He will frequently coast during parts of the game and then take it over late to assure the win. He steps up in big games and he has closing power.
He responds very well to being yelled at. He responds very well to panic induced tirades from coaches. You can jump start him by giving it to him in a time out.
A quick story. I was watching him play with Howard Pulley last year. His squad was coasting and a scrappy team of great shooting low and mid major prospects from Tennessee was just rolling on all cylinders against Tyus squad. Pulley calls a time out with about four minutes left and their AAU coach just went irate on them. The coach was screaming, cursing, stomping and berating them in the time out. He directed much of his anger at Jones.
I will never forget the anger and disgust that the Pulley coach had when he screamed to Tyus right as the horn sounded for the players to return to the floor. "FINISH THIS SH@T!!" He screamed and stomped at the same time.
Tyus never looked bothered by the anger and urgency of it and calmly went back out on the floor and he did something that I will never forget. He. Took. That. Game. Over.
He went off and scored like 15 points in the last few minutes. Hitting three after three. Slashing to the basket, going right at the rim and finishing in traffic. Handling the ball against the press, bobbing and weaving like Debo should have been doing in Friday. He just took the game over and put that nail in the coffin for the scrappy team from Tennessee.
Tyus will coast. And he will surge. And we all saw that against UConn as well when K went off on them in the huddle. He has the button and sometimes, with him, you have to press it.
I think he is a terrific player. I always have. I think the next steps for him are to turn that switch on earlier and leave it on. And i think getting better defensively is also going to be huge for him.
I was just thinking about him and wanted to share that story. It was something to see in person and its something I will never forget. I really though the Pulley coach was going to go into cardiac arrest.
He is tremendously talented. He has a gift of feel and can turn it on at any given moment. There are times, however, that he waits to turn it on. He will frequently coast during parts of the game and then take it over late to assure the win. He steps up in big games and he has closing power.
He responds very well to being yelled at. He responds very well to panic induced tirades from coaches. You can jump start him by giving it to him in a time out.
A quick story. I was watching him play with Howard Pulley last year. His squad was coasting and a scrappy team of great shooting low and mid major prospects from Tennessee was just rolling on all cylinders against Tyus squad. Pulley calls a time out with about four minutes left and their AAU coach just went irate on them. The coach was screaming, cursing, stomping and berating them in the time out. He directed much of his anger at Jones.
I will never forget the anger and disgust that the Pulley coach had when he screamed to Tyus right as the horn sounded for the players to return to the floor. "FINISH THIS SH@T!!" He screamed and stomped at the same time.
Tyus never looked bothered by the anger and urgency of it and calmly went back out on the floor and he did something that I will never forget. He. Took. That. Game. Over.
He went off and scored like 15 points in the last few minutes. Hitting three after three. Slashing to the basket, going right at the rim and finishing in traffic. Handling the ball against the press, bobbing and weaving like Debo should have been doing in Friday. He just took the game over and put that nail in the coffin for the scrappy team from Tennessee.
Tyus will coast. And he will surge. And we all saw that against UConn as well when K went off on them in the huddle. He has the button and sometimes, with him, you have to press it.
I think he is a terrific player. I always have. I think the next steps for him are to turn that switch on earlier and leave it on. And i think getting better defensively is also going to be huge for him.
I was just thinking about him and wanted to share that story. It was something to see in person and its something I will never forget. I really though the Pulley coach was going to go into cardiac arrest.
