By: Joe Popely

With the exception of IU’s embarrassing loss at Iowa Sunday, embattled senior guard Verdell Jones III has emerged as the team’s veteran leader by playing lockdown defense, hitting clutch shots and playing an efficient offensive game. Will it be enough to silence his critics?

 

It seems like senior guard Verdell Jones III is asked about being booed by the crowd or about the turnovers he commits every post-game press conference.

Don’t feel bad for Jones. He said the haters just add fuel to his fire.

“I’ve been doubted and hated on ever since I was a little kid,” Jones said. “Things like that have motivated me to go beyond what people expect.

“People say I’m too skinny to play Division I basketball. Proved it wrong. People say I can’t go a game without a turnover. Well, that’s two games that I’ve proved it wrong,” Jones said after beating Northwestern last Wednesday.

In IU’s 71-66 win over Northwestern, Jones scored six points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out three assists in 18 minutes. The game was his first game back since injuring his shoulder at Michigan on Feb. 1. More importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over and all six of his points came when the team needed it most—in the last 4:05 of the game—while a Wildcat team desperate for a win kept clawing back into the game.

“I thought the way that he played in the second half is what you want every player to understand,” IU coach Tom Crean said. “If you really are locked in defensively and you’re active, it’s going to carry into your offense, because it’s going to build confidence.”

Since coming to Bloomington, Crean has kept track of deflections by his players as a way to measure their intensity and level of activity on defense. Put Jones on the Crean Award Watch List for defensive prowess.

“He was excellent against the [1-3-1] zone, he was excellent in the halfcourt defense and he makes a big shot at the end,” Crean said. “But to me, to come off the injury and have eight deflections, that’s going to the top of my list.”

That “big shot”, by the way, was a nineteen-footer from the left wing to put Indiana up 71-65 with 30 seconds left in the game. And it came a possession after Jones teamed with backcourt mate and sophomore guard, Victor Oladipo, to force Northwestern’s John Shurna (a game-high 29 points) into a deep, contested three that resulted in an air-ball.

Not bad for a guy who was passed over by many schools, including the one in his hometown of Champaign, Illinois.

FINDING HIS ROLE

A native of Champaign, Ill., Jones wasn’t recruited by Illinois head coach Bruce Weber.

Jones came to Bloomington a year after the Kelvin Sampson debacle decimated the team. As a freshman, he averaged a team high 11 points per game on 45 percent shooting, to go along with 3.6 assists per game.

It’s easy to forget the lack of talent Jones had around him that year (Devin Dumes, Tom Pritchard and Nick Williams to name a few). Those guys were forced into starting roles when they were meant to be role players.

The same could be said for Jones. It became clear he was the Hoosiers’ main scoring option. He was “the guy.”

The following season, Jones averaged a career-high 14.9 points per game, but his shooting percentage dipped to a career-low 40 percent, and an unimpressive 27 percent on three pointers.

And that’s when the criticism really took off. Jones went from “the scorer” to “the bonehead” — a player who is selfish, forces up shots and turns the ball over.

After freshman phenomenon Maurice Creek suffered a season-ending injury, Jones once again lacked scoring help. Aside from Christian Watford, then a freshman, Jones had to share the ball with the offensively-challenged Pritchard and Jeremiah Rivers.

Each year, Jones’s turnovers have hovered around three per game—3.5, 2.8 and 3.0 during his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons, respectively—but the senior now understands his role as the team’s undisputed veteran leader and caretaker of the ball.

“It feels real good to me man; he’s like my big brother, man,” said Oladipo of his feelings towards Jones’s second half performance against Northwestern. “When I first got here, he was the person I looked up to…to see him come in like that and blossom like he did is a blessing.

“He’s probably the one person in this program that’s been through the most.”

Aside from the criticism, Jones has been through a 28-66 team record in his first three seasons.

Now, Indiana has its first 20 win season under coach Tom Crean and has matched the conference win total from the past three seasons at eight, thanks in large part to Jones’s on-court maturation, leadership and veteran savvy.

Averaging a career-low 25.9 minutes per game and 7.8 points per game, Jones understands his new role.

He doesn’t have to lead the team in scoring every game. He doesn’t have to force shots. He doesn’t have to get fancy with the ball and get stripped. Instead, he’s averaging a healthy 3.5 assists per game and is turning the ball over a career-low 2.5 times per game.

“We came from the very bottom,” Jones said. “It shows you how far we’ve come, how far we’ve matured.”

Although Jones was talking about the whole team, he might as well have been talking about himself. Not many collegiate athletes can absorb criticism the way Jones has.

“Everything I hear, the boos and all that, it motivates me to a level you don’t even understand,” Jones said.

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