Class of 2014 point guard Tyus Jones insists that he’s not favoring any program and that no one stands out above the others in his list of eight schools, but as he nears his projected commitment date in the fall, he hopes to figure that out by continuing his string of unofficial visits.
“I’ll head down to Kentucky Friday and spend the weekend down there,” Jones told NRS. “They’re one of my final eight schools and I’ve taken a number of unofficials now and they’re just the next one I want to get out and see. I don’t have any others set up, we were just trying to figure out this Kentucky one and set that one up.”
Having already taken trips to Duke, Michigan State, Minnesota and North Carolina, the 6’1, 171-pound Minnesota native has visited half of the schools on his list of eight teams, which consists of Baylor, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, North Carolina and Ohio State.
Since he has taken four unofficial trips so far, Jones knows what he’s looking for when he visits a school.
“I want just want to take a look around their campus and how it’s laid out,” he said. “I’m looking at the facilities, arena, locker room and practice facilities. I’m looking forward to spending some time with the coaches and players and see how they do things at Kentucky.”
Although he’ll be making the trip alone, Jones plans on attending the same college as USA basketball teammate and close friend Jahlil Okafor, the top center in the class of 2014. If the two stick to the plan and do pick a college together, it’d likely be the best package deal in college basketball history.
“I think it’s very likely we go to school together because we’re great friends; he’s like a brother to me as I am to him,” Jones added. “It’s something we’ve had set on our minds for a while now. We played together on team USA and had a good bond on and off the court. We think we could do something special if we went to college together and that we’d enjoy it.”
Even though he has no particular date in mind, Jones does have a general timetable of when he wants to commit. If everything goes as planned for the point guard, he’ll be committed by this time next year.
“It’s not a specific [date] but probably at the end of the summer coming up or the fall of my senior season,” he said. “I think it’s just kind of the standard time frame. I just see myself committing in the fall.”
*Photograph courtesy of USA Basketball
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Although Jones states that no one leads he and Okafor have had nothing but sparkling things to say about Duke and coach K so I believe Duke is in the drivers seat in the recruiting of both Jones and Okafor although Im hoping that his unofficial visit this weekend to UK will help change his mind and KY has a good start to the 2014 class with Karl Towns’ verbal commitment and if you would add the aforementioned Jones and Okafor to that class then Cal would be again the king of the #1 recruiting class for the past 5 seasons.
As a Kentucky fan, I’d say that if he’s really serious about being a package deal with Okafor, then he’s probably wasting a trip to Kentucky because of their recent commit from Karl Towns, Jr. It wouldn’t be the first time Kentucky had the #1 and #2 players at a position (See Aaron Harrison and James Young) but it’s probably not going to happen that often. As for the “facilities, arena, locker room and practice facilities”, he’ll be hard pressed to find many places nicer than UK (although Rupp Arena itself is is a little dated compared to newer arenas).
But the new arenas your talking about still does’t have the crowd capacity of Rup arena!
Towns, Jones , and okafor is a lock for another National title, I’m sure they see that!!!!UK national champs maybe 5 years in a row come on down!!!!!!
Are you serious? National champs a lock? You obviously have no idea how hard it is to win a NCAA championship, even when you have the best talent. 3 players won’t make any team a lock. There are way too many good teams these days.
Kentucky fans are starting to get REALLLLLYYYYYY annoying. They keep acting like they have guarantees since Calipari keeps seemingly always getting something like 4 or 4 top 15 – 20 Recruits EVERY YEAR!!!! Sorry, but something’s NOT kosher about that. Seondly, it also doesn’t work that way. Most freshmen, even a lot of the best AREN’T ready for what it takes to REALLY succeed at the NCAA Div. I level at least in some aspect….whether it be academics, college life, or some particular aspect of their game (ballhandling, defense, offense, etc.), etc.