Indiana began the season with 12 consecutive victories.But coach Tom Crean said IU is a better team now than they were after capturing that 12th straight victory Dec. 22 against Maryland-Baltimore County.The No.Verdell Jones III is from Champaign, Ill. But he doesn’t put any added emphasis on facing his hometown team, regardless of which Assembly Hall the game is played.
“To me,” the Indiana sophomore guard said Friday of playing Illinois, “it’s just another Big Ten game.”
Jones is off to a fast start in conference play. He’ll lead the Hoosiers (7-7, 1-1 Big Ten) against the Illini (10-5, 2-0) at 8 p.m. today in Bloomington’s Assembly Hall.
“My family might text me, a little trash talk, but I’ll dish it back at them,” Jones said.
Jones has backed up any talk in his first two conference games. He scored 20 points in a victory against Michigan and 22 points in the 79-54 loss Wednesday at Ohio State.
“Everyone steps their games up when the Big Ten season comes around,” Jones said. “I just play the game. When I see openings, I take them.”
Jones’ success in conference play is a continuation from a year ago. He averaged 17.2 points in the final nine games, including 23 in the last two games of the season at Wisconsin and against Penn State in the Big Ten tournament.
Jones played high school basketball at Champaign Central High School. He was ranked the No. 30 senior point guard, according to Scout.com. Jones decided to attend IU over Minnesota in the spring of 2009.
“We had a backlog of point guards at the time. I don’t even know if we had a scholarship at the time, but even if we would, I’m not sure it would have been a right fit for the young man,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said during Monday’s Big Ten teleconference. “He ended up picking a school where he could play and he’s taking advantage of it. He’s playing well. I’m sure it will be an emotional game.”
The 6-foot-5 Jones averaged 11 points per game last season. This year, he is second on the team in scoring, averaging 13.1 per game. He leads IU with 19 steals and is second with 44 assists.
“I think he can be so good. The simpler he makes the game, the better he is going to be,” IU coach Tom Crean said. “We want him to shoot, we want him to attack, we want him to get to the foul line. We need him to rebound (he’s at 3.4 per game), we need him to defend the other team’s really good player. But he needs to do that too, if he’s going to have a future in this game which I know that he wants and I feel that he has.
“… It comes down to, are the individual players doing enough of what they are capable of doing? And that’s what we want to continue to push out of Verdell all the time, because we think he has it in him.”
