Posts tagged Kevin Jones

Kevin Jones Returns! (…and Yet Another Schism!)

It is almost impossible to keep up with the shifting standards that Mountaineer fans have for themselves. I know that we’re supposed to be loyal (“Support your team!”). We’re also supposed to not be loyal (“Bill Stewart is a douchebag that has to be fired!”). We’re supposed to have standards (“Bill Stewart’s nine wins per year aren’t enough!”) We’re supposed to not have standards (“How dare anybody insist that Dana Holgorsen has to win ten games a year!”). We’re supposed to be paying customers (“Fans that don’t buy tickets don’t matter!”). We’re supposed to not buy tickets (“Fans staying home are evidence of programmatic collapse!”)

It is very tough to keep track of. Tiptoeing through this minefields is intensely difficult.

Then Kevin Jones decided to explore the NBA Draft. Then, after getting what can only be considered negative feedback about his draft position - meaning he wasn’t promised an selection in the First Round - he decided to return to WVU. But what were the rules for fans on this.

The Problem
The problem was this: fans wanted to be supportive of Jones, a player who has already given WVU fans a great career. He has been one of only two Bob Huggins recruits that has lived up to the hype (the other being Devin Ebanks). He is obviously beloved. So fans felt the need to encourage Jones to pursue his professional dreams.

“It’s okay if he leaves. He deserves a shot at the payday. He deserves his success. He’s earned it,” was the collective response.

Wishing a beloved player luck is great. It speaks well of our fans that we didn’t have anybody pulling of the rampant douchebaggery on display here. But is supporting what would have been a bad decision really a good thing? Because that’s what Kevin Jones decision to stay in the draft would have been: a bad decision.

A Bad Decision
Almost all of Jones’s numbers were down this year. Some people attribute this to the fact that Da’Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks weren’t playing in front of him anymore, forcing him into a leading man position that he was unaccustomed to after playing third fiddle for two successive seasons. That explanation is right, but the conclusion is wrong. Let’s start with the numbers themselves:

-Made fewer field goals, took more shots.
-Made fewer three pointers.
-Scored less points.
-Assist to turnover ratio worsened.
-Field goal percentage worsened.
-Three point percentage worsened.
-Foul shooting worsened.

Those are the not the numbers of a player destined to make a significant contribution at the NBA level. Those, frankly, aren’t the numbers of a player that’s likely to get drafted.

The biggest problem that Kevin Jones had last season is that he couldn’t hide. He’d spent his first two years at WVU feasting on third defenders, grabbing rebounds, scoring on put backs, occasionally sneaking out for a three, and wrecking opponents with his baseline jumper. That’s his game. That’s Jones in his best possible environment because it lets him play to his strengths. He wasn’t able to do that this season because he was forced to be the team’s statistical leader. It was assumed by everybody that the bulk of the production was going to have to come from Jones. That was probably true. But that doesn’t mean that providing the bulk of the production is what Kevin Jones excels at. His numbers worsened last season because he was effectively playing out of position, being asked to do what he does in a way very different than he’d done during his first two seasons at WVU.

Supportive Fans
I understand the desire to be supportive. I understand the desire to see the young man make it. But is supporting a plainly bad decision really support at all? It isn’t like any of us were going to have an impact on Jones decision making of course. It isn’t like our support really mattered in any substantive way. All that did were what the NBA professionals told him, and they plainly told him to go back to school. So why did many of us bother telling him something else? What’s to be gained from encouraging a young man to make a transparently bad decision?

We can be fans of the players, of the team, of the institution, and yet not sacrifice our ability to think critically about them.

Sadly, today is the day that we probably say goodbye to Kevin Jones. I say this not because I hope the Mountaineers will lose, but because I think they’ll likely find a way to do so in the most excruciating way imaginable. That’s just how WVU does this season.  This is a shame. I can say this without hesitation: Kevin Jones might just have been the greatest Mountaineer of my lifetime. He was quieter that some of the team’s more revered players. Da’Sean Butler is the obviously candidate for having had a superior career, and he did have an amazing one, but I’m not certain a team ever had a player doing more individually with less assistance from his teammates. During a season in which teams knew that stopping Kevin Jones meant that the Mountaineers would largely grind to a halt, he was essentially unstoppable. We can talk about the double-doubles, despite the double teams. We can talk about the rebounds, despite the concerted efforts to stop him. We can talk about the performances, like his dismantling of a very good Kansas State team. Or we can simply sit back and reflect that Kevin Jones made one of the greatest Mountaineer careers ever out of a baseline jumper and a tenacious ability to get into position for the rebound.  I don’t mean to denigrate the man by writing that. He strayed to the three-point line at times and occasionally made those. He shot from the top of the key occasionally and made those too. His defense was never porous. But simply put, he found two things he could do really well and he made a career out of them. In fact, his only shortcomings as a Mountaineer emerged when he strayed from that simply baseline jumper and offensive rebounds game. Those were the moments that we got frustrated with him. Sadly, his final year in Morgantown has gone underappreciated, both by the some fans who don’t seem to recognize just how good he was and by the nation at large (who whispered nary a peep when the undeserving Jae Crowder won the Big East Player of the Year despite producing worst statistical performances with considerably more talent around him). Such is life as a Mountaineer though.  If tonight really is his last, he ought to go out knowing that he was one of the school’s greatest players and even if he didn’t crack our all time top five (although he might, right?), he’s definitely a rock solid top ten player. 

Sadly, today is the day that we probably say goodbye to Kevin Jones. I say this not because I hope the Mountaineers will lose, but because I think they’ll likely find a way to do so in the most excruciating way imaginable. That’s just how WVU does this season. 

This is a shame. I can say this without hesitation: Kevin Jones might just have been the greatest Mountaineer of my lifetime. He was quieter that some of the team’s more revered players. Da’Sean Butler is the obviously candidate for having had a superior career, and he did have an amazing one, but I’m not certain a team ever had a player doing more individually with less assistance from his teammates. During a season in which teams knew that stopping Kevin Jones meant that the Mountaineers would largely grind to a halt, he was essentially unstoppable. We can talk about the double-doubles, despite the double teams. We can talk about the rebounds, despite the concerted efforts to stop him. We can talk about the performances, like his dismantling of a very good Kansas State team. Or we can simply sit back and reflect that Kevin Jones made one of the greatest Mountaineer careers ever out of a baseline jumper and a tenacious ability to get into position for the rebound. 

I don’t mean to denigrate the man by writing that. He strayed to the three-point line at times and occasionally made those. He shot from the top of the key occasionally and made those too. His defense was never porous. But simply put, he found two things he could do really well and he made a career out of them. In fact, his only shortcomings as a Mountaineer emerged when he strayed from that simply baseline jumper and offensive rebounds game. Those were the moments that we got frustrated with him.

Sadly, his final year in Morgantown has gone underappreciated, both by the some fans who don’t seem to recognize just how good he was and by the nation at large (who whispered nary a peep when the undeserving Jae Crowder won the Big East Player of the Year despite producing worst statistical performances with considerably more talent around him). Such is life as a Mountaineer though. 

If tonight really is his last, he ought to go out knowing that he was one of the school’s greatest players and even if he didn’t crack our all time top five (although he might, right?), he’s definitely a rock solid top ten player.