Tre Jones’ scoring outburst puts Duke in position to be No. 1 in the land
The record book shows Tre Jones scoring 10 or more points in only a little more than half of his games in a Duke uniform.
Part of that is attributed to circumstances, including last season when his role was to get the ball to Duke’s super scorers Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett. Aided by Jones’ ball-sharing skills, they each averaged 22.6 points on the way to all-American honors and NBA Draft lottery status.
Without them, this year’s Duke team figures to get points in a variety of ways.
Jones remains the team’s best distributor but, this season, expect him to call his own number more and more.
Friday night gave the nation an example of how fruitful that can be for the soon-to-be No.1 Blue Devils. Jones poured in a career-best 31 points, nailing four 3-pointers and driving his way to basket after basket down the lane despite hard contact, as Duke pulled away to beat Georgia State 74-63 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“He’s really good,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He put on a hell of a performance tonight. Some of his stuff in the fullcourt, not only his finishing, but he’s like a running back for crying out loud. And he’s still playing on the defensive end. He had a great performance tonight, and he’s one of the best players in the country. And he showed it tonight. He really led us, so I’m proud of him.”
When Jones decided to put the NBA off for a year and return to Duke as a sophomore, he made it clear he intended to round out his game by adding more scoring punch. Last season, he averaged 9.4 points while shooting 41.4 percent from the field, including 26.2 percent on 3-pointers.
He started this season with a gutsy 15-point performance in a season-opening 68-66 win over No. 3 Kansas at Madison Square Garden.
He followed that with 15 points in Duke’s one-sided 89-55 win over Colorado State. He was on his way to another strong scoring night on Tuesday, with seven points in nine first-half minutes, before he left the game following an on-court collision.
Duke held him out of the second half as a precaution and Jones showed Friday night he’s feel absolutely no ill effects. In addition to his 31 points, he had six assists and four steals, becoming the first Duke player to have at least 30/6/4 in a game. Jones made 10 of 19 shots, including four of eight on 3-pointers.
“I was just trying to do whatever I could to help this team win, whether that was scoring or passing, and tonight it was a little more scoring,” Jones said. “There definitely were a lot of shots I wish I could have back, but it felt good to get back to myself and playing like myself again.”
After the game, Krzyzewski reminded that Jones has spent the last two summers recovering from hip surgeries -- one on each side. They corrected issues he played through prior to Duke and, now that he’s full strength, the expectation is more nights like Friday.
Seeing Jones shooting with confidence is a huge positive for Duke. He started the season 1 of 9 from behind the newly extended arc.
Georgia State coach Rob Lanier’s game plan included not worrying about Jones’ jumper. That was a mistake.
“Jones making the shots that he made in the first half really hurt us a little bit because we weren’t anticipating that,” Lanier said. “He hadn’t shot it as well, so him making some shots certainly affected us.”
The Panthers weathered Jones’ first-half scoring to trail Duke 36-34 at intermission. The game was tied at 40 with 16:24 to play when Jones took over. The Blue Devils scored the game’s next 13 points, with Jones tallying 10 of them with a 3-pointer, a drive and score in the half court, a transition layup and a conventional three-point play with a bucket and free throw.
“We knew that we had to jump on them first to start the half,” Jones said. “We couldn’t give them any more life than they already had. It was just a two-point game, so we wanted to push the lead and have complete control of the game in the second half.”
They did, building a lead as large as 17 while posting a win that, coupled with No. 1 Kentucky’s loss to Evansville on Tuesday, should propel the Blue Devils to the nation’s No. 1 ranking.
Duke started last season at No. 1 and finished the regular season there, too. An upset loss to Michigan State in the NCAA tournament denied them a trip to the Final Four and a chance to claim the only No. 1 spot that mattered.
Jones sobbed almost uncontrollably after that 68-67 loss in Washington, D.C., last March 31. Once recovered from hip surgery, he worked this summer to polish his all-around game to include more offense.
If he can become a consistent scorer like he was Friday night, he’ll put this defensively-exquisite Duke team in position to reach its annual goal of being No. 1 in April.
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 11:56 PM with the headline "Tre Jones’ scoring outburst puts Duke in position to be No. 1 in the land."