Jones expands team role through college career

Amid some of the darkest and most turbulent days in the program’s history, senior guard Verdell Jones III stayed.

Less than two weeks after committing to Tom Crean and the new staff at Indiana, Jones watched as his future teammates began to leave. His life as a college freshman would head down an entirely different path than he expected.

“Previously, when I signed, (Jordan) Crawford and Armon (Bassett) and all those guys were still there, and I watched them the previous season, and they had a great regular season,” Jones said.

“I thought with Crean coming in, we would have a great year. Actually, the first day of summer school, everybody had gone but Jordan Crawford, and he left that same day. Everyone left, and I’m there with a whole different team.”

A Champaign, Ill., native, Jones headed into the summer of his freshman year as a 160-pound point guard.

Jones walked into a situation when the Hoosiers returned a mere 30 points from the year before with forward Kyle Taber being the only scholarship player back in the fold.
With Crean and his staff taking over in early April, they went to work to put together a patchwork recruiting class. 

A pair of junior college transfers, along with five freshmen, made up the seven-person class. Jones would be asked to fill the need of putting the ball in the basket for a team that brought back less than 2 percent of its scoring.

“It was huge because it gave us a guy who knew how to play, could score points, could handle the ball (and) had a mentality of scoring points and size. So it was a very important recruit,” Crean said.

Like many college freshmen, Jones expected to see his minutes vary in his first season as he learned from a guy who had started 50 career games: guard Armon Bassett.

“I figured coming in backing up Armon and guys that have been in the Big Ten, have established themselves and then when they leave you look around like, ‘OK, now what?’” Jones said. “My role changed a lot. I went from being a backup guy to being a leader on the team.”

Jones’ first season in Bloomington saw more downs than ups, with the team winning six games. Three years later, Jones shakes his head when asked about his freshman season, knowing the pitfalls that occurred have only made him stronger.

“It was very chaotic, but it helped me grow and mature fast,” Jones said. “You had no choice. You are playing Notre Dame your third game of the year, who’s top-five in the country. You were thrown into the fire, and you had to learn.”

In each of his next two seasons, Jones averaged double figures in points while being the main ball handler. With junior guard Jordan Hulls expecting to take over the point guard duties this season, Jones will play more off the ball in his final year in Bloomington.

“His role continues to expand because he expands,” Crean said. “I think this year, the big thing for him is taking better care of the ball even better than he did last year, which was a big improvement for him. He’s got to become more of a defensive rebounder for us so we can get the break started.”

On March 4, 2012, Jones will walk out onto Branch McCracken Court for the final time as an Indiana Hoosier.

Fellow seniors Kory Barnett, Daniel Moore, Tom Pritchard and Matt Roth will join Jones to make up a senior class that has endured one of the most difficult four-year stretches in IU history.

Malik Story (Nevada) and Nick Williams (Mississippi) were two members of that seven-person freshman class who transferred after one year. For the guys that stayed, Jones said what he wants for the Class of 2008’s legacy.

“I want it to be guys who persevered, guys who didn’t quit when times got tough,” Jones said. “Guys who didn’t transfer when we were losing. We didn’t run away and hide and go to a different school. We stayed here and fought through it and helped build this program back to its glory.”

As a Bloomington native and a son of a former IU coach, Jordan Hulls has had a front-row seat to the Hoosiers’ program for the past 20 years. Hulls was the unquestioned leader throughout the off-season this year and sees no better way to send the senior class out than with a deep run in March.

“Those guys came in and have fought for four years,” Hulls said. “It’s been a rough three years, but they have gotten better each and every year and are continuing to improve. Those guys came in with Coach Crean, laid the foundation for what we need to do, my class and the classes following. I give a lot of credit to those guys. It was a tough position they were put in, and now they are a part of the solution.”

Jones said he knows his days in an IU uniform are numbered. He took his official visit during Little 500 and said the tradition and banners are what sold him on the Hoosiers.
With expectations teetering around postseason play, Jones said, come mid-March, he wants to spend a few extra days in Bloomington before playing on college basketball’s grandest stage.

“We’re tired of going home on spring break and watching other teams in the Big Ten compete for a national championship,” Jones said. “I’m tired of seeing that. I think we’re all tired of that. I think that’s one of our biggest motivations for us this year is to get to the tournament. Sit there on (Selection) Sunday and see which seed we got, who we’re playing, where we’re traveling to.”