Watching junior guard Verdell Jones this season has been nothing short of a roller coaster.
When he's on, he brings the team to another level. He is currently second on the team and 17th in the Big Ten in scoring with 14.3 points per game, has reached double figures five times already this season - bringing his career total to a team-leading 44 games - and has become the 42nd player in IU history to reach 1,000 career points.
But there's been a consistent thorn in Jones' game that digs his team into an unneeded hole.
Seven times this season, Jones has led the team in turnovers. So it should come as no surprise that he leads the team in giveaways with 38, while sophomore forward Christian Watford is a long second with 17.
In Saturday's victory against Savannah State, Jones committed a game-high five turnovers, while adding only three assists to his credit.
Still, he led the team with 18 points, and when IU coach Tom Crean was asked about what he sees from his point guard, he had only good things to say.
"Bottom line, he's really getting better," Crean said. "I thought he responded in the second half the other night and certainly did throughout the game tonight."
That's been the story with the entire IU men's basketball team: a head-scratching first half followed by a second half that makes basketball purists drool. Jones, the unabashed leader of the squad, is simply the embodiment of that trend.
In Wednesday's loss at Boston College, Jones had only one turnover in the second half after committing three in the first, and he added five of his 11 points and two of his three assists in the final frame.
Jones then had just two of his five turnovers in the second half against Savannah State. He also showed the ability to crash the boards Saturday with eight rebounds, two of them offensive.
"I almost fell out of my chair when he got his second offensive rebound of the year," Crean said. "Because I'm sitting in it so much this year."
While Jones has run himself into trouble this season, he's been able to turn the tide and deliver 20 minutes of solid basketball.
But with a date at Kentucky less than a week away, IU will need him to double that.
