Freshman Benefits From On-The-Job Training
UC Irvine forward Ben Jones was left alone for a second time in practice Monday. For a second time, he sank a three-pointer.
Adam Stetson, who was supposed to keep that from happening, shook his head afterward.
“He’s sneaky,” Stetson said. “He doesn’t need much room to get that shot off. When he finds it, you’re in trouble.”
Yes, Jones can shoot. Years of practice at home, sometimes until midnight, took care of that. It’s when he’s not scoring that he gets overlooked.
Pegged too slow by those college coaches who backed off last season, Jones is beginning to show a more rounded game. It took some time, as it would with any freshman, and there is a lot of room for improvement. But in recent weeks, his contributions haven’t been limited to the scoring column.
Against Boise State Thursday, Stetson missed a three-pointer, but Jones tipped the rebound free and the Anteaters kept possession. The ball was worked back to Jones, who was left alone. His three-pointer tied the score, 57-57.
Jones then took a charge, which led to a Stetson three-pointer and a 60-57 lead on the way to a 65-63 victory. Jones finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
“When I was being recruited, the big question was whether I could play defense on the Division I level,” said the 6-foot-7 Jones, a graduate of Sonora High. “I thought I could. All I wanted was a chance. [Coach] Pat Douglass gave me that chance.
“My first goal was to get a Division I scholarship. My second goal was to play some my first year. I had no idea I would be playing so much.”
Apparently, he hadn’t followed Irvine too closely last season. The Anteaters were in need of immediate help.
It has made his adjustment more difficult.
“We’ve been trying to teach him a lot this year,” Douglass said. “He’s a freshman, so he has a lot to learn at this level. In some respects, that has hurt his shooting. Sometimes we have to tell him not to think so much about the other things and just shoot. We need his scoring.”
The Anteaters have had that on a more consistent basis since Big West Conference play began. Jones is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 11.5 points and is shooting 46% from three-point range. He is averaging 14.8 points in conference.
Jones scored 18 points against North Texas, nearly rallying the Anteaters from a 20-point deficit. He had 16 of his points in the second half of a victory over New Mexico State, which started Irvine’s three-game winning streak. He had 13 points in the second half against Boise State.
Jones scored only nine against Idaho, but he also had three key offensive rebounds. He has scored 41 points in the last three games after scoring only 10 in Irvine’s first three victories.
“It’s nice to get some points in a game we actually win,” Jones said. “I had some decent games, all in losses. It’s tough to get my shot off sometimes, the way people are playing me. When that happens, coach tells me I have to contribute in other ways.”
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The Anteaters are 5-3 since Wendell Robinson, a 6-foot-8, 230-pounder became academically eligible. He is averaging 8.1 points and a team-high 5.3 rebounds.
“Wendell can be a force in this conference if he wants to be,” Douglass said. “There are guys who are taller, but there are few big bodies.”
Robinson will face the conference’s biggest body Thursday, when UCI plays Pacific. The Tigers’ Michael Olowokandi, a 7-foot, 265-pound senior, is the conference’s leading scorer (20.3 ppg) and a likely NBA first-round draft pick.
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Thursday’s game not only matches Irvine, which leads the Western Division, and Pacific, which is favored to win the Western Division, it is also the first Division I meeting between former college teammates Douglass and Pacific Coach Bob Thomason. Both played at Pacific.
“We stayed in the same house the summer before our freshman year,” Thomason said. “He was always intense and serious. We used to kid him about how hyper he was in practice. But he knew what it was going to take to be successful.”
Thomason has lost to Douglass before, on the golf course, where Douglass is extremely serious.
“Last summer, he teed up on a 225-yard, par-three, and got off a tremendous shot,” Thomason said. “The ball landed three feet from the hole and he birdies it. I never recovered. I took a lot of grief from him all summer.”
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The men’s tennis team hosts UCLA Wednesday, a considerable undertaking because the Bruins are ranked second in the country. But it’s all in how you look at it.
“Playing them as a whole team, being ranked No. 2, can be overwhelming,” Coach Steve Clark said. “But I told our guys that if you were facing them individually in a tournament, you would think you had a shot at winning. So we’ve put it in that perspective. Make it an individual effort, like a tournament. You’re just trying to make it to the next round.”
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Coming Attractions
Key events this week for UC Irvine:
* Women’s tennis hosts Pt. Loma Nazarene at 1:30 p.m. today and is at UCLA at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
* Men’s tennis hosts second-ranked UCLA at 1 p.m. Wednesday and Nevada at noon Saturday.
* Men’s basketball plays at Pacific at 7 p.m. Thursday and at Long Beach State at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
* Women’s basketball hosts Pacific Thursday and Long Beach State Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.
* Men’s volleyball opens Mountain Pacific Conference play at UC Santa Barbara at 7 tonight. The Anteaters host LaVerne at 7 p.m. Friday in a nonconference match.
