Tyus Jones

Forgot to post this over the weekend - but I had a chance to see Tyus Jones in person when I called the Kennedy/Apple Valley game on Friday night.

Overall, I was impressed with what I saw. Here are some of my observations:
- Good speed.
- listed at 6'0" - probably 5'10" or 5'11" - hopefully there is one more growth spurt.
- Excellent ball handler, particularly for an 8th grader. Apple Valley basically put the ball in his hands with the lead in the 2nd half and he made no mistakes.
- Very good FT shooter - 80% so far this season.
- Didn't force the offense. Basically slashed and passed to the bigs down low or passed to one of their guards who hit 5 threes in the game.
- Showed ability to be able to beat people off the dribble - but again didn't force things too much. AV had a huge height advantage against undermanned Kennedy and went to the bigs most of the game.

I think the thing he has to work on most over the next four years is outside shooting. I don't think he took a shot outside of 7 or 8 feet in the game. Looking at the stats for the season he's only attempted 40 three pointers on the season, hitting only 9 of those. So obviously not much confidence yet in the outside shot. And considering AV has two guys at 6'7" - one who averages 26ppg and draws a lot of attention - you would think he would have more attempts than he does.

Overall - like I said I was impressed. Kennedy is not a very good team, but I think what is encouraging is that he has already a good grasp of ball handling and running an offense (most young players work on shooting so much that this is the last part of the game they learn).

One other side note - former Hawkeye Duez Henderson is an assistant coach on the team, so hopefully he doesn't get too much into Tyus' ear about going to Iowa city!

Thanks for the info. It should be exciting to hear about his development over the years. I really doubt he's done growing in 8th grade and with such tall brothers.

underground629 said:

Thanks for the info. It should be exciting to hear about his development over the years. I really doubt he's done growing in 8th grade and with such tall brothers.

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How tall are his brothers?

The former Hawkeye also dates Tyus' mom. Nice writeup on him in the star tribune which seemed to be a repeat of a post Myron made about a month ago. Good kid saw him at the game with the kid from Sconny (not 6'7") either and another recruit.

I can't remember but I want to say 6'5" 6'6"

tubbyapolis2 said:

How tall are his brothers?

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Josh, what about Alipate? How is he doing or do I have the wrong school (Jefferson maybe)?

Anyone remember?

When Tyus was a preschooler...probably ten years ago or less...he and his older brother would be at some of the Howard Pulley summer league games and entertained spectators during timeouts and between games by shooting and dribbling FAR beyond his years. He could shoot threes and was probably only three at the time. His ball handling was fabulous, too, and he simply seemed to be having fun doing what he loved. Anyone else remember that little guy?

I cover both Jefferson & Kennedy.

I will see Alipate tomorrow and let you know. The team is a little down from last year, obviously, and they have lost some close games which doesn't help. They don't have a lot inside this year so it puts a lot of pressure on Marcus at a guard spot.

Should be a good guard matchup tomorrow between Alipate for Jefferson and Kennedy's top player Deron Murphy - that is if they guard each other. Murphy at 6'0" had to guard the Apple Valley bigs on Friday because of the lack of Kennedy height. Jared Nuness does not have much to work with over there on the east side.