Kevin Jones Having Himself a Ballgame

[Djrog]

28 and 14 with 5 to go.

 

[690West]

I wonder where he is in Mock drafts? Guy is huge

 

[Cuse1992]

he is not getting a whole lot of help..
primary option, but the young guys cant get him the ball enought

 

[Upstate]

28 and 14 with 5 to go.

 

[SWC75]

Remember the Kevin vs. Mookie debates? I would like to have had Kevin the last four years. Rick could have played center last year.

 

[NailstheCusefan12]

Baylor got exposed on the offensive boards. A lot of big guys, but not a lot of big guys that want to throw their bodies around or box out.

 

[Orangeyes]

Remember the Kevin vs. Mookie debates? I would like to have had Kevin the last four years. Rick could have played center last year.

Clifton Park & I are were big Kevin Jones advocates. Others said KJ wouldn't have fit with our system & didn't have the protypical JB body. While he was playing for Mount Vernon & Mookie was playing for Peekskill I thought Kevin had more potential. SU was his dream school and he held off West Virginia until we grabbed Mookie.

 

[bevosu]

I was there during those discussions and I stated that I thought we might(?) have made a mistake not taking K Jones. I just thought that we needed a potentially strong rebounding forward and K Jones fit that need more than anything Mookie might add.

Seemed like a strange decision on the part of the staff.

At the same time I thought that Mookie had a lot of potential. Wasn't about to predict who would turn out to be a better college basketball player. I like Mookie..I saw a few of his high school games and thought that he was a pretty good all around player. His tweener size wasn't an evident handicap in high school, but his skills in high school haven't seemed to have transfered well to the college level.

Still I'm not sure why he never got the minutes that I thought he needed to help develop his game. Maybe JB's recent evolution into a more defensive minded coach had something to do with it?

Maybe Mookie's day has yet to come? What did Valvano say...something about never giving up? He also said..."Be a dreamer. If you don't know how to dream, you're dead."

 

[longtimefan]

Clifton Park & I are were big Kevin Jones advocates. Others said KJ wouldn't have fit with our system & didn't have the protypical JB body. While he was playing for Mount Vernon & Mookie was playing for Peekskill I thought Kevin had more potential. SU was his dream school and he held off West Virginia until we grabbed Mookie.

I think the decision was KJones vs. KJoseph. It turned out that they were more different in skills than our recruiters thought. Or Jones just developed more of an inside game than we thought he would.

 

[omniorange]

I think the decision was KJones vs. KJoseph. It turned out that they were more different in skills than our recruiters thought. Or Jones just developed more of an inside game than we thought he would.

Don't think so. As I recall, KJoseph had committed in the Spring of 2007. We were down to one schollie and it was between Mookie and KJones over the summer and into the fall of 2007.

I had actually seen both play and thought Kevin was the much better prospect and posted it, but except for Clifton Park and a few others it was obvious the majority of the board thought Mookie was the better get.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[longtimefan]

Don't think so. As I recall, KJoseph had committed in the Spring of 2007. We were down to one schollie and it was between Mookie and KJones over the summer and into the fall of 2007.

I had actually seen both play and thought Kevin was the much better prospect and posted it, but except for Clifton Park and a few others it was obvious the majority of the board thought Mookie was the better get.

Cheers,
Neil

Others may remember better than I, but my recollection was that the staff thought that Joseph and K Jones had skill overlap that Joseph and MJones didn't. But, they didn't let me in on those recruiting evaluations, so who knows.

 

[omniorange]

Others may remember better than I, but my recollection was that the staff thought that Joseph and K Jones had skill overlap that Joseph and MJones didn't. But, they didn't let me in on those recruiting evaluations, so who knows.

Again, Joseph committed much earlier. And while it is all "water under the bridge" now, as can be seen by the evaluations of the players involved Kris and Mookie were more similar in terms of skill sets than Mookie and Kevin. Also that was a strange year in terms of recruiting in the fact that everyone seemed to be a forward - KJo, both Jones', and Dirty.

KJones: PF - Hails from a big time high school program. Rebounds out of his area and always plays with aggression. Strong student who feels the game. Throws tremendous outlet passes. Working on varying his game to become a more versatile forward.

KJoseph: SF - Native of Canada. Made a name for himself as a junior with his savvy as a passer. Needs to round out his own offensive game and finish with authority/take command of games. Good kid, willing to learn and he's got a ceiling. Committed to Syracuse before the start of his senior summer.

Mookie: SF - Wing player who facially resembles Shawn Marion then goes out and stuffs the stat sheet. Extremely athletic and versatile. Has been working on improving his perimeter game but the overall beauty of his talent is that he's diverse. Plays the passing lanes, challenges shots and finds way to be impactful.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Clifton Park & I are were big Kevin Jones advocates. Others said KJ wouldn't have fit with our system & didn't have the protypical JB body. While he was playing for Mount Vernon & Mookie was playing for Peekskill I thought Kevin had more potential. SU was his dream school and he held off West Virginia until we grabbed Mookie.

You are right, I was a huge Kevin Jones proponent. Part of it was that I thought that he had big time talent and the other half was that I thought we needed to get a player out of the Mt Vernon program. As much as we are the Orange in the Apple, we haven't done a huge job recruiting that area.

I thought he had a nice outside shot in high school and I thought he would have made a nice 3/4 in our system. He was at 225 in HS and I never would have expected him to play at 260 at WVU.

I thought he would have had better numbers, but he was surrounded by some good players so I don't think it's any surprise that his numbers have been way up this year. After he committed to WVU, I made the comment that I fully expect him to beat us at least once during his career, which I do not think he has done yet as I believe we are 4-0. Hopefully that doesn't happen this year. That being said, I would think he is starting to open a few more eyes for the future.

 

[Orangeyes]

Kevin has tasted a final four & Mookie hasn't, Kevin was a key player on that team too.

Another Mount Vernon product that got away was Ben Gordon. I remember Tailgate Ivan imploring the Syracuse staff to go after him. Anyone remember our gurad situation at that time?

 

[Gonzo]

Plenty prominent posters on this board have sworn up and down in previous years that an undersized power forward like Kevin Jones would not have been a good fit for our zone. Few kids ever wanted to wear Orange as badly as Kevin did.

 

[SWC75]

Mookie: SF - Wing player who facially resembles Shawn Marion then goes out and stuffs the stat sheet. Extremely athletic and versatile. Has been working on improving his perimeter game but the overall beauty of his talent is that he's diverse. Plays the passing lanes, challenges shots and finds way to be impactful.

Whatever happened to that Mookie?

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Kevin has tasted a final four & Mookie hasn't, Kevin was a key player on that team too.

Another Mount Vernon product that got away was Ben Gordon. I remember Tailgate Ivan imploring the Syracuse staff to go after him. Anyone remember our gurad situation at that time?

Ben Gordon was the first Yukon player that I ever developed a man crush on. I remember sitting in Madison Square "Gordon" and just drooling over his talents. Since I allowed myself to open that door, I have joined retroactively the Ray Allen fan club as well.

 

[AlaskaSU]

28 and 14 with 5 to go.

I posted at the time that I wanted Kevin, even if Mookie and he were a wash, because Mt. Vernon and Westchester County produce plenty of talent and we need a greater presence there. Mt Vernon, New Rochelle and White Plains plus some of the Yonkers Highschools are the equivalent of inner city schools. Peekskill has produced more than its share of players but Weschester is where I would rather have a presence.

I once beat a dead horse and repeated my argument after the fact. A mistaken post said it was not between Kevin and Mookie. It was indeed between Kevin and Mookie. I still trust the coaches but they are not infallable.

 

[cto]

I think we took Billy Edelin over Gordon. I remember being suicidal over it. I loved Gordon's game at Mount Vernon (and at UConn).

 

[Oakland]

28 and 14 with 5 to go.

There was a great debate about this 4.5 years ago, I actually wanted to save the thread just for this moment but didn't. IIRC, Phatorange was one of two posters who went back and forth, don't remember the other. Both people had seen the players in a couple of HS games. The back and forth was such that my opinion was swayed with each post. Eventually, I was not sure whom I preferred but was happy to get Mookie because he was a star and proven winner. Maybe the above posters are all true Kevin advocates, but I remember many who were hoping for Mookie.

I have no knowledge of the true situation, but I also remember some posters in the know who said it was really between Kevin and KJ.

 

[SWC75]

The only think I recalled about my opinion at the time is that I thought we needed a power forward more than a small forward and Kevin Jones sounded more like a power forward.