{"id":27000,"date":"2016-02-21T14:57:06","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T19:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=27000"},"modified":"2016-02-21T14:57:43","modified_gmt":"2016-02-21T19:57:43","slug":"potential-all-conference-selection-maleke-jones-grows-into-leadership-role-on-the-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/potential-all-conference-selection-maleke-jones-grows-into-leadership-role-on-the-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential all-conference selection Maleke Jones grows into leadership role on the court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sophomore Maleke Jones<\/a><\/strong> (Charles Town, W.V.\/Washington) has come a long way since his freshman year. Unlike some point guards who are simply role players, Jones has proven to be a key factor to the success of the men\u2019s basketball team this year.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s one-point win against Shenandoah Feb. 3, Jones showed just how clutch he is when he drew the foul and hit the game-winning free throw.\u00a0 Three days later<\/span><\/span> against Randolph-Macon, he broke a 65-65 tie with four straight points in the final minute to propel Eastern Mennonite to a 73-71 win. For his efforts, he was named the Royals Athlete of the Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy expectation is that he\u2019ll be first team all-league because there\u2019s no reason for him not to be,\u201d said Coach Kirby Dean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jones was never the go-to player for his high school team. Dean recalls that when he was recruiting Jones in high school, he was the fourth option behind his twin brother Jerome Jones<\/span><\/a><\/strong> (Charles Town, W.V.\/Washington).<\/p>\n

Jones says his role\u00a0 is much different than what was expected of him last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role now is facilitating the score whenever I can,\u201d said Jones, who is a captain. \u00a0\u201cEveryone always comes to me with questions and I like it.\u00a0 I was vocal last year but this year I don\u2019t have an option but to be, so I\u2019m way more vocal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is averaging 10.1 points, 2.9 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.\u00a0 He is also one of the best three-point shooters in the ODAC at 47.4%.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally I thought I couldn\u2019t really shoot last year,\u201d Jones admitted. \u00a0\u201cSo all summer I worked on ball handling and shooting.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m shooting close to 50 percent from three so that really improved and I have more control over the ball this year.\u00a0 Defensively, Coach said I\u2019m one of the top on-ball defenders so I think that improved, too.\u00a0 But I always want to get better at defense and getting other people involved. \u00a0I don\u2019t like feeling too selfish on the court but apparently I need to be that way for us to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maleke did not come up with this conclusion. His coaches did.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me he\u2019s the most important player,\u201d Dean said. \u00a0\u201cWe do efficiency ratings on our kids based on criteria established by the NBA where we plug in all of their stats and it produces a number that says how efficient they are. He\u2019s been our most efficient player all year long. That\u2019s a nice way of saying he\u2019s probably our most important or most valuable player. He kind of needs to grow into that role because he\u2019s never been that guy. But Maleke is coming into his own and he needs to continue to do that because he is really talented. He can\u2019t just settle for being a good player; he has to be the player of the year in our league next year. In my opinion, he has that kind of talent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sophomore Maleke Jones (Charles Town, W.V.\/Washington) has come a long way since his freshman year. Unlike some point guards who are simply role players, Jones has proven to be a ... read more about Potential all-conference selection Maleke Jones grows into leadership role on the court<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4522],"tags":[16214,5674,17111],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-27000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-basketball","tag-jerome-jones","tag-kirby-dean","tag-maleke-jones"],"yoast_head":"\nPotential all-conference selection Maleke Jones grows into leadership role on the court - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/potential-all-conference-selection-maleke-jones-grows-into-leadership-role-on-the-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Potential all-conference selection Maleke Jones grows into leadership role on the court - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sophomore Maleke Jones (Charles Town, W.V.\/Washington) has come a long way since his freshman year. 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