Xavier Season in Review: Tyrique Jones report card

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Banners on the Parkway postseason player report cards. We'll be breaking down each player's grades for the rest of this week and on into next week, where we'll reveal the top finisher according to the community. We'll also be assigning and explaining our own grades of each player. We'll start with the player who got the lowest community ranking and work our way up to the MVP.

Oh, to have the physical gifts of Tyrique Jones. There comes a point in everyone’s life where they hit a physical peak. For those of you there or not quite there yet, enjoy it. For the rest of us that have moved on, it remains the source of countless repeated stories. Regardless of whether you are moving up the upslope or heading off the downslope of that peak, you likely aren’t anywhere near Tyrique Jones. Jones is 6-9, 237 and covers ground like a point guard. While Sean O’Mara and RaShid Gaston stand nearly the same height, Jones can frequently be found in the airspace far above them. Physically, there is almost nothing on a basketball court that Tyrique can’t do.

Basketball isn’t all physical, though, or else we’d put pads on the players and celebrate when they gave each other brain damage. In some of those more mental or technical aspects of the game, Tyrique came up a bit short this year. “Unrefined” is the word that immediately comes to mind. Jones has all the raw tools to become a force in the post, but he’s not quite there yet.

Offense: C

First things first, all credit to Tyrique for knowing what dude he is. Of his 113 field goal attempts this year, an astronomical 96 (85%) came at the rim. Only 17 times did Tyrique step back and shoot a jumper. He made six of those. Those numbers gave Tyrique a field goal percentage of 60.2% and an offensive efficiency of 109.9. That efficiency number would undoubtedly be higher, as would his grade, if he hadn’t shot just 48% from the line and turned the ball over with nearly 20% of his touches. In games like Florida St where running and jumping are the currency, Jones can dominate, hammering down dunks and grabbing rebounds (16.6% rate) as a snarling force in the middle. In games where some finesse is required though, he lags behind. Once that changes, this grade will go up.

Defense: C

There’s only one reason this isn’t higher, because Tyrique Jones is a great man up defender (see the last four minutes of the Arizona game) and throws shots better than anyone else to take the court for Xavier this season. While his rebounding rate isn’t great on the defensive end, at 16.4% it’s certainly passable. All of this is offset by the one thing that limited Tyrique to 11 minutes per game despite starting 13 contests. That would be foul trouble. If Tyrique were allowed to play a full game, he would commit 7.3 fouls. In the 11 minutes that he did play, he still averaged two fouls. In one particularly impressive performance, Jones fouled out in only nine minutes of play. The lack of refinement evident on offense, and those same physical tools, are also obvious in Tyrique’s defense.

Overall: C

Tyrique Jones, even if he doesn’t develop at all, is already a weapon that can destroy a game when deployed correctly. In that FSU game he was all mean mugging and dunking and putting the lie to the idea that the Seminoles were the team with the athletes. Post players don’t come to Xavier and not develop though, the finesse and technique lacking in Tyrique’s game will be ironed out by a coaching staff gifted in working with power forwards. It’s a C this year, it won’t be next.