Rebels’ Jones can soar, but can’t stay on floor

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The story behind why Derrick Jones Jr. wears No. 1 can be found on Page 43 of your trusty UNLV basketball media guide. It's simple reasoning, not some profound wisdom that has a long and intense and complex story behind it.

The number stands for the one person Jones believes can stop him from realizing his dreams.

Himself.

Basketball can be difficult to figure out as one graduates to higher levels, but when you arrive at the next one with the sort of extraordinary athleticism Jones possesses, the learning curve has a tendency to accelerate.

UNLV needs it to, in the case of its highlight-making freshman. The Rebels are just much better with Jones on the floor, is all.

UNLV on Saturday afternoon brushed off the dust from a loss at Wichita State three days earlier and beat UC Riverside 73-62 before 1,772 at the SRC Arena, where 70 percent or so of those were dressed in red and cheering for the visitors.

It was a road victory in a somewhat bizarre venue, more an oversized high school gym than college arena where they aren't allowed to hang banners of past Division II national championships in baseball and women's volleyball because it's a facility used by the entire student body.

But the Highlanders moved to Division I in 2000 and I'm guessing the basketball team hasn't encountered many athletes on the level of Jones, whose production Saturday is an optimal example of how far he has come and still has to go.

He had another one of those someone-alert-SportsCenter dunks, one of those running, cutting, jumping, flying, breathtaking, one-handed slams that make NBA scouts drool and opposing defenders recoil in a pool of embarrassment and Twitter go into overdrive. He does that a lot.

But Jones also had 12 points and four rebounds in 11 first-half minutes and took only one shot and had zero points and boards in six second-half minutes. The reason for such inconsistency is the one area that has tested Jones more than any since he arrived from Chester, Pa., a top-30 recruit nationally.

He fouls too much.

It's to be expected. Odds are that Jones was rarely tested defensively at levels below this. He was more skilled than most, more able to anticipate things a step or two faster than those driving and trying to score against him. He had four fouls Saturday that kept him on the bench for most of the second half, more examples of how he needs to move his feet and not reach and better understand positioning.

"He definitely has a little bit of an adjustment period to go through," UNLV junior forward Ben Carter said of his teammate and roommate. "It's a lot more physical than high school. He might have been able to get away with some things defensively in AAU ball or high school that he can't here.

"I just tell him to use his athleticism in different ways. Get on the offensive glass, be a pest on defense, get blocks, get steals, get deflections, make it a problem for the other team. The dunks and all that will come to him. He's the best jumper I've ever seen. But there's going to be a learning curve and to just keep level-headed. You're going to have good games and bad games and games where you play 25 minutes and ones you play five minutes. It's a struggle all freshmen go through. Derrick is a special talent. He can become a special player. I truly believe that."

His ability to produce is obvious: Jones averages 10.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in just 18.3 minutes, meaning if he can stay on the floor for longer stretches — he has played 30 minutes only once in 10 games and 20 or fewer in seven — UNLV should benefit more times than not.

The Rebels are absolutely better in transition with him.

He had to play some power forward Saturday with fellow freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr. also limited by foul trouble, another example of Jones' versatility and yet a position that even someone with his athletic gifts will struggle to guard at a listed 6 feet 7 inches, 190 pounds.

"I want to show people I'm more than a dunker," Jones said. "If dunks come, they come. If the opportunity presents itself, I'm not going to just lay the ball in. I'm going to take off and do what I do. Dunking is something I do; it's not who I am. I hope I figure everything out. But when we figure it out — there is no individual stuff with us, it's all about the team — we can go very far."

Derrick Jones Jr. spends much of his time in the sky on a basketball court, flying away for those breathtaking snapshots.

Once he figures everything else out, the sky also will be his limit.

The only one who can stop him, as the jersey number suggests, is himself.

— Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on "Seat and Ed" on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Follow him: @edgraney