Verdell Jones wills IU to win

Verdell Jones was running on fumes.

The sophomore guard from Champaign, Ill., went into overtime Sunday with 17 points and had made 10-of-12 free throws.

Jones hit his 11th free throw 45 seconds into the extra period. But he missed the second of two and later missed a pair with IU trailing 76-71.

“Those free throws I missed, I think it was just my legs – the legs were gone,” Jones said.

The 6-foot-5 guard said there was “a little mental fatigue and physical fatigue.”

Watching Jones and his teammates from press row, that seemed like a major understatement.

One of the team managers probably should have slipped some 5-Hour Energy into Jones’ water bottle late in the game, as Jones played the entire second half and overtime, finishing the game having played 40 of the 45 minutes.

Yet in the game’s final two minutes, Jones hit his next two shots from the charity stripe to cut Minnesota’s lead to three, and then hit a pull-up jumper from just inside the free-throw line.

Following a missed layup by Minnesota guard Devoe Joseph, the lanky IU guard took him one-on-one and ultimately threw up a turnaround jumper, drew a foul and hit what came to be the game-winning basket.

TV play-by-play man Gus Johnson gave shout his patented “ha-ha” over TV broadcast; Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert, already up on his feet at his courtside seat next to Pat Ewing, Jr., yelled in excitement; and the rest of the 17,000 crowd in Assembly Hall went into a frenzy.

It was a great team effort and win, one that seemed unlikely when Minnesota brought the momentum into overtime and had five-point leads on two occasions. But with apologies to every other player on the court, Jones certainly deserves a great deal of the credit for the victory.

IU’s front court combined for 33 points and 25 rebounds. Senior guard Devan Dumes had a very good first half and was key in helping the Hoosiers take over the opening frame. Freshman guard Jordan Hulls, though he didn’t fill up the stat sheet, played a good game himself.

But it was Jones who truly personified what IU coach Tom Crean described as the two defining words of the Hoosiers’ 81-78 victory: “perseverance and scrappiness.”

Jones made his college decision later than most in 2008, ultimately choosing IU in early May instead of Billy Gillespie’s Kentucky Wildcats and Tubby Smith’s Minnesota.

Smith, the losing coach in Sunday’s game, saw firsthand what he lost out on roughly 20 months ago.

“He’s very talented,” Smith said. “He’s long and athletic. He’s a very heady player, a very smart player. He knows how to draw the foul. You hedge on the pick and roll and he knows how to use his body and force you to foul him.”

But while Jones did take 19 free-throw shots, missing six of them caused less reason to celebrate – at least for one person.

“My dad, when I first came out to say ‘What’s up’ to him, he didn’t even say ‘Hi,’ or anything. He said, ‘You’ve got to make free throws,’” Jones said of his conversation with his father. “That’s something I have to keep working on.”

But at the end of the day, IU beat a good Minnesota team and Jones put together a pretty nice stat line – a career-high 24 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.

On a day in which the likes of Hibbert, ex-Hoosiers Damon Bailey and Brian Evans, former Indiana Pacers center Rik Smits, and, reportedly, Cincinnati Reds third baseman and Jasper, Ind., native Scott Rolen, were in Assembly Hall, it was Jones who left the arena as the big man on campus.

And while the postgame court rush celebration was extremely premature – let’s face it, Minnesota might not even make the NCAA Tournament – it was a quality win for the Hoosiers and a tremendous effort from Jones down the stretch.

“He stayed fearless,” Crean said. “That’s exactly what you have to be when you’re making that transition to being a very good player, which he’s doing.”