Despite not being drafted in Thursday’s NBA Draft, West Virginia’s Kevin Jones announced today on his Twitter account that he signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers as an undrafted free agent.
@kevjones5 – “Thanx to the Cleveland cavs for believing in me and my abilities, so its off to the cavs I go!!!”
@kevjones5 – “I will continue to keep working hard and improving everyday”
Following the draft, Jones was ranked No. 1 on Yahoo Sports list of top players not drafted after Jones was projected to go in the second round. Jones, a four-year player and three-year starter, had his best season last year with 19.9 points per game and 10.9 rebounds per game and led his very young West Virginia team to the NCAA Tournament before losing to Gonzaga in the first round. Jones earned second-team All-American honors to cap off his West Virginia career.
Scouts said that Jones went undrafted because of his lack of size (6’8, 260 pounds) and lack of a perimeter game. Jones will go down as one of the all time greats in West Virginia basketball, joining only Jerry West with 1,800-plus points and 1,000-plus rebounds.
Jones will hope to become the 15th Mountaineer to play in an NBA game and will look to join the only other West Virginia alum in the league Devin Ebanks.
Jones’ Final WVU Rankings (courtesy of msnsportsnet.com)
• 5th in career scoring (1,822 points)
• 14th in career field goals attempted (1,268)
• 22nd in career field goal percentage (49.4)
• 16th in career 3-point field goals made (110)
• 14th in career 3-point field goals attempted (349)
• 4th in career rebounds (1,048)
• 1st in career offensive rebounds (450)
• 20th in career rebounding average (7.54)
• 8th in career blocked shots (109)
• 2nd in career minutes played (4,347)
• 17th in career minutes played per game (31.27)
• 6th in career games played (139)
• 13th in career games started (104)
• 6th in career double-doubles (33)
• 2nd in career 10-point games (95)
• 14th in career 20-point games (14)
• 10th in season scoring (657, 2012)
• 6th in season field goals made (260, 2012)
• 13th in season field goals attempted (511, 2012)
• 8th in season rebounds (360, 2012)
• 1st (141, 2012), 2nd (135, 2010) and 4th (108, 2011) in season offensive rebounds
• 3rd (1,265, 2012), 4th (1,254, 2010) and 15th (1,152, 2011) in season minutes played
• 1st in season games played (38, 2010)
• 1st in season games started (38, 2010)
• 5th in season double-doubles (21, 2012)
• 2nd (33, 2012) and 4th (31, 2012) in season 10-point games
• 7th in season 20-point games (19, 2012)
Photo Credits: Joe Sadlek All-Pro Photography
Discussion about this post