The 6-foot-6 graduate transfer from Cal State Northridge – who was starting his sixth season of college basketball at his fourth school – stepped onto Blackburn Court for the exhibition game versus Penn State wearing goggles that reminded you of other similarly bespeckled ballers like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Horace Grant and James Worthy.
In Sunday’s game – which UD led the entire way and won 78-62 – Jones was the Flyers’ most dominant personality in so many ways.
He not only led the team with a game-high 17 points, but he played with an ease – at one time or another he chatted up his teammates, acknowledged the refs, the cheerleaders and he even had the guy guarding him laughing at his conversation – all of which might come from already having played 152 games (148 which he started) in his college career.
“I was just being myself,” he said afterward.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
His teammates seem to feed off his energy and his feel for the game and the fans took notice too, especially the students in the Red Scare section who always are looking for a Flyers player they can connect to.
After the game, a TV reporter told Jones some of the students were so caught up in his goggled visage they thought maybe it’s a look they should mimic in the stands as sort of an homage.
Jones was asked if the goggles were his trademark or some kind of hoops armament that raised his play to another level.
No on all counts, he said.
He nodded over at Amaël L’Etang, the 7-foot-1 French forward who sat next to him in the postgame media room:
“Actually, Frenchie elbowed me in the face, and I had six stitches put in my face.”
He explained later it had happened underneath the basket during practice. He was trying to block a shot and instead ended up with a Gallic gash on his upper right eyelid.
“I just kept playing, but it was bleeding and they had me stop,” he said with a grin and a slight turn of the head so you could better see the threaded repair job.
Asked if he’d be wearing goggles in the Flyers’ next game – a Monday exhibition back at UD Arena, this time against Bowling Green – he shook his head:
“Hopefully not…It was a good experience, but I don’t know if I’ll wear them next time…But then if Frenchie elbows me again…I mean hey, stuff happens.”
That led to another assumption some people held about him – especially some other basketball programs of real note who were intrigued by his talent but backed away when he entered the transfer portal with impressive credentials.
Last season at Cal State Northridge (CSUN), he won All-Big West First Team honors after averaging 13.1 ppg and leading his team in rebounds per game (9.0), assists (4.1), steals (1.8), blocks (1.3) and minutes (30.8)
His 14 double-doubles ranked 18th in the nation.
That brought out another assumption that didn’t hold up on closer inspection.
Some programs believed he came with too much past baggage.
In 2020 – when he was 18 – he was charged by police back in Madison, Wisc., his hometown, with sexual assault of a girl two years younger.
He disputed the charge and after 4 ½ years with it hanging over him, the legal system finally agreed with him.
In late July the district attorney dropped the charges and the Wisconsin Circuit Court website announced:
“These charges were not proven and have no legal effect.
“Keonte Jones is presumed innocent.”
Credit: David Jablonski
‘A lot of love’
Before he heard those words, Jones found himself on an arduous path through basketball’s lesser-known outposts.
He started his career with three years of junior college basketball, the first two at Mineral Hills College in Park Hills, Mo., and then a season at Midland College in West Texas.
Finally, he made it to Division I and in two seasons at CSUN, he scored 822 points and grabbed 531 rebounds.
In early April he committed to Southern Cal, but three weeks later decommitted when the Trojans recruited another forward – Chad Baker Mazara from Auburn and before that Duquesne and San Diego State – on top of him.
After that he sat in the portal for three months.
The Portal Report listed him as the top-ranked forward and second-best player overall still unclaimed.
Although UD had never recruited him in previous seasons, it had its eye on him this time and the same week the charges were dropped in Wisconsin, the Flyers signed the 23-year-old as a late roster addition.
“We always do our due diligence,” Flyers coach Anthon Grant said quietly Sunday. “Everything happened through the courts, and the matter took care of itself.”
After the Flyers signed Jones, UD athletics director Neil Sullivan basically said the same thing.
In private Sunday, I asked Jones about the burden he felt over those 4 ½ years. The question caught him off guard and for the first time all day he wasn’t sure what to say.
A UD sports information representative nearby stepped in: “I don’t think we’re going to go there today.”
A relieved Jones said, “Yes, no comment.”
But then a couple of minutes later, unprompted, he did comment when asked why he was playing a sixth college season when he already had his degree and a 152-game college career and almost surely could be playing professionally somewhere now.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
“That goes back to your other question,” he said.
“I was going to test the waters last season, but life’s about living. Instead of having people from the outside just looking in, I needed an extra year to show people the kind of person I really am.”
Jones did that in so many ways Sunday.
On the court there were times when he was dominant. At the start of the second half, he drove on his defender, did a figure skaters’ spin move around him and went in for a dunk.
Later though, when he had a wide-open shot near the baseline, he instead showed unselfishness and fed the ball to Malcolm Thomas, who was a little closer inside and managed to score and get fouled and make the free throw.
“What he does doesn’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet every day,” Grant said. “What he does, he’s a multiplier.
“He’s especially valuable when you have new guys, young guys. It helps that they can see a guy of his caliber who sets the tone.
“With him it’s beyond just basketball. He’s a mature young man. He’s consistent with what he does.”
Up until a few months ago, Jones admitted he knew nothing about the city of Dayton, the school or the Flyers program, except for one thing:
“I knew Obi Toppin,” he said with a laugh.
As for Ohio, even that was foggy to him: “I’m from Wisconsin. I didn’t know it was that close to me.”
As it turned out he’s found a lot more closeness here than he ever imagined.
“There’s a lot of love here,” he said quietly. “A lot of love.”
‘I feel the love’
Sunday’s game was the third year UD has opened the season with an exhibition game to raise awareness and funds for mental health.
It’s been spurred by Grant and his wife Chris who lost their 20-year-old daughter Jayda – a UD student, an athlete, a shining light in the Grant family – to suicide in 2022.
From that loss has come the Jay’s Light foundation that provides resources to help other young people and their families navigate the mental health waters, so they don’t have to go through what the Grants continue to do.
Sunday’s game highlighted numerous pro and college athletes giving testimony on the Arena video board during breaks in the action.
The lighted message boards along the court often bore the reminder: “Beat the Stigma.”
Jones saw that. He’s trying to beat another stigma, but he said he took the mental health messages to heart:
“That’s big for me. Mental health is something I’ve had to deal with after all that’s happened the past few years.”
He said that’s a part of the reason he came to Dayton. He said he felt a true embrace from the coaches, especially Grant and assistant coach James Kane, who “called me every day to check on me.”
As you talked to Jones you saw another side of him.
Like many players he has several tattoos, but on closer inspection they are different than most.
“This one here is for Black Lives Matter and the portrait is Malcolm X with that famous pose of him thinking,” he said as he pointed to the back of his right leg.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Turning to show his left leg, he said: “And that’s Dr. Martin Luther King with his ‘We shall overcome’ statement.
“I got them two years ago. I’d been saving money for a long time to get them. I wanted to show I can overcome the problems I face as a black man.”
To make it clearer, he added quietly: “Like the problems you mentioned in that first question.”
He said so far Dayton has proved tonic for those tough times:
“I feel comfortable here. I really do. I feel the love.”
He should.
Not only was Grant effusive in his praise afterwards, but when Jones left the court for good with 5:49 left Sunday, the crowd gave him the biggest round of applause of the game.
And that led to one more thing that wasn’t really what it seemed.
As he was taking me on his tattoo tour, I noticed when he turned his one arm, down the back it read: “No Love.”
That may have been the case in the past, but you didn’t need to wear goggles Sunday to see that wasn’t true now.
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