Tyus Jones
Statline: Saturday, April 4, vs. Michigan State: 9 points on 3-of-8 shooting, four assists and two steals in 38 minutes; Monday, April 6, vs. Wisconsin: 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting, 5 rebounds and in 37 minutes
The good: Clutch is the best word to describe the performance by Jones. The freshman point guard has always found a way to make an impact on the biggest of stages, and Final Four weekend was no exception.
Although Duke fans and coaches were worried about how the game would play out, down by two with less than five minutes to go, Jones had ice running through his veins. The Apple Valley, Minn., native helped spearhead a 10-0 run that put the Blue Devils in position to take the title. Six of the points came on dagger 3-pointers from Jones—whose buckets book-ended two Jahlil Okafor hoops—after high ball screens that sealed Duke's 2014-15 fate.
In a game that saw Duke's freshmen take over—all points in the second half of the game were scored by one of the four freshman—Jones was the ringleader. Of his 23 points, 19 came in the second half, and all of them were crucial. He hit tough shots like a dribble-drive stepback from the top of the key and an improbable floater a few feet off the block while getting fouled. Down the stretch, Jones stepped up every time Duke needed it, and he's one of the biggest reasons why Coach K now has enough rings for every finger on his right hand.
The bad: To try and say that Jones did something that terribly against the Badgers would be a mistake. He only had one turnover and one personal foul. He hit all of his free throws. He was making shots. Would Duke have liked it if he played as explosively in the first half as in the second? Yes, but it doesn't matter because Jones was there when the team needed him, just as he was all season..
The bottom line: Despite not always being in attack mode, Jones came alive when every time his team needed him to this season and put together one of the most complete clutch campaigns in recent memory. The 6-foot-1 point guard came to Duke with Okafor to win a national championship his freshman year and did just that, knocking down big shot after big shot before the NCAA tournament and getting it done on the nation's biggest stage.
Honorable mention: Jones had a memorable game, but the Blue Devils might not have been in a position to prevail without the contributions of reserve guard Grayson Allen.
The freshman guard was barely in the rotation for much of the season and had scored just 16 points in Duke's first five NCAA tournament games. But Allen showed the potential that has been heralded since his high school days. The Jacksonville, Fla., native exploded for a total of 16 points, eight of which he scored in a row to keep the Blue Devils afloat after Duke fell behind by nine points with 13:25 left in the game. For the first time this season, we saw the hyper-athletic guard take over a game, and his timing was impeccable for the Blue Devils.
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