Penn State basketball’s Myreon Jones ready to prove himself again after last season’s illness
Myreon Jones ended last season with a few mixed performances. The then-sophomore struggled in two of Penn State’s last three games and couldn’t find the offensive punch that he provided earlier in the season when he was the team’s best perimeter shooter and one of its best scorers.
Of course, his struggles came after missing nearly four weeks due to an undisclosed illness that left him struggling to find his footing in the waning games of the season.
Now — after eight months away from game action — Jones is in a position to be the Nittany Lions’ leading scorer as they try to do what last year’s team never had the chance to do — make the NCAA Tournament.
Jones entered last year’s final stretch as a key piece of a five-game winning streak that stretched to eight in his absence before the team began to fall apart. Without the guard, Penn State became too reliant on star leading scorer Lamar Stevens and began to run out of steam. By the time Jones returned, the momentum was lost and he still had to work his way into shape. Then-head coach Pat Chambers saw the promise his team once had with Jones after a loss to Michigan State in early March.
“We haven’t had Myreon Jones for a long time,” Chambers said after the loss last season. “He’s just getting back. He was very rusty against Iowa. He was very good in the first half, just okay in the second half (against Michigan State) because of his wind. But once we get him back to full strength, I think it’s full steam ahead.”
Jones never got the chance to work his way fully back into form after the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments were canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
With the illness he had last season behind him and his body feeling healthy again, Jones is ready to put all of that in the past.
“I feel like I’ve got more stuff to prove,” Jones said during Penn State’s media day this month. “I didn’t get to prove it at the end of the year. But I’ve put it in the past. I’m not really thinking about it anymore. I’m just trying to get better every day.”
He’ll have a chance to be the team’s leading scorer this year and is more likely than anyone to take over that role from Stevens, who graduated and signed a two-way contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jones is a creative guard from the perimeter who uses his shiftiness and ball handling to create space and manipulate opposing defenses. Last year, those skills helped him score 13.3 points per game and shoot 40.3% from 3-point range on the year. He should be able to maintain his shooting percentage from deep after taking 5.6 3-pointers per game last year and will have more of an opportunity to score in transition and attack the rim.
Last season, those were strengths of Stevens’ game. Without the former Nittany Lion in the fold, someone will have to take a step forward to make up for what he left behind. Jones isn’t the most athletic player on the team, but his shooting ability fits the way interim head coach Jim Ferry — who said he isn’t changing the scheme Chambers ran prior to his resignation — plans to play.
“I think we’re going to play very, very similar to the way we’ve played,” Ferry said at media day. “Our pace over the past couple of years has been outstanding, one of the tops in the Big Ten. We play at a high rate.”
After being away from the court for an extended period last season — Jones is primed to prove his success wasn’t a fluke and carry the Nittany Lions on offense at times. He and his teammates’ chances to make the NCAA Tournament will hinge on their ability to achieve last year’s offensive success without its best option in Stevens — who averaged 17.6 points per game.
Jones said it will take more than just one player to bridge that gap, and he doesn’t feel the pressure to do it on his own.
“It’s more of a group effort,” Jones said about replacing last year’s seniors. “Nobody on the team thinks they’re going to be a 20- or 30-point scorer. I think it’s going to be a full-team effort to win games ... I feel like the staff is gonna put me in the best position to succeed. And I know my teammates have got my back. So I feel like if all of us are working on the same page, there won’t be no pressure at all.”
However there’s a chance Jones takes an important step and replicates Stevens’ scoring output at an even more efficient level. He could be the key that helps break the program’s nine-year NCAA Tournament appearance drought.
