Texas G Andrew Jones named Big 12 Co-Player of the Week

On Monday, the league office announced that Texas Longhorns redshirt sophomore guard Andrew Jones is the Big 12 Co-Player of the Week, the first career weekly honor for the Irving product.

The recognition marks a key moment in the two-year journey for Jones to recover from leukemia — as his conditioning has improved throughout the season, the 6’4, 185-pounder is starting to regain his rhythm on the court. In two games last week, Jones averaged 22 points and 3.5 rebounds while playing all but two minutes against West Virginia and Texas Tech.

“I feel good, you know — I’m starting to find my footing a little bit, starting to get my feet underneath me again,” Jones said after the Texas Tech win. “My body is starting to feel really good and the coaches are putting a lot of confidence into me to be myself, be confident, and know if I feel good about the shot, take it, and just always make the right play.”

Jones is certainly making the right plays more frequently in recent games as injuries have put more pressure on the redshirt sophomore to hit shots.

Against two top-10 defenses in KenPom.com’s adjusted efficiency metric, Jones hit 15-of-27 shots (55.6 percent) and 8-of-17 attempts from three-point range (47.1 percent). Last Monday against West Virginia, Jones set his career high with 22 points, along with three rebounds, three assists and two steals, before matching that career high in Lubbock.

Jones is currently second on the team in scoring (11.7 points per game), third in assists (1.9 assists per game), and third in steals (21). With the shooting surge during the current four-game winning streak for the Longhorns, Jones is now hitting 40 percent from three-point range to lead the team.

“It’s a phenomenal story,” head coach Shaka Smart said on Saturday. “First of all, even just to be out there and playing and competing after all the stuff he’s been through is so much fun, but I think one thing that’s really helped him is that he’s had a great appreciation for the fact that he is back and the opportunity that he does have, and he’s really grabbed hold of it.

“And as you see, he’s just out there playing with a lot of confidence — that’s the Andrew Jones that we know and you know the exciting thing is he, he still has room that he can he can continue to get better. He’s really only a matter of months post-treatment, literally chemo treatment, so really proud of him the way he’s attacking.”