Last summer, Apple Valley point guard Tyus Jones and fellow class of 2014 blue-chipper Jahlil Okafor flirted with the idea of playing basketball together in college. This summer, they say they’re serious about making that happen.
How serious? They’re basically saying it’s going to happen, that it’s just a matter of finding the right fit for both. The list of programs offering the two high school juniors-to-be scholarships is six deep right now: Duke, Michigan State, Ohio State, Arizona, Baylor and, yes, Minnesota.
“We’re most definitely excited to do it,” said Jones, who won a gold medal with Okafor and Team USA on July 8 at the FIBA U17 World Championship in Lithuania. “We’re very serious about doing it and think it’s going to happen.”
This is where local fans start to picture a dream scenario along the lines of the Minnesota Wild nabbing high-profile free agents Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. But Gophers coach Tubby Smith doesn’t seem to be in the mix for Okafor at the moment, though Jones says he’s still considering playing for Smith.
“(Smith) came up to my school once; I think that was my freshman year,” Okafor, a 6-foot-10 center at Whitney Young High School in Chicago, said Monday, July 16. “But I haven’t been in too much contact with Minnesota.”
It’s uncertain what effect that will have on Jones’ college choice. But this much is clear: Jones and Okafor are very close, like best buddies, and listen to the other’s advice.
“Jahlil and I have a real good relationship, a real good friendship,” Jones said. “We’ve gotten pretty close over the last two years. That’s just made us want to go to college together even more. We kind of talk about it a lot, comparing schools and what we’re looking for.”
Neither player is close to making a decision — they still have two years of high school to complete — but Okafor said playing together “is something we plan on doing,” because “we want to win a national championship.”
They first met as third-graders when Okafor’s team defeated Jones’ team in the semifinals of the AAU national championships in Orlando, Fla. That’s still something Okafor teases Jones about.
But it wasn’t until last year that he brought that up. The two were invited to national team tryouts in Colorado Springs, Colo. The nation’s top-ranked class 2014 point guard, Jones, quickly fell in love with throwing the ball to Okafor, the 2014 class’ top-ranked center.
“We first talked about playing in college together last year when we went to Cancun, Mexico, to qualify for the world championships,” Okafor said. “Tyus is just a great point guard. Even if I didn’t have a good relationship with him, I still think he would be effective with me just because he’s a floor general and knows how to play.”
Scouts say the 280-pound Okafor, MVP of the U17 World Championship, has the best combination of size, strength and fundamentals of any center his age in the country. He led Team USA in scoring and rebounding in Lithuania. Jones is just as advanced at his position because of keen court vision, ball handling and basketball savvy. He led Team USA in assists.
Jones, who will compete against Okafor when Howard Pulley plays Mac Irvin Fire on Thursday at the Nike Peach Jam tournament in South Carolina, said he’ll wait until after the AAU season in August to narrow his school list.
“I still have a long process ahead of me,” he said. “I don’t feel rushed.”
Although Jones and Okafor talked often this summer about teaming up down the road, that wasn’t the hot topic of conversation before they left Team USA last week.
The junior gold medalists were beaming about meeting NBA stars Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.
After beating Australia in the finals of the World Championship, the U17 team spent a day with the men’s Olympic basketball team in Las Vegas.
“It didn’t even feel real,” Jones said. “It was like a dream.”
Any college coach who gets Jones and Okafor as a package deal probably will feel the same way.
