Super senior Myreon Jones was a surprise addition of sorts to the first roster of new Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden when he decided to come back for another year with the program. The combo guard transferred to Florida before last season as a sharp shooter from Penn State. In his first year at Florida there were struggles in the way he shot the ball although there were some games where he shot really well. Golden believes his return to the team and a bit of a different role will give Jones the opportunity he needs to return to form with his three-point shooting.
Jones came to Florida after shooting 39+ percent from beyond the arc in the previous two years at Penn State. In Gainesville, there were more ball handlers that previous head coach Mike White wanted in that role so Jones switched up a little bit playing off the ball more and moving to set himself for open shots. At Penn State, he handled the ball a lot more and maybe that led to a clearer mind when it was time for him to shoot the ball. For whatever reason Jones saw his average drop to just over 32-percent from three and a lot of the misses happened early last season.
Golden has watched plenty of game film and studied the numbers from when Jones was both with Penn State and last year at Florida and believes he has some understanding as to why it may have happened.
“I think… his role changed a little bit,” Golden said this week when speaking with Guide to Greater Gainesville. “At Penn State he had a really high usage role. Sometimes when you’re able to play with unlimited freedom, you don’t worry about the ball going in the basket. I think he played on the ball more when he was at Penn State. He had a much higher assist rate in his last two years at Penn State than he did last year here at Florida. I think playing off the ball and thinking a little more about his shots led to him having some more ruts and more times when he wasn’t as comfortable.”
Jones will play some point guard, but Golden isn’t ready to turn over all the ball handling duties over to him. He does believe that things will be different this coming season than the last one.
“You know, he let it spiral a little bit,” Golden said. “I think this year my goal is to help him kind of recapture that confidence where he doesn’t go out there and think about it as much. “
“I think this is a great situation for Myreon because it provides a fresh start. He had some ups and downs last year and I think he was disappointed with the way he shot it and then the way they didn’t make the tournament. But if you look back at how he played at Penn State he had some really good success both individually and as a team there. From my perspective, I feel like if we can get him back to that level like he played at Penn State, he’s going to have an awesome, awesome season for us.”
Golden actually saw a little bit of a bright spot from Jones when watching film of the end of the season and in conference play. Not every game was great, but his consistency picked up when the competition actually got tougher.
“I’m not worried about him.” Golden said. “I think he’s going to have a really good year for us. You know he shot 32-percent from three on the year, but in conference play he shot it 36-percent. He started figuring it out a little bit more. I think he’s going to shoot it and have a really good year for us.”
He could have gone elsewhere and finished things off. He transferred once, but Florida would have given him a waiver to transfer somewhere else given the coaching change. Golden expressed confidence in the young man, something that was missing a lot last year.
“My sell to Myreon was kind of, ‘let’s start from scratch here. I know you didn’t have the kind of year you wanted to have but I think we can kind of get that thing back going and get your confidence back to where it needs to be. I think he appreciated that.”
“He wants to be here at Florida. That was the most important thing. I just needed to make sure that he wanted to be a part of the program — which he did. That was all I needed to hear. I’m really excited for him. I think he’s going to have a really good year for us.”
By Bob Redman