The Daily Mississippian men’s basketball beat writer Tyler Bischoff will break down Ole Miss basketball each Tuesday and Thursday leading up to 2013-14 season. In part three of the seven-part series, Bischoff looks at Aaron Jones excelling on the defensive side of the ball.
As junior forward Aaron Jones returns from a season ending ACL tear, he will assume a major role of replacing Murphy Holloway and Reggie Buckner. The biggest area that Jones can make his presence felt is the defensive end. He could be an upgrade on the defensive end from Holloway, the all-time leading rebounder and number two on the all-time steals list at Ole Miss and Buckner, who has blocked more shots than any player in Rebel history. Yes, an upgrade.
While Holloway and Buckner made plays on the defensive end and racked up prolific numbers, they did not excel when defending other post players one-on-one. In 2012, per Synergy Sports, Holloway allowed .96 points per possession on opponents’ post ups. Buckner was worse allowing 1.06. Compare that with Aaron Jones who allowed just .67 points per possession on post ups. In fact, Aaron Jones posted the best defensive numbers on the team. On all defensive possessions, Jones allowed just .55 points per possession, best on the team, and Jones held his man to 22.2 percent shooting, second on the team.
It is important to remember Jones missed about half of the season, so his numbers are of a much smaller sample size. He also missed two games against Missouri and two more against Florida, the two teams that possessed the best frontcourts Ole Miss faced in the SEC.
But when Jones was posted up on defense, he did a tremendous job of contesting every one of his man’s shot attempts. Jones stayed in front of his man. He rarely lunged for a steal, jumped too early to block a shot or got beat by a post move. He always kept in contact with his man and got a hand into the shooting lane.
The one consistent problem Jones had was allowing his man to get deep positioning before catching the ball.
Holloway allowed an opponent to score on 48 percent of post ups. When defending one-on-one in the post, Holloway allowed his man to back him down all the way to the goal. Holloway also struggled reacting to post spin moves and couldn’t contest a shot after getting beat.
Buckner, who allowed opponents to score 54 percent of the time, was better than Holloway at holding his ground and defending spin moves, but he often bailed out his man by fouling him.
One reason for their struggles could be that they were being passive in an effort to not pick up fouls. Once Jones and Demarco Cox were done for the year, it was key for Holloway and Buckner to stay on the court, so it may have been worth it to allow a few easy post up baskets in order to keep the big men on the court.
Jones will likely need to stay out of foul trouble, but if he can remain a great post defender, he allowed opponents to score just 33.3 percent of the time, then the Ole Miss defense will benefit greatly.
Outside of the paint, Holloway struggled guarding stretch forwards. He had difficulty getting through screens on the perimeter and often had trouble contesting jump shots. Kyle Wiltjer (Kentucky), Erik Murphy (Florida) and Colin Borchert (Mississippi State) all gave Holloway and Ole Miss problems by stretching the floor as a forward. In three games, those forwards averaged 22 points and knocked down 13 of 22 three pointers. Jones hasn’t proven himself as a perimeter defender, but if he can contest shots outside like he does in the post, he can be an upgrade when defending versatile forwards.
Will Jones be able to replace Holloway’s 194 career steals? Probably not. Holloway had an uncanny ability to steal the ball while a guard was dribbling. But Jones can be a shot blocker close to Buckner’s level. He won’t reach Buckner’s all time record, as Buckner had more blocks in his freshman season than Jones has through his sophomore year. However, Jones has a career block percentage of 9.83, while Buckner had a career percentage of 10.84. Meaning with similar minutes, Jones can put up similar block number.
Defensive rebounding may be an area that Jones struggles to replace Holloway and Buckner. Both Holloway and Buckner had defensive rebounding percentages over 20 percent for their careers. Last year, Jones only grabbed 14.4 percent of defensive rebounds.
Jones didn’t show great aggression when going after defensive rebounds. He didn’t demonstrate good blocking out skills last year. Where Jones excelled in rebounding was chasing down loose rebounds and grabbing balls that were tipped near the basket a few times. He was an excellent garbage rebound collector, but wasn’t the same at locking up the defensive boards like Holloway and Buckner.
This was an evaluation of Jones pre-ACL injury. There is no way to predict how he will respond after his injury. Jones could be a different player and develop different tendencies, however if he returns to his pre-injury form, Jones could be a great defender on the interior.
Part One: Breaking down the Rebels’ most used play
Part Two: Using Marshall Henderson as a decoy
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
