Florida 4-star Tyrell Jones climbs ranks, ponders next step
RANKINGS: 2019 Rivals150 | 2020 Rivals150 | 2019 Team Rankings
Tyrell Jones was one of the bigger breakout stars of July during this recruiting cycle. The 6-foot-2 point guard out of Florida jumped up from being unranked to No. 105 in the 2019 Rivals150 with his play for Showtime Ballers, and he landed over a dozen high-major scholarship offers.
Last month, Jones started to make some progress toward a decision. He’s working with a list that includes Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Iowa State, Kansas State, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, SMU, Tennessee and Western Kentucky. He’s already officially visited Auburn and Ole Miss., and he had an official visit set up with Georgia but had to cancel at the last minute due to a family emergency and has yet to reschedule.
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IN HIS OWN WORDS
Auburn: “It was a good visit. They want me to come in and get good minutes as a freshman. They have a great coaching staff and their players are fun to be around.”
Ole Miss: “I like Ole Miss as well. My boy Blake Hinson, played for Showtime Ballers too, and he goes to Ole Miss now, so he was guiding me through everything and showing me around. They told me I could come in and get 20 to 25 minutes per game as a freshman.”
Georgia: “They haven’t given me a whole lot of information yet, but they said I would get a lot of minutes as a freshman. I don’t know a ton about Tom Crean yet, but Coach (Chad) Dollar was recruiting me at South Florida. I know him pretty well.”
RIVALS' REACTION
For most of the past couple months, Auburn has been seen as the favorite for Jones in his recruitment. Given that he’s already taken his official visit to the Plains and hasn’t committed, his recruitment may be more open than many thought.
Ole Miss has a strong connection with Jones through Hinson, and his visit there really seemed to help the Rebels.
If Georgia is able to reschedule its visit, Crean and his staff will have a shot at selling him on the early playing time available in Athens, which is an important factor for Jones. When pressed on a timeline for a decision, Jones didn’t really give much away. He’s not sure when it will come or if he’ll take any more visits.