Warren grad getting Division I attention

Tom Shields, College of Lake County's men's basketball coach, had a talk with freshman center Julian Jones in early January.

Shields had watched the 6-foot-7, 215-pound Jones progress to the point where he was in the starting lineup.

But Shields wanted more from Jones. A lot more.

He knew that if Jones would commit himself to basketball, Jones could go from playing a role, to at times dominating games. He told the Warren graduate that he would have no hard feelings if Jones decided basketball wasn't for him.

"He had no idea how good he could be," Shields said. "I told him let's do it right or not do it."

After some soul searching, Jones decided he would be all about basketball for the rest of the season.

The results speak for themselves.

From mid-January on, he averaged about 18 points and 12 rebounds for a CLC team that won 10 of its last 13 games.

"In 30 years of coaching, I've never had a player improve as much in six weeks as Julian Jones," Shields said.

Jones' performance has caught the attention of a number of Division I schools. Since Jones was an academic qualifier out of high school, he has the option of leaving CLC after this season and going to a four-year school.

Or, he can play another year and hopefully his stock will go up even more. Shields said Utah, Cornell, Weber State, Eastern Illinois and Chicago State are among the schools recruiting Jones.

"He's gone from off the recruiting radar to having about 10 Division I schools wanting to sign him right now," Shields said. "His stock has gone through the roof."

Jones' coaches have always talked about what a nice person he is.

Off the court, that's a great quality. But one of the keys to his development this season was that he developed what Shields calls "a competitive chip on his shoulder."

Jones is a bit surprised by all the attention. He is in no rush to make a decision about accepting an offer or coming back to CLC.

"I would never have thought after one year of (college) basketball all these schools would be interested in me," he said.

Jones played his first two years of high school basketball in Maryland. His family moved to the Gurnee area prior to his junior year. At first, it was a bit of a shock for Jones to see the skill level in Warren's program.

Jones split time between the junior varsity and varsity at the start of the season. By the end of the year, he came off the bench and was a regular varsity contributor.

"My main role was to play good defense, rebound and block shots," Jones said. "I (knew) I had to get a lot better for my senior year."

Jones' role expanded as a senior, and by the end of the season he was one of the area's better big men. But his numbers, about 8 points and 6 rebounds per game, did not catch the attention of four-year schools.

"He really developed a feel for how hard he had to play as a senior," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "We always felt that Julian had a tremendous amount of basketball potential. He's light on his feet and is such a long, athletic kid."

Jones is just as fluid when it comes to his music, which has always been a big part of his life. His work making beats is featured on his my space page at www.MySpace.com/hitmanbeats53.

His improvement on the basketball court is, of course, music to the ears of Shields. Shields said the next challenge for Jones is playing away from the basket.

"We want him to learn to play on the perimeter and improve his ball handling and footwork," Shields said.

If he does that, what might Jones' future hold?

"He has so much ability," Shields said. "If he grows 1½ inches and puts on 20 pounds of muscle in the weight room, I think he could play in the NBA."