Jones to reunite with Clark on court at Western

The meteoric rise of Warren graduate Julian Jones continues.

Jones, a 6-foot-7, 215-pounder who played last year for the College of Lake County, has signed a basketball scholarship with Western Illinois. Jones already has started classes and is expected to make an immediate impact this season.

"Not a lot of people get the opportunity to play Division I basketball," Jones said. "It's a privilege and an honor."

As recently as the start of August, Jones was planning to play another season at CLC. But when Lancers coach Tom Shields resigned to become an athletic director at a high school in New Mexico, Jones re-evaluated his options.

"I would have liked to play another year for him, but that's life," Jones said.

A meeting between the two in January lit a fire under Jones. From mid-January on, Jones averaged about 18 points and 12 rebounds per game.

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

Jones, who was an academic qualifier out of high school, has three years of eligibility remaining. He will be reunited with guard Ceola Clark, his teammate at Warren. Clark redshirted last year after tearing an ACL in the team's first exhibition game. Clark said his rehabilitation has gone well and he is ready to play.

"We became pretty good friends our senior year of high school," Clark said. "We had that point guard/center bond. You could always see Julian had a lot of potential."

In fact, Clark's endorsement factored into first-year coach Jim Molinari's decision to extend a scholarship to Jones.

"Ceola has a great feel for basketball and he likes Julian on and off the court," Molinari said.

After watching Jones on tape, Molinari was impressed by what Jones is and what he can be.

"When you're trying to build a program, you want people that have overall character and academic character," Molinari said. "Julian has those things. He has some work to do, but he's long, athletic and has huge upside."

Molinari expects Jones to log plenty of court time this season.

"He needs to contribute right away," Molinari said. "We're deficient size-wise, so he has a chance to grow on the job. He'll be a part of it right away."