Sports

Tyus Jones Named Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of Year in Minnesota

Gatorade and ESPNHS choose one player from each state as that state's player of the year.

sophomore Tyus Jones has been named the best high school boys basketball player in Minnesota by Gatorade and ESPNHS.

Jones has received the 2011-12 Gatorade Minnesota Boys Basketball Player of the Year award, according to a press release. Gatorade and ESPNHS give the award to one player in each state each year, recognizing student-athletes for athletic accomplishments, academic achievement and character, the release says.

"He's the best kid I have ever seen play the game," said Lakeville South High School boys basketball coach John Sheehan in the release.

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Jones is now one of 50 finalists for the national boys basketball player of the year award.

Jones, who is also a member of USA Basketball's U16 National Team, averaged more than 28 points and eight assists per game this high school season, as well as nearly five rebounds per game, the release says. He shot almost 56 percent, and more than 86 percent from the free throw line.

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Jones has a 3.05 grade-point average, and also volunteers as a youth basketball instructor and motivational speaker, as well as with the organization Feed My Starving Children.

Recent past state players of the year in Minnesota include Joe Coleman, Kevin Noreen, Mike Bruesewitz and Jordan Taylor, the release says. Other past winners nationwide who went on to the NBA are Chauncey Billups, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd and Paul Pierce.


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