Men's Basketball | January 17, 2017

-- Victoria Smith, wmubroncos.com feature writer

KALAMAZOO, Mich.- Western Michigan freshman Reggie Jones is quickly becoming one of the top playmakers on the Western Michigan men's basketball team. Jones began the season coming off the bench, but emerged into the starting lineup the first week of December. As he explains it, it took a few games for him to watch and learn.

Jones definitely is a quick study and turned heads this past week, where he averaged 17.5 points, 5.0 assists, 4.5 rebounds - shooting 72 percent from the floor - in victories over Toledo and Kent State. The big games from the freshman were needed as the Broncos had opened Mid-American Conference play with losses at Ohio University and Akron.

At 6-foot-5 Jones can do about everything on the court. For a bigger wingman, he has point guard-like abilities. He can push the ball up the court and get to the rim and finish. In the Toledo game he showcased his excellent court vision, turning out a team-high eight assists. Defensively, he has picked up the Bronco schemes and his big body gives WMU another tenacious rebounder. Jones is aggressive to the rim and has a nearly perfect mid-range game, a lost art in basketball today.

The transition from high school to college basketball wasn't initially smooth for Jones. Head coach Steve Hawkins recounted how Jones would get frustrated in early practices and asked to be pulled out of plays.

"I told him Reggie we can't evaluate you if you keep taking yourself out," Hawkins said. "He said coach I just need to watch to see how it works,"

Jones very much was studying the older players like Tucker Haymond, Thomas Wilder and Bryce Moore. The more Jones watched, the more he progressed. Hawkins saw the progress and the two had a breakthrough conversation on the type of visual learner Jones was. It didn't take long for Jones to pick up the actions of his veteran teammates and he became noticeably more comfortable on the court.

Jones' first flash of potential this season was against James Madison on Dec. 10. The Broncos trailed the visiting Dukes by seven with 5:34 remaining and Jones took the game over. He scored 17 of WMU's final 22 points, leading Western Michigan to a 74-67 victory.

The confidence following the James Madison contest has stayed with Jones and he has developed into a nice compliment to WMU's older guards. The intensity of the MAC has been one Jones has also been able to quickly adapt to. Over the first four conference games, Jones is averaging 12.5 ppg, just behind Wilder and Haymond, both with 17.3 ppg.

"Everyone kept saying how amped up it is," Jones said, referring to the conference games."I wondered how it's just basketball, but it was definitely something I had to see for myself."

Even early in his career, Jones has earned high praise from Wilder who he believes Jones the ability to go down in history as one of the best ever to play at WMU.

"He's very poised  to be a freshman," Wilder said. "I told him from the beginning the importance of preparing mentally and how much time you put in outside of practice. It's up to you how good you can be"

"Thomas told me when I first got here to play my game and let everything else come to me and this is the result of that," Jones said.