DeVante' Jones Considered One Of The Country's Top Committed Transfers
Michigan Wolverines basketball made major waves across college basketball Saturday when Coastal Carolina transfer DeVante' Jones, a guard who has two years of eligibility remaining, announced his commitment to the Maize and Blue.
The reason why the announcement made so many headlines is because of how much Jones is set to bring to head coach Juwan Howard's crew, filling a need for depth in the back court and coming in as the likely starter at point guard.
You know the transfer market has become extremely prominent when there are prep-recruiting-style rankings out for prospects from the portal, but that's just the state of college basketball (and college athletics) at the current moment. According to CBS Sports' David Cobb, Jones is the ninth-best committed transfer in the country. It's important to note that Cobb's rankings have changed frequently as more of the over 1,000 players in the portal continue to make decisions on where their next destination will be.
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The players ranked above Jones are the following (in order from one to seven): Walker Kessler (North Carolina to Auburn), Qudus Wahab (Georgetown to Maryland), Matt Bradley (California to San Diego State), Timmy Allen (Utah to Texas), James Akinjo (Arizona to Baylor), Adam Miller (Illinois to LSU), Garrison Brooks (North Carolina to Mississippi State) and Liam Robbins (Minnesota to Vanderbilt).
Only two of the players listed above are guards — Akinjo and Miller. Akinjo is a point guard, meaning Jones is ranked behind him as the second lead guard transfer who is committed to a new school.
Despite not being a high-level facilitator in 2020-21 while earning conference player of the year honors — that wasn't his role as a two-guard focused on scoring — Cobb believes Jones' assist numbers should go up.
"Jones earned Sun Belt Player of the Year honors in the 2020-21 season while averaging 19.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.8 steals for a team that finished 18-8," he wrote. "Though his prolific scoring stands out, Jones should be able to adopt more of a distributor role for a Wolverines squad that will again be loaded with talent."
While there were concerns about Mike Smith's passing last season when he transferred from Columbia to Michigan, there is less worry about Jones this year. His numbers certainly show he can transition his game into more of a passer, because he's already done it.
Last season, Coastal Carolina needed scoring, so he delivered to the tune of 19.3 points per outing. But the season before, he was up at 5.7 assists per game and ran the team as a point guard. His assist rate of 33.4 ranked 36th in the country on a team that ranked 134th nationally in offensive efficiency, meaning he didn't get a whole lot of help in terms of his teammates hitting shots when he found them.
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