Fifth-year transfer guard Rubin Jones recently joined Michigan basketball radio announcer Brian Boesch on an episode of the 'Defend the Block' podcast to discuss Jones' transfer, and how he's fitting in at Michigan so far.

Jones spent his first four years of college at North Texas, where he became the program's all-time winningest player with 93 wins. The biggest of those 93 wins came in the NCAA Tournament in 2021, when the 13th-seeded Mean Green knocked off No. 4 Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Jones didn't play in North Texas' upset over Purdue, but over the last few years, he's developed as a player. On Tuesday's podcast episode, he noted that his efforts may not always show up in the box score, but that he prides himself on being a great defender.

"Since I was young, I always had a knack for defending," Jones said. "I always loved defending. I actually grew up playing against my big brother every single day, and he was beating me every single day."

"So it started; that's how I basically got into basketball, trying to figure out a way to stop my big brother from scoring on me. So he would be like... 'You step back, you stay back, I'm going to shoot it. If you come up, I'm going to go right by you.' So I had to kind of figure out a balance of, 'How can I beat him?'"

"It's a little brother, just as being a little brother. But I feel like that kind of helped me, like, just think more about the game on the defensive end. A lot of people teach you all these offensive concepts and all these things, but at the end of the day, you can get stops, you can also win this game. Like, it's not just about getting buckets. ... I wasn't always the best scorer. I wasn't always the most, like, you look in the box score, I'm never going to be the top of it every time, because I love to pass the ball so much."

Jones, who is one of six incoming transfers at Michigan, plans on bringing that gritty, do-anything-to-help-the-team-win approach to Ann Arbor this upcoming season.

Michigan brings back Nimari Burnett and adds two transfer guards in Tre Donaldson and Roddy Gayle Jr., so Jones will be in the mix for solid minutes at guard in 2024-25.

Dusty May and the Michigan coaching staff have a lot to figure out before the season begins in November, but while the staff continues its quest to determine the starting lineup, minute distributions and everything else, Jones says Michigan is working hard at building team camaraderie.

"This team is actually very interesting to me," Jones said. "It's a very young team, but I feel like these guys are real mature. ... They had that experience already. They had that mental stability already, where a bad play won't affect them as much. Or they're always putting positive energy in the air."

"And also off the court, a big piece of that is off the court, how you get along in a locker room, how do those locker room conversations go? What type of talk is going on in the locker room? I feel like from on the court to off the court, I feel like our bonds, our connections, everything about our team has just been immaculate so far. And I love it — love everything about it."

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