“Those were the good old days,” Jones said Tuesday afternoon while taking a break after practice in Clinton County. “I miss the Blue. I wish we could’ve done better, but I bleed the Blue.”
He’s a junior shooting guard at Wilmington and has been a double-digit scorer in his three seasons with the Quakers, averaging 11.8 points per game this year and 12.0 throughout his career.
It’s NCAA Division III basketball in the Ohio Athletic Conference, and if that doesn’t sound like a quality landscape for the game, Jones will tell you he’s a believer.
“Just because it’s D-III, it’s not that easy,” he said. “I actually think it’s underrated. I think there’s a lot of great players that get overlooked in high school and end up at the Division III level. It’s a good place.”
Jones has started 55 of the 61 games he’s played at Wilmington. This year, he’s a co-captain along with junior guard D.J. Iles of Fayetteville.
Quakers coach K.C. Hunt thinks Jones has D-III All-America potential.
“He’s learning how to play as the guy on everybody’s radar who’s now a wanted man, so to speak,” Hunt said. “I think that has been an evolution for him. I think it’s just a matter of time before he takes that next jump as a player.”
Jones could always shoot the 3. He did it at Hamilton and continues to go deep at Wilmington, collecting 95 treys in his career.
Hunt said he remembers Jones as a physically unimposing player when he arrived on campus.
“He came in here as a soaking wet 140 pounds,” said Hunt, with the 6-foot Jones now listed at 170 pounds. “He’s probably put on 25 pounds since he’s been here, and he could probably use another 20. I think that would really help his game. But even though he may look a little bit skinny, he’s wiry tough. He’s not going to back down from any challenge.
“He has not been a surprise from the standpoint that I knew from recruiting Christian that he knew how to play. It was just a matter of how quickly he could adapt to the speed and physicality of the college game. He was the beneficiary as a freshman of playing with some real high-end quality seniors, so he didn’t have to do as much.”
Said Jones, “I think the older guys my freshman year helped me a lot, especially R.J. Leppert, who played at Lakota East. Freshman year, I sat in the corner and shot my 3s and shot my free throws, really. The last two years, I’ve had to put the ball on the floor a little bit more, get to the line and get other people involved.”
Hunt wants him to draw more contact and shoot more free throws. He said opponents are trying to chase Jones off the 3-point line because of his ability out there, leaving him plenty of opportunities to get to the rim.
The 3-point shooting is a Jones thing. Christian’s older brother Cameron buried 11 treys in a Big Blue game at Winton Woods on Jan. 19, 2010.
“The coaches say if they don’t close out on me hard enough, put it up there,” said Christian, whose father Rickey played with Chris Kingsbury at Hamilton and graduated in 1992. “If that hand’s not up, I’m going to shoot it. I also like to get other players involved. Sometimes the coaches get mad at me becauses I like to pass it a little too much. I could be more assertive and aggressive.”
Free throws have always been a strength for Jones. He’s shooting 84.5 percent from the line in his Wilmington career.
Jones said there’s no secret to his free-throw expertise.
“Superstition is really just another word for fear,” he said. “You just have to have the mentality to go up there and shoot it in. It’s repetition, getting shots up every day.”
The Quakers aren’t having a great season thus far. They’re 6-6 overall, 1-4 in the OAC, and headed to Baldwin Wallace on Saturday afternoon.
Hunt said it’s a young, talented group that needs a guy like Jones — a sport management major who’s achieving at a high level academically — to step up and soar as a leader.
“The one thing that we’ve tried to do in our program is recruit high-quality, high-character people,” Hunt said. “And Christian fits the bill.”
Jones has 730 points as a Quaker after scoring 828 with Big Blue.
He chose Wilmington over schools like Berea, Hanover and Bluffton. Matt Sylvester, a former assistant on Hunt’s staff, recruited Jones.
A lifelong Hamiltonian, Jones didn’t want to play too far from home, so Wilmington’s location was a selling point.
His individual goals are important, but he also wants to win more. The Quakers are 22-39 since he’s been part of the program. His three varsity seasons at Hamilton produced a 20-47 mark.
Jones doesn’t mind putting in the work year-round. “It’s hard to stay away from the game if you love it,” he said.
On Feb. 23, Jones will turn 21. The OAC Tournament is scheduled for Feb. 21-25.
“I guess I’ll just go with the flow and see where this takes me,” Jones said. “I just need to stay in the gym and stay healthy. I feel like my body’s getting old, but if I can get better, I can set the bar as high as it could go.”
Christian Jones By The Numbers
Career points: 730
Career field goals: 222 of 491 (45.2 percent)
Career 3-pointers: 95 of 251 (37.8 percent)
Career free throws: 191 of 226 (84.5 percent)
2016-17: 12 games, 12 starts, 11.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 3.3 apg, 0.8 spg
2015-16: 24 games, 24 starts, 13.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.1 spg
2014-15: 25 games, 19 starts, 10.5 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.2 spg
Most points: 26 vs. Marietta on Feb. 23, 2016
Most rebounds: 9 vs. Capital on Jan. 28, 2015
Most assists: 6 vs. Ohio Northern on Feb. 3, 2016, vs. Marietta on Feb. 23, 2016, vs. Defiance on Nov. 30, 2016
Most steals: 5 vs. Muskingum on Feb. 18, 2015, vs. Marietta on Feb. 23, 2016
Most field goals: 10 vs. Marietta on Feb. 23, 2016
Most 3-pointers: 7 vs. Alma on Dec. 29, 2014
Most free throws: 18 vs. Mount St. Joseph on Nov. 15, 2015
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