Why Tajion Jones trusted UNC Asheville basketball for six seasons on way to NCAA Tournament
Hollywood couldn’t have written a better script for senior Tajion Jones and the UNC Asheville basketball team on Sunday.
Jones decided to come back for a fifth season last summer after graduating in May. He had options. He could have transferred to a bigger school. A great 3-point shooter like Jones would have been welcome at many places higher in the pecking order than the Big South Conference.
Instead, he chose to be a Bulldog for one more year. Asheville enjoyed a spectacular regular season to win the conference. Along the way, Jones became the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made (359) and career scoring (1,976). He earned first-team all-conference honors.
Jones is the last player remaining from coach Mike Morrell's rookie year in 2018-19. The Bulldogs went 4-27, and while Jones started for most of the season, he shot just 28 percent from the 3-point line.
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But for most of Sunday’s conference title game against Campbell, it appeared that Jones, and Asheville, would end their season in the NIT. The seventh-seeded Camels surged to a 66-52 lead with seven minutes left. Jones only had five points.
And then the script changed. Jones scored Asheville’s next 13 points to lead a comeback. Trailing by one with under a minute to go, Jones took a pass from Caleb Burgess and his long three-pointer put Asheville in front for good 74-72. The Bulldogs would seal the game with two defensive stops and two free throws and win 77-73.
“I was fortunate. The basket just seemed to get bigger in those final minutes,” he said. "I’ve looked at that final shot I hit to put us ahead and I’m speechless. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
Jones finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and three steals while playing all 40 minutes.
“You can’t write a script any better than what happened on Sunday. It’s just too good to be true,” said Morrell. “Tajion is so loyal to the program. He said yes to UNC Asheville three different times, including last spring when he could have played somewhere else.
“Our players were so thrilled for Tajion to have that kind of game. He’s a special player and a special young man,” he added.
Jones stuck with the Bulldogs because he believed there was unfinished business from last season. Asheville was upset by Charleston Southern in the first round of last year’s Big South Tournament on a last-second tip-in. The Bulldogs ended up 17-15 after splitting two games in the CBI tournament.
“I just felt like we had a chance to be pretty good this season and I wanted to be a part of that success.”
Jones first said yes to UNC Asheville in the spring of 2018 when he decided to come play for Nick McDevitt.
“Asheville had a great program under Coach McDevitt. I came to visit and I really liked the vibe of the school and the town,” remembered Jones.
He red-shirted for the 2018-19 season, McDevitt’s final year at Asheville, watching the Bulldogs win a regular-season title and advance to the NIT. When McDevitt left for Middle Tennessee State and Morrell arrived, Jones said yes to UNC Asheville for a second time.
When he and the Bulldogs hear their name on Selection Sunday, he'll again realize he made the right choice.
“I was a little uncertain on what to do after Coach McDevitt left,” said Jones. “But when I got a chance to talk to Coach Morrell, I really liked his vision of the program plus I knew I was going to get a chance to play right away. In the long run, I think things worked out pretty well for me.”
Said Morrell: “The journey of Tajion Jones from his freshman year to this season is why I got into coaching. I wanted to coach a young man like Tajion and I’ve been blessed to coach him for five years. Thankfully I get to coach him for a little while longer.”
UNC Asheville Selection Sunday Watch Party
When: 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Kimmel Arena
What you need to know: This event is open to the public. Fans can purchase Big South Conference championship T-shirts, meet coaches and players and get pictures taken with trophies from this season. Selection show starts at 6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: UNC Asheville guard Tajion Jones part of six-year turnaround for team
