He Had a Basketball and a Dream

By: D. Scott Fritchen

You wonder what Kansas State means to CJ Jones. I'm here to tell you. It means the world. Someday Jones will light up the scoreboard for the Wildcats. That's what he does. Jones is a combo guard, a 6-foot-5, 195-pound shooter who hits 38% of his 3-point attempts. He's an assist getter, a ball stealer, and a dribble-drive threat who can come up big in big moments. This is his gift, you see, and he doesn't take it lightly, not when he has so much to prove, and not when he has little kids looking up to him, and not when he has his dreams ahead of him.

Jones grew up in Centreville, Illinois, about seven miles south of East St. Louis. Centreville was the poorest city in the state of Illinois, according to USA TODAY, a city that dwindled by the decade and had just over 4,000 people in 2020, according to the U.S. Census. But his father put a basketball in his hands when he was 3 years old, and that's where he went when things got bad — back to the orange sphere that would help shape his life.

You listen to Jones, a junior, and he sounds sincerely grateful on the other end of the phone. Not much time has passed since he visited Manhattan, and not much time has passed since he received his first hug from head coach Jerome Tang, and not much time has passed since he slid on a K-State jersey and smiled really big for the camera. He was on the verge of the next chapter of his remarkable life, don't you see? Music filled the air as he stood in the K-State jersey that day. He began to dance.

On the other end of the phone, he traces back to how his dream began.

"Basketball," he says, "was an escape from what was going on around me. I grew up in a bad environment. My family wasn't financially stable. Basketball was my outlet to get away from everything, to take a break from it, and to take my mind off things. There was a lot of violence and poverty where I lived."

Some kids got stuck. Jones flourished. He starred in elementary school and middle school. He teamed up with current K-State wing Macaleab Rich to put on shows nightly at East St. Louis Senior High School. He averaged 15.5 points, 7.0 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 steals en route to Class 3A Second Team All-State honors by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.

"I love those intense games with a big crowd. Those are the types of games I love playing in," Jones told reporters after East St. Louis posted a 61-55 win over Collinsville on December 11, 2021. Jones had 20 points, six rebounds and six assists in the game.

Yes, the crowds were loud, the stakes were high, and Jones delivered. He emerged as the No. 8-rated player in the state of Illinois and as a three-star prospect by Rivals and 247Sports while leading East St. Louis to a 27-6 record and berth in the Class 3A Super Sectionals his senior season.

He originally signed with Missouri and decommitted due to uncertainty around the program. Overlooked in the recruiting cycle — he was offered by DePaul, Southeast Missouri State and Denver, among others — Jones stayed close to home and played at the University of Illinois-Chicago. This season, he scored in double figures in 14 of the final 17 games, including a career-high 25 points against Bradley and 24 points against Northern Iowa. His 14 assists against Drake were the most by a Missouri Valley Conference player.

Jones, who has a 6-foot-7 wingspan, entered the transfer portal, and Tang, looking for "dudes" to fill his roster, swept Jones to Manhattan.

"Coach Tang talked about how much of a brotherhood there is there, and how big they are on family and Christ and development," Jones says. "The coaches really showed me that I belong there and that it'll be a good fit for me. Basically, me and my family, it's a blessing."

Jones arrived with his family late last Friday. The coaches opened the doors for them and carried their bags out of Manhattan Regional Airport. On Saturday, they ate breakfast at The Chef, they hung out with the current K-State players and all the coaches, they visited the Ice Family Basketball Center, they took some photos, they hung out some more ("It was a pretty busy time," Jones says), they sat down with Tang in his office, and they ate steaks at Tang's home that night.

"The dinner at Coach Tang's house was my favorite," he says, "because I got to meet everybody. I got to bond with them. That was big for me. Every single coach welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like I was a part of the program already."

You ask about basketball, and you ask about toughness. I'm here to tell you that Jones is tough.

He's a dog.

"Where I come from, that's automatically built in," Jones says. "Where I come from, I experienced a lot of stuff other kids don't get to experience. It's something that's inherited in me."

He goes home and is a hometown hero.

"Whenever I go home, people ask me for pictures and I sign autographs," he says. "Even when I eat, I sign autographs. Those cities outside of East St. Louis, they love me there, too."

The love from K-State fans quickly spilled into Jones' Twitter feed.

"I love the fans already," he says. "They've shown me love already. They reached out to me even before I took my visit."

And they'll cheer him on next season as he wears the purple-and-white at Bramlage Coliseum. Oh, he'll play. And he'll score. And he'll dish out assists. And he'll steal the ball. He'll be a small world away from home, where they'll watch him play on TV, and they'll swap stories, and they'll enjoy the heck out of his performance. And afterward, Jones will high-five the K-State fans and the little kids. They'll cheer him on, all right, and it'll mean the world to him. Jones will love his new home.

"Me being a role model to people who are younger than me is a blessing," he says. "Me growing up, my environment, I didn't have someone to see where I wanted to go in life."

No, he had a basketball. He had a dream.

And now he's coming to K-State.

And it means the world.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Macaleab Rich

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