Devil of the Day vs the Clemson Tigers: Tre Jones

There were quite a few options in choosing the Devil of the Day for Duke’s first taste of ACC play. Several players did well coming off of the 16 day game layoff. It was no surprise that the Duke upperclassmen had a huge part of Duke’s success against Clemson – with junior Jack White contributing 12 points and 6 rebounds off the bench. White played 29 minutes and shot 4-6 from 3 point range. Marques Bolden also had a great game – the junior big man scored 11 points on 5-10 shooting in just 15 minutes of play. The line that stuck out to me was that of freshman point guard Tre Jones. Jones has been better than good, he’s been great. Saturday night against Clemson was no different. His decision making in the face of an offense that was not performing up to par was exquisite. It’s an underrated quality for a guard to switch seamlessly between the role of shot taker and set up man. It’s very easy to dip way too much into one role over the other but Jones, against Clemson, struck the balance that best benefitted his team. Jones took 8 shots, scored 10 points but more impressively dished out 9 assists and had zero turnovers. Jones’9 assists set a career-high with and was an assist shy of his first career double-double. Jones was also a beast defensively and has been all year. His pressure on the ball helped Duke get transition buckets off of Clemson turnovers and while this may not appear in the stat line it doesn’t go unnoticed nor shout it. Tre Jones was the Devil of the Day against the Clemson Tigers.