SYRACUSE, N.Y. — When Jordan Jones’ phone buzzes late at night, there’s a good chance it’s his head coach messaging him.
Patrick Sellers has been sending Jones clips from NBA games he’s watched throughout the year, trying to show his point guard how to elevate his game to the next level. Last Friday, during the Denver Nuggets’ win over the Miami Heat, Russell Westbrook caught Sellers’ eye.
“I was sending (Jones) some clips of Russell Westbrook,” Sellers said. “Since Westbrook has been with (Nikola) Jokic, they’ve really been clicking. Jokic is such a good decision maker, he’s really slowed (Russ) down, and Westbrook is playing some of his best basketball in a long time.”
Jones — now in his fifth year of college basketball and second at Central Connecticut — only needs to take two classes this semester, so he’s filled up the rest of his schedule with a few extra credits of film study. He and Sellers have been watching extra film together every single day, turning Jones into a better decision maker and leader for this CCSU team.
On Friday, Jones scored 15 points with four assists, including a few to star wing Devin Haid, who led the Blue Devils in scoring with 20, to lead CCSU over Le Moyne 93-70 on the road. It was the second consecutive double-digit road win for the Blue Devils after dropping two in a row at home early in NEC play. Central Connecticut improved to 13-6 and 4-2 in conference play, putting it back on the path to where it expects to be, just one and a half games back of first-place LIU.
In the losses to LIU and Wagner, the Blue Devils scored just 57 and 52 points, matching the conference home loss total from last year in the first two games.
“In league play, everybody knows each other so well,” Sellers said. “They know what we do. LIU and Wagner really guarded us well and took us out of our rhythm.”
With the chess match that is the conference season, Sellers knew he needed to find a response or else every team would take the Blue Devils out of rhythm.
“We as coaches went back and looked at how we can get in rhythm quicker,” he said. “For the last two games, we really wanted to create our pace, and that’s been getting the ball up early, moving the ball and cutting harder. We had two days of practice where we just cut and moved as hard as we can for 45 minutes of practice, and it paid off.”
Jones struggled in both of the losses but has gotten back on track, making better decisions and…
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