‘He’s our guy’

Michael Jones spent his summer being walled off by opponents.

As the top returning scorer from the 202223 Choudrant Aggies, Jones was number one, number two, and possibly number three on the scouting reports of opponents during summer ball.

Choudrant head coach Ryan Smith still remembers it. Denial of post feeds. Two or three defenders crashing in once he had good position. If Jones had or was on his way to having the ball in his hands, opponents locked in on No. 50 for the Aggies and made life as difficult as possible.

It’s why Smith thought Jones, one of two seniors for this year’s squad, would be as good as he’s always been but be forced into giving up the ball more than he’d like.

He didn’t see this coming.

Through 20 games, Jones is averaging 24 points per game on 65% shooting, 10.5 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 2.4 steals — delivering night after night to get the Aggies (13-7) to the No. 8 power rating in Division V Nonselect before January.

Despite being top on the scouting report, Jones takes the business to opponents, and it’s left Smith thrilled with what his senior big man has become — and what it means for the Aggies overall.

“ The standard and expectations were still going to be the same but how we got there was a little unsure on that,” Smith said. “With him coming out and scoring as much as he is, it is a little surprising for me, mostly because I thought defenses were going to spend a lot of attention on him based on what we had seen. He’s combatting that in different ways. He’s developed now to where he can go coast to coast when gets a block or a rebound and he can push the ball and get layups. That’s one way he’s found to score more this year.”

Jones already made his senior season one to remember when he crossed the 1,000 career points mark in a win over Jonesboro- Hodge on Dec. 5, scoring a teamhigh 25 points. It was one of the first handful of games in what’s been a consistently great month for Jones.

“It’s something since I came here in 8th grade and I saw the balls up front and I knew that was something I wanted to do was get to 1,000 career points,” Jones said. “And then have Chris ( Williams) pass it my sophomore year, I really made it a goal to pass it then too.”

Jones started December with 41 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 steals over Weston and followed it up with his recordsetting night against J-Hodge with 25 points and 15 rebounds. And as he led the Aggies into the holiday break winning four of their last five, he’s on a two-game streak of scoring 25 points.

But to hear Jones tell it, he doesn’t view success as the line he puts in the box score. It’s the impact he’s making on his teammates, and the effect of using his great season to get others involved.

As they say, a rising tide lifts all Aggies.

“The first couple of games were tough, and I forced a few more shots, but then as the season went on Tucker ( Batterton) has been good at skipping the ball to get it down low, Carson Carrico the last couple games has made some shots, Braden Soto has done the same thing, and Lawson has done good with high-low this year,” Jones said. “Once we got the chemistry stuff figured out and it wasn’t forcing passes and it was forcing the defense to move where we wanted them to move, I think that’s really what got it going.”

It’s quite the positive feedback loop for Choudrant. Jones gets added attention. Open shooters are waiting and gaining confidence and then have to be guarded harder, leaving Jones with more room to operate.

The results are clear, with Carrico (14 points per game), Stevens ( 8 points per game), and Soto (9 points per game) each shooting at least 28% from three.

“I was super excited the other night that he was getting the ball inside and he was quickly throwing it back out and we’re making one more pass and making shots,” Smith said. “ They’re starting to figure out that when Mike is drawing this much attention, this is how as a teammate I need to step up and hit these shots, and he’s trusting in them. He’s really helping them.”

But for as willing as Jones is to get others involved, he’s more than happy to take over games with his size and powerful build. Not many in Class B basketball trained on a 5A football path.

Before Chris Jones, Michael’s father, came to Choudrant eight years ago, Michael attended Good Hope Middle School in West Monroe and was learning from Rebel administrators how to train and bulk up to eventually be ready to play football. Those lessons and the physical results that came out of it still set Jones apart from the rest, even if he never played high school football.

“Whenever we got him in the 8th grade and he’s lifting weights you could tell he was trained in a football program,” Smith said. “His understanding of the weight room and things like that was beyond typically what we see around here. I think if he had stuck with football he could have been pretty successful with it just because of his work ethic. He’s just so competitive. He’s taken that mentality to our program and it’s benefited us a lot.”

Jones has grabbed at least four offensive rebounds in half of Choudrant’s games this season, using his strength to overwhelm smaller teams and back down and box out just about anyone he faces.

“When you run into the football schools like St. Fred or OCS and they have some guys that can match up, but when you talk strictly Division IV, Class B and C, there’s not a lot of kids that can match up with him,” Smith said. “I think the separation though is the footwork, the fakes, when you combine that with his strength, it’s really a separator for him. He can definitely lay his shoulder into somebody. He took his physical abilities and then put some highlevel basketball ability on top of it. His strength is his separator. And fortunately for us, he’s our guy up here wearing the blue and gold.”

When the Aggies return from their break, Jones will try to lead the program to a District 2-B title, along with hopes of making the state tournament for the first time ever.

Jones wants to go out a winner and is ready to do whatever it takes to get there — whether it’s continuing to take over games or uplift his teammates.

“ Everybody wants their name hung on that banner up there,” Jones said. “Everybody wants to make their mark on the school and take this school farther than they’ve ever taken it. I think this year’s group has a real chance of doing that if we keep our minds straight and don’t force anything and move the ball.”