Recruiting Report: Miles Jones (2019)
Working for Vantage Hoops the past three seasons, I’m starting to see family legacies come through the state. In 2015, Nate Jones graduated from Radford High School and committed to Bucknell University. Four years later, his younger brother Miles looks like he’s on the same kind of path as well.
After coming off the bench his freshman season for the 1A State Champions, Jones took a big leap from being a role player to a key cog as the Bobcats repeated last season. He’s continued to show his promise and improvements this summer with Team Winston out of North Carolina, but it’s been a lot of nights in the gym with no one around that he credits for his rapid improvement.
“I’ve just been working hard, all the time in the offseason and just playing hard every time I step on the floor,” Jones said. “I just want to improve, get better every season and keep winning.”
The 6’7” forward comes from an entire basketball family as well, not just his brother. His father, Mike Jones, is the head coach at Radford University, and his work ethic and intelligence on the court shows that he’s been taught the game the right way.
With his size, he’s also very versatile which is good because of basketball’s shift to positionless guys that can do a little bit of everything.
“I think I’m both a three and a stretch four, I can do a little bit of everything,” he said. “I can handle the ball a little bit and shoot it so I can be versatile.”
Jones has already contributed to two state titles in just two years of high school basketball.Since he doesn’t play in the biggest market, Jones is still very under the radar for college coaches. He says Wofford and Radford, as expected, have shown early interest, but he also isn’t naive to the fact that he has a lot to improve on moving forward before he’s ready to play at that level.
“I definitely need to improve my ball handling, that’s my biggest weakness right now but I’m working on that every day,” he said. “I think my biggest strengths have to be rebounding, shooting and my passing ability.”
As for why coaches should start to recruit him more, he put it as simply as he could.
“My commitment, my dedication to the game and I’m a good person on and off the court.”
The youngest in a family full of basketball players, I’d say it’s a safe bet that Jones will continue to get better and see much more college interest here soon.