Mookie Jones' Silver Empire

by Sean Keeley on Jul 26, 2010 10:44 AM EDT

Mookie Jones can take at least one thing away from the Empire State Games. When he performed well, the team performed well.

Hudson Valley came up just short in their quest to win the Empire Games gold medal, but not before some solid performances by Mookie. Jones led the team in scoring in their opening victory. In the 2nd game he disappeared, scoring only 9 in Valley's 77-65 win over Adirondack. Mookie returned to form against Western, scoring 24 in Hudson Valley's 87-84 win over them. At 3-0, the team moved on to the Championship game against Western. Mookie once again faded into the pack, scoring only 9, and Western held on for an 86-81 victory to secure the title.

For Mookie, this was a small part of his re-commitment to the game of basketball and to his future. He confirmed to the Journal News that he remains 100% committed to SU and finding his groove with the Orange.

"I'm committed to Syracuse. I don't give up," Jones said after Hudson Valley improved to 2-0 by defeating Adirondack 77-65 Friday at Canisius College. "Hopefully, I get more playing time this year, but otherwise I'm going to keep working hard until it comes. It's an opportunity that sometimes you have to wait for. You have to be patient."

As for MookieJonesTwitterGate 2010, he says "that was a bad move on my part" and that he and Boeheim have hashed everything out. Good to hear. Hopefully only good things from here on out for Mookie.

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I hope so too..

Mookies got potential. Id love to see him make that transition like Scoop just did, from incoming frosh to a real producer for the team. We know you got it in ya Mookie!!!

Kev

by Pinker on Jul 26, 2010 11:54 AM EDT reply actions

Mookie will be ok. He just had to take some time to realize it was not a conspiracy against him but that he had to make better decisions on the court and playing time would then be rewarded for his efforts. We all do stupid stuff when we are that age, it’s how we learn from them that determines who we will become and in his case, he just has to learn to buckle down on defense a bit more and not shoot the ball everytime he touches it just to prove he belongs on the court.

by Orange Chuck on Jul 26, 2010 12:02 PM EDT reply actions

The only Mookie news I care to hear about

Is when the follow-up album to The Mookpocalypse is going to drop.

by Trapped_In_ACC_Hell on Jul 26, 2010 12:32 PM EDT reply actions

Changing Mindset

I stopped and reawakened myself to the fact that these guys were the go-to guys on their high school or prep teams for the most part. They were expected to shoot every time they got the ball in their hands. Id imagine it takes some time to transition yourself to a team mindset and break out of 4 years of run n gun programming you must get in high school if you’re a champ.

Glad he cleared the maturity hurdle and will hopefully be playing a larger role in the upcoming season. if anything could be learned from last season its that the sum is greater than the parts!

by Pinker on Jul 26, 2010 4:23 PM EDT reply actions