From Butterfield to Duke’s freshman phenom Tyus Jones
Following Duke University’s 2015 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s Basketball National Championship win over Wisconsin on Monday night, April 6, 68-63 – the I Love Butterfield Facebook page was aflutter with the southwest Minnesota city’s connection to the National Champs.
In fact, that networking is done with only two degrees of separation. Just two steps from Butterfield to Duke’s freshman phenom point guard Tyus Jones of Apple Valley, as pointed out by Gayle (Hansen) Flohrs and Jeff Peterson – accented with the explanation of that pair of degrees by Jen Harris.
In high school, Jones was the point guard for the Apple Valley Eagles boys basketball team from eighth-grade through his senior year. During those years, his head coach was Zach Goring, son of Darrell Goring, a 1970 graduate of Butterfield-Odin Public High School – and a guard for the Indians’ boys basketball team.
As a junior, Darrell Goring played an important role in a game in Butterfield against the Mountain Lake Public High School boys team. He was a member of the team that broke the Indians’ 49-year losing streak to the Lakers with a November 1968, 68-47 win.
And, also as a junior, in 2013, Jones led the Zach Goring-coached Eagles to the Minnesota State Class AAAA Boys Basketball Championship.
Duke University (of Durham, North Carolina) freshmen – including Jones – ruled the team’s scoring in the national title game Monday night. Guards Jones and Grayson Allen led the Blue Devils in scoring with 23 and 16 points, respectively. Jones hit several key off-balance three-pointers in the waning minutes of the game to seal the deal for the Blue Devils. National Freshman of the Year Jahlil Okafor had 10 points – despite spending most of the second half on the bench and Duke’s fourth prized freshman, Justise Winslow, scored 11 points.
In addition to Tyus, there are two more Jones brothers helping to keep the bounce in Apple Valley’s boys basketball program under the tutelage of Zach Goring.
Younger brother Tre Jones carries on the court floor leader tradition. This year, as a freshman, Tre was the varsity point guard for the Eagles.
Older brother Jadee Jones is on the school’s coaching staff as an assistant coach. Jadee played high school basketball at De La Salle and Hopkins and in college at Furman in Greenville, South Carolina and Minnesota State University-Mankato (MSU). He earned a degree in exercise science from MSU and trains youth players for Top Flight Basketball Academy. One of his duties at Apple Valley is overseeing the basketball team’s strength and conditioning program.
