Texas Basketball: 3 best shooters of the Shaka Smart-era

2. Andrew Jones, Shooting Guard

The most inspiring story that the Longhorns had with their men’s hoops team last season was the return of 6-foot-6 shooting guard Andrew Jones from his battle with leukemia. In the last two years, Jones went from being a very promising microwave scorer and a former five-star recruit to coming down with a few injuries and namely leukemia.

However, the rising senior guard Jones beat his latest round with a battle against leukemia last offseason and he returned to the Texas rotation last season. He was very important off the bench for Smart and the Longhorns down the stretch. That volume scoring presence and efficient outside shooting ability was invaluable for Texas last season.

Jones averaged 11.5 points per game, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists, while shooting 41.0 percent from the field, 38.3 percent from beyond the arc, and 72.2 percent from the charity stripe. He’s now around a 43 percent shooter from the field and 36.7 percent from beyond the arc during his career on the Forty Acres thus far.

At one point, Jones was shooting better than 46 percent from beyond the arc and 52.2 percent from the field in 10 games played during the 2017-18 season. He started to get back closer to that rhythm down the stretch in the season that was. Jones has a career 55.0 true shooting percentage, 51.7 effective field goal percentage, and 48.6 percent three-point attempt rate.