Texas Basketball: 3 takeaways from disappointing loss to Villanova

3) Takeaways from Texas basketball’s loss to Nova

Andrew Jones’ struggles continue

Likely the slowest start to the season for the Longhorns has come by way of redshirt junior shooting guard/wing and former five-star recruit Andrew Jones. The per game stats from Jones don’t look too shabby to start the season, but the advanced metrics and overall efficiency really highlights some of the problems for him so far.

Jones has played in four of the five games for the Longhorns so far this season (all of which he started in). And he averaged 8.8 points per game, 3.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.8 steals, and no blocks. Jones shot 30.2 percent from the field, 20.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 66.7 percent from the free-throw line. That all amounted to a 5.3 player efficiency rating, .020 win shares per 40 minutes, and a 38.2 true shooting percentage.

There was never really a point in Jones’ career prior to the start of this season that he was as inefficient as he’s been through four games in this campaign. But given the fact that Jones is known as a rhythm volume scoring guard/wing that can get hot at any time, patience should be able to win the day for his game to come through.

In the loss to Villanova individually, Jones was in the starting five and registered five points (on 2-of-10 shooting from the field), five rebounds, one assists, and two steals. He did also turn the ball over just once. Since Jones actually has elevated his defensive game on the perimeter/wing at times this season, finding his rhythm shooting should see his stat line skyrocket once that point in the campaign arrives.