Texas Basketball: 3 players with concerning recent slumps

3) Concerning recent slumps for Texas basketball

A true breakthrough star for the Longhorns frontcourt rotation so far this season is the sophomore former four-star recruit and power forward Kai Jones. The 6-foot-11 and 220 pound Nassau, Bahamas, native Jones came out of the gates this season about as hot as any player for this Longhorns team in the last few seasons.

And the best part for Jones and the Longhorns was that this breakthrough largely came out of nowhere. He also is starting to see his NBA Draft stock skyrocket that to his solid two-way play and floor spacing ability that he’s put on display through the first half of this season.

So far this season, Jones has played in 13 of the Longhorns 14 games (starting in just two of them), and averaging around 23 minutes on the floor per game. He’s averaged 9.0 points per game, 5.0 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.9 steals, 0.6 blocks, and 1.2 turnovers. Jones shot 59.7 percent from the field, 44.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 69.7 percent from the free-throw line.

It’s really hard to say that Jones’ play has slipped enough of late to put him in the category of a player going through a true slump. But he definitely hasn’t produced at the same level of efficiency that he did out of the gates. He also had worrying parts of his stat lines in each of the last two games. He had five turnovers in the loss to Oklahoma, and managed just three points in the win over Kansas State.