La Salle’s Deuce Jones, the A-10 freshman of the year, will transfer to St. Joe’s
The Trenton native scored a season-high 27 points against the Hawks in the last regular-season game.
La Salle transfer Deuce Jones isn’t going very far.
The Atlantic 10 men’s basketball freshman of the year is off to Big 5 rival St. Joseph’s, according to multiple reports Saturday — first by CBS Sports — and a story on Jones’ Instagram page.
Jones, a 6-foot-2 guard from Trenton, averaged 12.5 points to go with 4.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.6 steals in 28.8 minutes per game as a freshman. He scored a season-high 27 points against St. Joe’s in the final regular-season game.
He also visited Butler and was considering Wake Forest.
Jones is the second transfer-portal pickup for St. Joe’s, joining Marquette transfer and Philadelphia native Al Amadou. It’s two in, two out for the Hawks so far in the portal, which closes to entrants on Tuesday. Forward Shawn Simmons II was first to enter. He is likely to move down a level to see more playing time. Meanwhile, Xzayvier Brown, a first-team all-conference point guard, is moving on to Oklahoma.
Jones is a critical addition to the backcourt with Brown’s departure. The Hawks still need another talented guard, although they have a few freshmen and sophomores in the mix. They could add another young guard in St. John’s transfer Jaiden Glover, a player Billy Lange and his staff coveted as a high school prospect out of New Jersey.
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As it stands now, and even with an addition like Glover, St. Joe’s will be pretty young in 2025-26. The Hawks have just three upperclassmen, though all of them are key pieces in junior Anthony Finkley, and seniors Derek Simpson and Justice Ajogbor, assuming Ajogbor receives a waiver for one more season.
St. Joe’s is losing its three best players from the last two seasons: Erik Reynolds II (graduation), Brown (transfer), and Rasheer Fleming (NBA draft). But there is plenty of talent still on the roster and a few exciting young players, Jones included.
He was the first La Salle freshman to win the conference’s top rookie award since 2004 and earned seven player of the week honors, the most in a single season in La Salle history.