Rylan Jones Thinks Utah Basketball Will Be ‘A Force In The Pac-12’ Next Season

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Utah Utes point guard Rylan Jones just finished his freshman season of college basketball but is already looking forward to next season.

Jones told KSL Sports’ Sam Farnsworth that this team is ready to make a run at the Pac-12 title next season as a sophomore.

“I feel like we are there this upcoming sophomore year,” Jones said on SportsBeat. “We have a lot of returning players and we are adding some really talented guys coming in and we are going to be deep. We are going to have a lot of good talent. We are going to put the guys that played here last year and played well together, we are going to mold those freshmen with us and we are going to become a force in the Pac-12.”

Big Performances In Big Games

Jones was one of the best players in high school at Olympus High School before arriving at Utah after winning state championships and being named Mr. Basketball. The young freshman wasn’t sure of what to expect when he became the starting point guard on a Pac-12 team.

“I wasn’t really sure what was going to happen, “Jones said. “I was looking forward to it. I put my head down and went to work everyday and I had a great time and it was a pretty good freshman season. We had a lot of fun. It’s kind of crazy to believe that I was playing our rivals Skyline and Murray and then straight to Kentucky. It’s like a wild dream and I just enjoyed all of it.”

One of Rylan’s best games as a freshman was against rival BYU where he dropped 25 points including a three-pointer that sent the game to overtime.

“You dream about playing in a Utah/BYU basketball or football game,” Jones mentioned. “You have always seen the big shots that were made or buzzer-beaters or the shots that people have missed. For me, I had both of those. I missed a layup and then made a three. It went from being really bad to a lot of fun and we came out with a win. That’s a night that I won’t forget. It’s a blessing to be able to play in that rivalry game.”

Ryan Jones becomes just the SECOND FRESHMAN EVER to record a triple-double in @pac12 Conference history.#GoUtes🏀🔴 pic.twitter.com/OZ2K07Hbd9

— Utah Basketball🏀 (@UtahMBB) November 9, 2019

Utes In Contention For Pac-12 Title Next Season

During the 2019-20 season, Utah had the third youngest team in the entire country with 12 new faces and 11 freshmen. Now that this group will be a year older and more experienced in 2020-21, Jones thinks that Utah will be primed for a run for the conference title.

“We all liked each other and gelled with each other,” Jones stated. “We had some really good wins and some bad losses but we continued to get better every game and we are just coming into next season winning a lot of games. We are going to be prepared to win big. We are just going to keep getting better until we can do that.”

Bro go crazy @timmybuckets35 https://t.co/Nn7Z74eCzB

— Rylan Jones (@rylanjones15) February 7, 2020

Utah signed the best recruiting class in the Pac-12 this past signing period and will add some very talented players to the young core that will return next season.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.