Max Jones had to prove many wrong on his college basketball journey to Kansas State
Several months ago, before the current college basketball season began, Coleman Hawkins gave a special shoutout to one of his teammates.
“Kansas State fans need to get ready for Max Jones,” Hawkins said during an interview at Big 12 Media Day. “He is an elite lefty shooter who can do it all. I’m telling you right now, he is going to be great for us this year.”
Fast-forward to early February and his prediction has come true. Jones, a 6-foot-4 senior guard who transferred to K-State for his final season of college basketball via Cal State Fullerton and the University of Tampa, has become a steady force for the Wildcats.
He is averaging 9.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game on a team that is making a midseason surge up the Big 12 standings.
After a dismal start, K-State is hitting its stride. Jones is a big reason why.
That makes it all the more difficult for Hawkins to comprehend how Jones started his college career at a Division II school.
“I am pretty surprised about that,” Hawkins said. “At first look, I would not have expected that he came from there. That isn’t a knock on Division II players, but Max has been elite for us.”
Kansas State’s most consistent starter
Jones proved he was an overlooked recruit coming out of high school in Clearwater, Florida, by scoring as many as 39 points in games for Tampa, his first college team. Then he proved he could play at the Division I level by scoring as many as 30 points in games for Cal State Fullerton. Now he is proving that he belongs in the Big 12.
His season highs are 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists. And he is making 40.7% of his shots from beyond the arc. But consistency is his best attribute. He is not a Jekyll and Hyde player. He has reached double figures in 13 games, including eight of the past nine.
He may have been at his best during a recent win over Arizona State when he had 15 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
K-State basketball coach Jerome Tang thinks Jones is using his climb up the college basketball ladder to his advantage.
“He got his only scholarship offer from Tampa and he went there with a chip on his shoulder and became their best player,” Tang said. “The he transferred to Fullerton and he went there with a chip on his shoulder and became their best player. Then he came over here and improved and his body and his conditioning. He’s gotten better and become a really good player. I’m so proud of him that he stuck with it. He keeps getting better every day.”
Interestingly, Jones didn’t begin his college basketball career with aspirations of playing in a major conference.
His senior year of high school was during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, so he felt fortunate just to get an opportunity at a local Division II school in his home state. But things changed when games started to feel boring.
“My goal was just to do the best I could there,” Jones said. “But after my second year I felt like I could play at a higher level and D-II wasn’t for me any more. I wasn’t getting the excitement I should have been getting out of basketball. I wouldn’t say games were getting easy, but I wanted to be uncomfortable and be put in a spot where not everything was going to my way.”
That revelation led him to Cal State Fullerton, where he helped the Titans win 20 games in 2023 as he made nearly 40% of his shots from beyond the arc.
When he started feeling bored again in the Big West, he knew it was time to look for another school.
Finding a home with the Wildcats
Kansas State seemed like an unlikely landing spot. The Wildcats didn’t know much about Jones when he entered the transfer portal, and Jones wasn’t enamored with Manhattan at first glance.
But they turned out to be a good match.
“He is just an every-day guy,” K-State assistant coach Ulric Maligi said. “He is tough and he is reliable. Nothing has been handed to him. He embodies everything that we are about as a program.”
The Wildcats did their homework on Jones after they watched him score 30 points in a road game against Nebraska with Fullerton.
“Nebraska is a team that smacked us,” Maligi said, “and he went to their house and scored 30 on them. That got our attention.”
Jones continues to sneak up on opponents now that he is playing for the Wildcats.
Opposing defenses don’t respect him as much as Brendan Hausen from the 3-point line, but he has made 35 shots from beyond the arc in 22 games. He isn’t a big man, but he ranks third on the team in rebounds. He doesn’t do anything flashy, but he knows how to make clutch plays.
It’s been a long and fulfilling journey for Jones up to this point. But he is still a Division II player at heart. He has much left to prove before his time at K-State is over.
“We’re not done yet,” Jones said. “I am never satisfied with anything until we actually get to where we need to be, and I feel like we have a lot to improve on. We are going to keep working on it every day.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Max Jones had to prove many wrong on his college basketball journey to Kansas State."