Monday, Tennessee junior point guard Jordan Bone was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Bob Cousy Award preseason watch list. The award honors the nation’s top guard in college basketball annually. Bone is one of 20 players on the list for the prestigious award, and he’s alongside names like Jared Harper of Auburn and Shamorie Ponds of St. Johns. LSU’s Tremont Waters is the third and final SEC player on the list.
☠️☠️☠️@JordanBone23 is one of 20 players named to the 2019 Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award watch list
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— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) October 15, 2018
Bone, who hails from Nashville, was a starter last season for the Vols at point guard and is expected to start again this year. He led the team last season with 3.5 assists per game and will be looking for even better numbers as an upperclassman. His career assist-to-turnover ratio is 2.5, and his ratio of 2.82 last season ranked 16th in the nation. He enters this season just 10 assists shy of the 200 mark for his career.
The 6-foot-3 point guard is a key player for the Vols, and he had some of his best games down the stretch of the Vols’ 2017-18 season. In a win over Arkansas in the SEC tournament, he tallied 19 points and four assists. In postseason play last year, he averaged 10.6 points and 3.2 assists for Tennessee.
The Cousy Award is named after legendary point guard Bob Cousy. Cousy played for Holy Cross and later the Boston Celtics in the NBA, and he was known for his excellent ball handling and precision passing. Jalen Brunson of Villanova won the award last year, and previous winners include Kemba Walker, Greivis Vasquez, and Trey Burke.
Bone will be relied upon heavily for a Vols team trying to take the next step into becoming an elite program. Basketball season is just a month away, and several experts see Tennessee as one of the top teams in the country. Bone will be a large factor in determining whether or not UT can live upto that hype.
