Tre Jones Joins Elite Company With Third Player of Week Award

Duke point guard Tre Jones was named ACC Player of the Week, after averaging 23.0 ppg and 5 assists in road wins at Boston College and UNC. Jones spurred a Duke comeback against the Tar Heels, scoring 18 of his game-high 28 points in the final 48 seconds of regulation and all of overtime, outscoring the Tar Heels by three. Jones scored Duke’s final nine points of regulation and the first six of overtime. That included an incredible sequence with seconds remaining in regulation, where Jones intentionally missed a free throw, got the rebound and hit a game-tying jumper at the buzzer.

It’s the third time this season Jones has been named Player of the Week in the ACC. He shared the award with Louisville’s Jordan Nwora for the week ending Dec. 9 and shared it with Clemson’s Aamir Simms the week ending Jan. 13. Jones is the only ACC player with at least three Player of the Week honors this year. He’s the first Blue Devil to win the award three times since Nolan Smith won it four times in 2010-11.

He’s the eleventh Blue Devil to win three Player of the Week Awards—they’ve done it a total of 12 times. Jones joins Mike Gminski (3 in 1979-80), Johnny Dawkins (3 in 1985-86), Danny Ferry (3 in 1988-89), Christian Laettner (3 in 1991-92), Elton Brand (5 in 1998-99), Shane Battier (3 in 2000-01), Jason Williams (3 in 2001-02), JJ Redick (4 in 2004-05 and 7 in 2005-06), Jon Scheyer (3 in 2009-10) and Smith. Seven of the previous 11 seasons (all but Gminski, Dawkins, Williams and Scheyer) resulted in Player of the Year awards as well.

Vernon Carey Jr. has won two Player of the Week awards, giving Duke players a total of five this year, the most since 2017-18. The only other time Duke have five awards in a season in the last decade was 2012-13.