Tevian Jones Transfers From Illinois Fighting Illini

The Illinois Fighting Illini got some tough news earlier this week as rising junior guard Tevian Jones announced that he would be transferring from the program. It’s not something fans were hoping to see after the Illini made tremendous strides this season, but it’s also not something that was entirely unexpected.

Jones originally arrived at Illinois as a member of the program’s 2018 recruiting class with a decent amount of hype. He was rated as a four-star prospect by 247Sports and a top 120 player in the class. Fans hoped Jones could be a key piece in a program-building class for Underwood moving forward.

During his time with the Illini, Jones ended up playing in 38 games, including 24 games as a freshman. Unfortunately, his minutes declined over his career and he saw reduced playing time as a sophomore. In fact, Jones only played 20 minutes in a single game last season, and had a variety of others where he saw no significant time on the court.

With his departure, Illinois will have some serious questions in the backcourt. If the team manages to get Ayo Dosunmu back, things should work out just fine. However, there’s a decent chance Dosunmu could be heading to the NBA. And if so, expect some new faces to get some time back there. Still, Jones doesn’t seem to be a huge loss on paper.

How everything will sort out for the Illini moving forward remains to be seen, but everyone certainly wishes Jones the best for the rest of his career and beyond.