Tyus Jones feels Minnesota belongs in top 8

Apple Valley, Minn., high school junior Tyus Jones is one of the top basketball recruits in the 2014 class, and he recently narrowed his list of schools to eight teams. Among those eight is the Minnesota Golden Gophers, where Jones told the Star Tribune he has good relationships:

"You know, they've been there since the beginning of it all. They're the hometown school, so I grew up watching them. I've got a good relationship with coach [Tubby] Smith and coach [Ron] Jirsa and the coaching staff there. There one of the first schools that started recruiting me and I like what they're doing over there. So that's why they're still one of my final schools I'm looking at."

Jones has trimmed his list to the following eight schools: Baylor Bears, Duke Blue Devils, Kansas Jayhawks, Kentucky Wildcats, Michigan State Spartans, Minnesota, Ohio State Buckeyes and North Carolina Tar Heels. According to Jones, he doesn't have any further plans to cut his recruiting list.

Jones is rated as a top three 2014 recruit by all the major recruiting services along with Chicago center Jahlil Okafor. Jones is a 6'1 point guard battling with Dallas' Emmanuel Mudiay for title as best guard of the cycle, though both are among a host of sky-scraping forwards at the top of most recruiting lists.