ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220061
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LEXINGTON, KY.
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
You just never know where your road to the Final Four will begin.
For instance, Connecticut point guard Doron Sheffer came from Israel.
Mississippi State forward Dontae' Jones came from Kenny Rogers Roasters.
The Bulldogs are making their second straight Sweet Sixteen appearance tonight in the Southeast Regional at Rupp Arena, but there seems to be something missing for coach Richard Williams' team.
Like the high school statistics for Jones in the media guide.
That's because he didn't have any.
The Kentucky bluebloods who call Rupp Arena home know all about the Dontae' inferno. Jones is the guy who shot the Wildcats to smithereens in the SEC tournament championship game last month.
``It's my first time here,'' Jones said Thursday as the Bulldogs worked out in preparation for tonight's 7:40 tipoff against UConn. ``This is a nice place.''
Three years ago, Jones was working in a Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant in his hometown, Nashville. He was academically ineligible at the start of his junior season at Stratford High School, then, after playing two games, suffered a season-ending knee injury.
The next year, he was ineligible again and had become such a classroom disruption that Stratford teachers asked that Jones be moved from their classes. So, he quit school and got a job.
He kept playing basketball at Nashville's Downtown YMCA in one of those midnight recreation leagues that is funded by the national government to help keep trouble off the streets. He also played some AAU ball.
Now, he's playing in the NCAA, on national television. ``How can you not be excited,'' the 20-year-old said. ``When you're playing on the playground, you dream of something like this. You just hope one day you can do something like this.
``When you have adversity, when you have problems or have been a problem, you appreciate this. This might be the best time of my life, and I'm enjoying it.''
It didn't just happen. While Jones stood in the restaurant, cleaning and cooking chickens, he knew his mother - a shift supervisor at the restaurant - wanted him in school.
``My two [younger] brothers and my sister looked up to me,'' said Jones. ``I knew when I dropped out that they'd be wondering if the same would happen to them.
``I just kept playing basketball because I thought it was my chance to get somewhere. I thought if I could get it together, maybe a college would take a chance on me.''
Kindell Stephens, a former athletic staffer at Tennessee State, followed Jones in the midnight league. He finally convinced Jones to take the exam for his general equivalency diploma. Jones passed the GED, and went to Northeast Mississippi Community College.
``I knew it was my last chance,'' Jones said. ``There aren't many options for a black man without an education.''
He starred at Northeast, averaging 25.2 points and 11 rebounds. After his freshman year, he was invited to the U.S. Olympic Festival.
He played for the West team. UConn's Ray Allen, an opponent tonight, was on the East squad. The recruiters began appearing at Northeast last season, when Jones averaged 28.7 points, third nationally among junior college players.
Many of them didn't call back. Jones' transcript was an academic nightmare. To become eligible to play at Mississippi State, the 6-foot-7 junior needed to pass too many hours last summer.
Jones somehow passed 36 hours, including 13 in correspondence courses. Needless to say, there were questions. The NCAA sent an investigator to check the transcript and the courses.
Jones even sat out a victory over Georgia while the grades were cross-checked. The NCAA approved Jones' eligibility, and although he's passing, Jones' history follows him.
At Ole Miss this season, every Jones trip to the free-throw line was accompanied by a Rebel yell:
``Hooked on Phonics.''
There is a story about Jones and a fight that broke out at one of his high school games while he was ineligible and in the stands as a spectator.
The following day, school administrators and coaches watched a videotape of the incident to learn who had been in the fight. At the opposite end of the floor from the altercation, a person in street clothes had picked up the game ball and was shooting alone.
It was Jones.
``I just wanted to play basketball,'' he said. ``I like the excitement, the emotion. That's the way I play, although I'm a little more under control than I used to be.''
The same can be said of his life.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 linesby CNB