Four-star Rock School PF Jones talks UVa interest, recruiting
With a very important segment of summer recruiting arriving, new names will emerge from the 2024 class while 2025 prospects will soon start their journey in the process. One 2024 prospect that might get some attention from the Virginia staff is Ryan “RJ” Jones Jr. of The Rock School.
A 6-foot-9 forward, Jones is coming off a strong week at the Pangos All-American Camp, an event that always features some of the top players from the high school level.
“It was a good experience,” Jones told CavsCorner. “I have been hearing how great this camp is for a long time and there have been some great players that have attended the camp and it was a honor to be there with some of the best players from the country out there.”
Virginia has been showing some interest in the forward from Florida and the upcoming weeks could be a time where Tony Bennett and his staff pick up the pace in recruiting him.
“Coach Bennett and I really started to talk more and more a few weeks ago,” Jones explained. “We are just trying to build a good relationship.”
Considering that religion and faith have always been important to him, Jones and Bennett obviously have a great deal of common ground to talk about.
“I know that Coach Bennett really believes in God and has a strong faith,” Jone said. “I just like his faith background because I have a strong faith background as well. I really like how consistent he is with his faith because I am also consistent with it and that definitely helps the relationship.”
The on-court success that Bennett has had at UVa is also very appealing to Jones, No. 65 overall in the class of 2024.
“He has built a great program at Virginia and they are just all about winning,” he said. “My head coach has been having really good conversations with him as well.”
The Cavaliers have not offered a scholarship to Jones at this point but the Sunshine State product believes if he keeps doing a certain number of things he could potentially land one in the near future.
“I think I just need to continue to have constant communication with them and keep building that relationship,” Jone said.
There are three schools that Jones wants to visit soon but Virginia could be the fourth if his relationship continues to grow with Bennett and Co..
“I definitely want to visit Xavier, LSU and Virginia Tech soon,” he said. “If I keep building a good relationship with Virginia, I think I would definitely want to visit them as well.”
