After a standout graduate season at Kansas State, Max Jones is heading overseas to begin his professional career.<\/p>\n
Jones signed his first pro contract with Manchester Basketball of the\u00a0Super League Basketball which replaced the former British Basketball League as the top-level men’s basketball competition in Great Britain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited and grateful for the opportunity to sign with Manchester,\u201d Jones said in a written statement. \u201cThis is a big step in my journey, and I\u2019m ready to give everything I\u2019ve got, on and off the court. I\u2019m looking forward to joining a great team, representing the city, and making an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-5 guard from Clearwater, Florida, spent five seasons in college basketball \u2014 starting at Division II Tampa, then moving to Cal State Fullerton, and finishing at K-State in 2024\u201325. He started 114 of 117 career games and totaled 1,710 points, with 27 games of at least 20 points and six 30-point performances, including a career-high 39 against Florida Tech in 2021. He earned two First Team All-Sunshine State Conference honors and an All-Big West honorable mention at Fullerton.<\/p>\n
In his lone season in Manhattan, Jones became one of the Wildcats\u2019 most consistent pieces through an up-and-down year. He started every game, averaging 9.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, and two assists.<\/p>\n
His future beyond that season, however, wasn\u2019t always certain.<\/p>\n
As lawsuits and eligibility rulings reshaped the NCAA landscape this spring, Jones emerged as a possible candidate for an extra year due to his Division II background.<\/p>\n
Head coach Jerome Tang praised Jones\u2019 leadership and steady presence and made clear that the staff would support a return if the opportunity arose.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re gonna turn over every rock and figure it out,\u201d Tang said during the season. \u201cNormally, when one kid gets it, to avoid a series of lawsuits, [the NCAA will] just do a blanket waiver, like they did for [Pavia]. And so I hope to see that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, no blanket waiver for former Division II athletes was issued, and Jones elected to begin his professional career abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really happy to bring in Max,\u201d said Manchester general manager Dominique Allen in a written statement. \u201cWe\u2019ve been impressed with what we\u2019ve seen of him \u2014 his impact on defense and ability to create and score on the offensive side. He\u2019s already had invaluable experience in his five years in college. We\u2019re excited to have him on our roster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a standout graduate season at Kansas State, Max Jones is heading overseas to begin his professional career.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,2102,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-26381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-men","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaabasketball","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}