Jones looks to lead Duke to title

DURHAM, N.C. >> Tre Jones considers himself the classic tagalong little brother, always wanting a piece of whatever his big brother had.

So when Tyus Jones won a national championship for Duke — well, Tre wanted one, too.

Four years after Tyus Jones ran the point as a freshman for a title-winning team of Blue Devils, Tre Jones takes his turn to chase a championship for a top-seeded Duke team.

And making it even more special for the Jones family is that baby brother is playing for a trip to the Final Four in Minneapolis — near their hometown of Apple Valley, Minn., and where Tyus is in his fourth season with the NBA’s Timberwolves.

But first the Blue Devils (29-5) have to win four NCAA Tournament games, starting March 22 in Columbia, S.C., in the first round of the East Region.

“We have a pretty good feeling what’s coming,” Tre Jones said. “The older guys have said the energy’s crazy, the atmosphere’s a lot of fun, but it’s win or go home, and we know that. We all have the same goal in mind.”

Tre had a front-row seat for his brother’s title run — as a high school senior in 2015, he was in the crowd for each of Duke’s six wins in that tournament — and that experience has fueled him ever since.

“I put out a goal for myself that I want to be in that moment one day,” Tre Jones said. “And now that I’m here, that I’m in that moment, it’s going to be fun to be able to partake in it.”

Tre has been just as indispensable to this Duke team as his brother was to the program’s last team to win a national title. Tyus Jones averaged 11.8 points and 5.6 assists during his only college season, and his two big 3-pointers in the title-game victory over Wisconsin earned him the Most Outstanding Player award at the Final Four.

Tre Jones leads the Atlantic Coast Conference and ranks fifth in Division I with an assist-turnover ratio of 3.49 and also has a leaguebest 171 assists. Though he’s scoring 9.3 points per game, he reached double figures in all three games of the ACC Tournament, capping it with a season-high 18 points in a victory over Florida State in the title game.

NELL REDMOND — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Duke’s Tre Jones (3) drives past Florida State’s Devin Vassell (24) during the second half of the championship game of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Charlotte, N.C., on March 16.