The sixth-year senior officially ends a legendary career in Austin.
The Texas Longhorns will be without one of the cornerstones of the team next year as Andrew Jones officially announced that he is declaring for the NBA Draft.
Jones joined the Longhorns in 2016 as an elite recruit out of Irving MacArthur High School as the No. 29 player in the country and the No. 5 player in the state. The McDonald’s All-American fit the bill as a true freshman, appearing in all 33 games, including 23 starts, and finished the year averaging nearly 28 minutes per game. For his efforts, he finished the year tied for the team lead in assists, second in steals, and third in scoring.
Looking to build on his freshman campaign, Jones came out of the gates hot, scoring 15.3 points per game in the first eight games of his sophomore campaign. He missed four games after suffering a wrist injury but managed to return for two games before publicly announcing that he was diagnosed with Leukemia.
Jones underwent treatment, but fought back and managed to play in two games in the 2018-19 season between scheduled treatments at MD Anderson.
After beating cancer, Jones fully rejoined the team for the 2019-20 season, playing in all 31 games and earning Honorable Mention All-Conference honors after scoring 11.5 points per game in more than 26 minutes coming off of the bench. The nearly impossible comeback story continued as a redshirt junior in 2020, starting 26 of 27 games, leading the team in scoring en route to second-team All-Conference selection.
Jones came back for what would be his last year at Texas under new head coach Chris Beard, once again helping set the pace for the Longhorns. He finished the year third on the team in scoring, averaging 11.2 points per game in more than 30 minutes per game.
Following his 2022 campaign, he received the United States Basketball Writers Association Most Courageous Award, given to those whose story and efforts reflect honor on the game of basketball.