Kam Jones pays tribute to his high school coach with third triple-double in Marquette history

MILWAUKEE – Marquette’s Kam Jones wants to spend this season honoring one of his high school coaches.

He’s off to a great start.

Jones recorded the third triple-double in Marquette history on Tuesday night, recording 17 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists for the 15th-ranked Golden Eagles Victory 76-58 over No. 6 Purdue. It was his first game since learning of the death of Terry Tippett, who coached Jones during his freshman year at Evangelical Christian in Memphis, Tennessee.

Tippett died Saturday at the age of 79. He won six Tennessee state championships at three different high schools during a remarkable coaching career that ended in 2018 after Jones’ first season at Evangelical Christian.

“I really wanted to dedicate this game and the rest of the season to him,” Jones said.

Jones’ triple-double was the Golden Eagles’ first since Dwyane Wade had 29 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in an 83-69 NCAA Tournament regional victory over Kentucky that sent Marquette to its last Final Four appearance in 2003 year.

“It’s an honor to work in this company,” Jones said.

Marquette’s only other triple-double came when Tony Miller had 18 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a game against Wisconsin on December 31, 1994.

Jones’ 13 rebounds and 10 assists were career-highs, showing how the 6-foot-10 senior is developing his game.

He led Marquette (5-0) in scoring each of the last two seasons, averaging 15.1 points for his team. 2022–23 Big East Championship team and 17.2 points for his team 2023–24 Sweet 16 team. However, it played a complementary role in relation to 2022–2023 Big East Player of the Year Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro, who were selected in the second round of this year’s NBA draft.

After Kolek left, Jones had to become more of a distributor. This season he is scoring 22.6 points per game, but is also averaging six assists. He never finished a season with more than 2.4 assists per game.

“He always had more ability as a playmaker than you might think, but his role was a little bit different when we had Tyler and Oso because those guys were very good passers and distributors, and we needed him to think, score, score, score goals.” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said: “We still need him to shoot, but he also has the ball in his hands more and we need him to create opportunities for other guys.”

Purdue coach Matt Painter, whose team faced Marquette for the third straight season, noticed the difference in Jones’ play.

“He came here as a shooter,” Painter said. “He’s a player now.”

Jones was keen to get others involved early in the match. He only had three points in the first half, but had six assists and seven rebounds. Ten of his 17 points came in the final 13 minutes of the game as Marquette extended its lead.

He eventually tallied his 10th assist and completed a triple-double by finding Stevie Mitchell with 51 seconds left for a corner three-pointer as Marquette snapped Purdue’s 39-game non-conference regular-season streak.

“He acted like a seasoned veteran tonight,” Painter said. “He didn’t kill us until he had to, you know what I mean? He didn’t go out and shoot 30-foot pull-ups or take bad shots. We did a good job, we paid a lot of attention to him and the game just took its course and then all of a sudden he picked his spots at the right time and dominated the game in other areas.

According to Sportradar, this was the tenth time since the 1996/97 season in which a player achieved a triple-double against a top ten team.

Jones’ ability to impact the game in many ways other than scoring reflects the work he has put in to become a more complete player.

“They say what is done in the dark will come to light,” Jones said. “I was in the gym with my trainer and we were watching videos – we watched videos before games, we watched videos late at night and early mornings, trying to constantly find ways to get better. That’s what the game is called.”

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