Big Sky Basketball: In-depth look at Southern Utah senior guard Tevian Jones
By Bryan Mauro
Even though Big Sky Basketball is a low major conference, the conference has never been short on talent or talented teams. In fact, quite the opposite, the conference is home to one of the most successful Division 1 programs of all time in the Weber State Wildcats. Weber State has one of the bigger upsets in NCAA tournament history when they upset North Carolina in the first round. The Wildcats are also home to one of the best players currently in the NBA in Damien Lillard.
The conference is almost always guaranteed to give a power team a game when it comes to the NCAA tournament. Just look to the past histories of Eastern Washington and Montana in the NCAA tournament.
The 2020-2021 season was one of the deepest years the league has seen in years. There were a lot of good teams in the middle of the conference who were all well-coached and it would not have been a surprise if any of them would have made the NCAA tournament a season ago.
Last season also saw a team have their best regular season in school history and while it didn’t end in an NCAA tournament appearance the Southern Utah Thunderbirds have arrived in the Big Sky and the rest of the league is going to be on notice.
Southern Utah won 20 games last year which is the second-most in the history of the school and they had one of the very best offenses in the country averaging just under 85 points per game. The Thunderbirds return a good portion of their roster from last season including leading scorer and do everything guard Tevian Jones.