NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Ohio of last decade
By Joey Loose
9. Carlik Jones – Radford / Louisville
A 6’1 guard from Cincinnati, Jones had himself a pretty solid playing career, scoring points in bunches for a pair of teams. He starred at Radford for the first three years of his basketball career before transferring to Louisville after the pandemic, spending his final collegiate season starring for the Cardinals.
He had an impressive run at Radford while contributing from the beginning; he was the second-leading scorer on an NCAA Tournament team as a freshman. He developed even further into a star and by his junior year was averaging greater than 20 points per game. He scored a career-high 33 points in two different games against Hampton during that season. For his senior year, he was the leading scorer for a Louisville team that narrowly missed out on the NCAA Tournament, with Jones scoring 25 points in a late-season road win at Duke.
He was named Big South Rookie of the Year and Tournament MVP as a freshman and Big South Player of the Year as a junior. He received his conference’s First Team honors three straight years, including that final season in the ACC, ranking as one of the Big South’s most efficient offensive players in recent seasons. He wasn’t drafted in 2021 but has seen brief action in the NBA while also featuring in the G-League this past season.