Big Ten Basketball: Each team’s best acquisition out of 2023 transfer portal

Lance Jones – 6’1 Guard – Purdue Boilermakers

Lance Jones joins the Purdue Boilermakers backcourt looking to inject his presence as a two-way threat into the fold after spending the last four seasons with the Southern Illinois Salukis in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Jones joins as quite the decorated All-Conference and All-Defensive performer after winning All-MVC third team honors across 2020-21 and 2022-23 and MVC All-Defense from 2021-23 with his performance on the floor. He led the MVC in steals across the past two seasons and finished sixth in 3-pointers made (70) in 2022-23. His 3-pointers made this past season were a career-high finish for him.

He finished his career with Southern Illinois averaging 12.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.4 apg and 1.6 spg on 36.8 percent shooting from the field and 32.7 percent from 3-point range on 1.7 makes per contest from deep.

In his best outing in 2022-23, he finished with 29 points, four assists, two rebounds and a steal while shooting 11-of-14 from the field and 5-of-8 from deep in a victory over Northern Iowa back on Feb. 22, 2023.

He’s a confident scoring guard that can shoot the ball at volume, especially from deep. He shot a career-high 7.6 3-pointers per game in 2022-23. He’ll look to bring his prowess as a scorer and defender to the Big Ten in 2023-24.

His defensive rating of 95.5 ranked 10th in the MVC this past season and his 94.8 defensive rating generated in 2021-22 ranked 6th in the MVC.

His ability to make things happen with his pressure on defense and shooting on offense will be looked upon heavily to run the tables once again in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers return eight players from last year’s squad including Zach Edey and Fletcher Loyer, which should help make things easier for Jones as he uses his fifth year of Covid eligibility to suit up in black and gold.