From coveted high school prospect, to Virginia Tech role player, to star NAU point guard, Jalen Cone has created a winning culture wherever he’s gone.
From 2019 to 2021, Northern Arizona University sophomore Jalen Cone played 47 games and earned five starts across two seasons for the Virginia Tech basketball team. Cone proved he could play at a high level in the ACC — a conference which includes teams like Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Syracuse — by appearing in all 32 games as a true freshman and leading the ACC in 3-point percentage at 45.7%. Cone’s career at VT seemed promising, but the school didn’t fit with what he wanted for his career. So in March of 2021, Cone entered the transfer portal and eventually found his way to NAU.
Cone’s main reason for choosing NAU was the opportunity that it represented to build a program from the ground up, something he’s been doing since high school. In his journey from Walkertown High School in North Carolina to playing Division I college basketball, Cone has kept himself humble and stayed true to the places that gave him his start. He sees NAU as another place where he can make an impact.
“I love it here at NAU, being part of something that they’re trying to build is one of the main reasons I chose here,” Cone said. “In high school I had the opportunity to go to Oak Hill, La Lumiere, IMG Academy, Montverde, all these top high school programs that you see all these McDonald’s All-American athletes at. I decided to stay home at Walkertown High School, nobody had ever played Division I out of that school, I was the first. I was always trying to make history there, I was trying to grow Walkertown and put it on the map.”
Cone has been a high-profile player since his high school days. He helped bring Walkertown their first conference championship in school history in 2017-2018, leading the state in scoring with 35.5 points per game and winning the Frank Spencer Award for the top player in Northwest North Carolina in the process. He also received second-team All-State and Conference Player of the Year honors for his exploits.
After forgoing his senior year and reclassifying, Cone was ranked No. 53 in the ESPN Top 100 prospects of the class of 2020. He’s enjoyed success at every level he’s played, and expects nothing less from his time at NAU.
His next task is to make a name for NAU basketball, and has an ultimate goal of getting the Lumberjacks back to the NCAA tournament. That hasn’t happened since 2000, nine months before Cone was born.
“That’s been a part of my journey here, trying to grow NAU and this basketball program and put it on the map,” Cone said. “That’s been my biggest goal, just trying to win games and get NAU back to the NCAA tournament. Just having the mindset I had in high school of trying to grow something and make history and go down as a legend.”
With just two games left in his first season as a Lumberjack, Cone has already made quite the impression. In his first collegiate season as a full-time starter, the sophomore is averaging 18.2 points, 3.7 assists and shooting 36.3% from 3-point range in 34.4 minutes per game.
One person he’s impressed is his head coach Shane Burcar, who took over the team’s full-time head coaching duties in March of 2020. Burcar has noticed a drastic improvement in Cone’s ability to play the point guard position, something he hasn’t been asked to do since high school.
“The thing I’m most impressed by this year is that he hasn’t been a point guard for several years,” Burcar said. “At Virginia Tech he didn’t have to bring the ball up, and he’s had some outstanding games for us where he’s had 11 assists and some seven and eight assist games, so to see that progress as a sophomore, that’s the most exciting thing for him.”
Burcar recognized that Cone’s shooting percentage has been lower than expected this season, which he attributes to the substantial time he’s been on the floor, saying that he doesn’t think Cone has ever played as many minutes as he has this season. The NAU Head Coach also mentioned how impressed he was in Cone’s ability to create opportunities for his teammates, adding that what makes him special is his focus on all aspects of his game, not just shooting.
The main area of improvement that Burcar sees for Cone is his strength and stamina going into next season. He also predicts an improvement in turnover ratio for Cone’s junior season.
“He’ll have to gain strength,” Burcar said. “He’s a strong kid but he’ll have to gain that strength where he can play 35 to 38 minutes a game for thirty games, and be consistent every night. I think because of his experience his turnovers will go down, and those would be the big improvements stat-wise.”
Throughout the season, Cone has been his team’s leading scorer and has been their go-to guy when the game is on the line. While some might assume that his role comes with the pressure of having to perform, Cone is unfazed.
“I work so hard and I love those moments when people might think there’s a lot of pressure,” Cone said. “When all eyes are on me and it’s time for me to make something happen, there’s really no pressure at all, because I’ve been working for those moments since I can remember.
I always had that role in high school, but at this level having that role has been new. There have been times where I’ve failed in those moments — and it’s a different level of hurt — but there’s no pressure that comes with it for me. I love being put in those positions when the game is on the line. If we lose I’ll take all the blame, and if we win you can thank me, but I love being in this position.”
When it comes to being a team leader, Burcar was happy to see Cone’s teammates embrace Cone and sees him as a perfect fit to lead NAU basketball in the coming years.
“He’s a caring young man, which gives you instant credibility,” Burcar said. “I think in any sport, you have instant credibility if you’re one of the better players. We have our players vote on captains and he was elected as one of them by his peers, so that’s always a good thing versus a coach telling you who the captain is. It’s so important for him and the team to be good, and he’s changed our dynamic [as a team].”
Cone affirmed that he is one of the leaders on the team, but mentioned players like redshirt junior guard Jay Green and redshirt freshman forward Carson Towt as other guys who he shares the responsibility with.
Knowing he was joining a team with several well-established players, Cone earned the respect of his teammates by letting his work ethic do the talking. Never one to make it about himself, Cone’s immediate goals lie solely with the NAU basketball team’s success.
“Being a new guy, you had guys who’d been here for five years or four or three, and I’m the new guy on the team who’d only been here for a few hours at that point,” Cone said. “I knew to gain those guys’ respect I had to show them that I want to win and compete, and prove my work ethic and my vision of what I want to do here. My goal that I have here is to make sure everyone on this team and at this school wins. Coming here and working hard and competing, just earning guys’ respect that way and on the court allowed me to be a leader.”
Cone’s plans haven’t gone exactly the way he might have wanted them to in his first season as a Lumberjack, with NAU currently holding a 9-20 record with two games left in their season. An NCAA tournament bid is still on the table though, if NAU can find a way to pull off an upset win in the upcoming Big Sky tournament in the first week of March.
If NAU’s season ends without any March Madness though, Cone’s work will have only just begun. Aside from his own NBA aspirations, his main focus is on turning NAU basketball into a brand name.
“My main goal when my time is done here, is that I leave NAU with a winning program and that they carry it on after I leave,” Cone said. “Just knowing that I was a part of that group that changed the culture and turned the program around.”
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