Whitney Jones has made some difficult shots this season, but the
one her teammates remember didn’t even count.
Jones was messing around after practice last Tuesday when she
picked up a basketball at midcourt and kicked it toward the
hoop.
It fell right through the rim.
“That’s just Whitney Jones,” UCLA head coach
Kathy Olivier said. “She’s unbelievable.”
While Jones, a starter on both the basketball and soccer teams,
may never attempt to duplicate her miraculous shot in an actual
game, her soccer skills have certainly given other facets of her
basketball game a kick-start.
After dashing back and forth across the field at Drake Stadium
during soccer season, Jones is hardly fazed by the 92 feet of
hardwood at Pauley Pavilion. The junior forward is averaging 34
minutes per game in conference play, and never went to the bench
against Arizona State and Stanford.
“Playing soccer has helped my stamina a lot,” Jones
said. “I can go 40 minutes, and I am fine. The running is
different because it’s much more stop-and-go in basketball,
but still don’t feel it really.”
If Jones feels fatigued at all in the locker room after games,
her teammates are entirely unaware of it.
“Whitney never gets tired,” senior point guard
Natalie Nakase said. “When she’s on the court, she is
always going to hustle. I wish we had 10 soccer players out there
running around.”
Although soccer may be her first love, Jones has a passion for
basketball that is both contagious and unmistakable.
Less than 48 hours after UCLA lost to Texas A&M in the third
round of the NCAA women’s soccer tournament, Jones began
practicing with the basketball team again.
“I always tell her to take a few days to rest her
body,” Olivier said. “During soccer season she tends to
miss basketball, and during basketball season she tends to miss
soccer.”
A few weeks before soccer season ended, Jones had such a strong
craving to play basketball that she dropped by practice one day,
changed into her practice gear, and jumped into a drill.
“I didn’t even see her until she had the ball in her
hands,” Olivier said. “I told her, “˜Whitney, get
out of here. Are you trying to get me killed by your soccer
coach?'”
It’s that sort of enthusiasm for the sport that has earned
Jones the respect of her coaches and teammates alike.
While she is not as explosive as Nikki Blue nor as polished as
Michelle Greco, Jones has been just as instrumental to the
Bruins’ (11-7, 6-3 Pac-10) success thus far this season. She
averages 10.4 points per game in conference play and makes the
hustle plays that aren’t visible in the stat sheets.
“Whitney brings so much fire,” Greco said.
“I’ve never seen anyone dive on the ground more than
her. She is fearless on the court.”
That courage has helped the 5-foot-10 Jones in each game this
season when she faces off against six-footers in the post. In the
Bruins’ guard-oriented system, Jones has often had to match
up with other squad’s starting centers, a feat that might
seem daunting for someone of her comparatively slight stature.
“Whitney thinks she’s 6-3,” Olivier said.
“A lot of times she’ll deny bigger players the ball so
they can’t get it. She’s one of our better defenders
because she knows how to cut people off.”
Jones enjoys guarding players who tower over her because she
relishes the chance to prove doubters wrong.
“It’s a challenge for me,” she said.
“They’re bigger than me and they should be able to beat
me, but a lot of the time I can stop them.”
Jones is just one of a host of two-sport athletes who have
played women’s basketball at UCLA. Kristee Porter and
Brittany Ringel were members of both the basketball and volleyball
teams last season, and freshman Julia Pitts had planned to play
basketball and run track before tearing ligaments in her left knee
earlier this season.
While soccer and basketball are an unlikely combination, Jones
has managed to make it work out nicely. Although she doesn’t
anticipate kicking the ball into the basket in an actual game,
Jones knows that soccer has improved her basketball game in more
subtle ways.
“Playing soccer has helped me a lot,” she said.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get my shot back to where I
feel comfortable with it, but it comes back eventually.”
Even if she has to use her feet.